MIYAMOTO MUSASHI
He was an innovator, a maverick
The structured forms of the traditional martial arts bored him. Discarding their outmoded model, he became the creator of a new style based not on established techniques but on the realities of combat he knew so well. With it, he won more than 60 battles and became a legend before reaching middle age.
The name of the martial artist I’m referring to, of course, is Miyamoto Musashi, a samurai swordsman who lived during the violent reign of Japan’s Tokugawa shoguns, a man whose real-life exploits make the celluloid antics of the greatest action stars pale in comparison.
Early Days
The son of a minor samurai, Musashi devoted himself early on to the art of and was rarely seen in his village without a wooden practice sword in hand. He killed his first opponent, a renowned master, at age 13 and soon afterward abandoned his family to lead a life
