Warrior Pilgrimage

1. At 13 he slew a samurai in single combat by throwing him to the ground and beating him on the head with a stick when he tried to rise – ArimaKihei died vomiting blood • At 16 he defeated another man named Tadashima Akiyama in a duel • Musashi then left home an embarked on a journey – “Warrior Pilgrimage” – that would last four decades and take him to six wars, until he settled down at the age of 50, having reached the end of his search for reason • By the time he was 29 he had engaged in over 60 duels, all of which he won • He spent most of his life living apart from society while he devoted himself with a ferocious single-mindedness to enlightenment through Kendo – “the Way of the sword” • He wandered Japan “soaked by the cold winds of winter, not dressing his hair, nor taking a wife, nor following any profession” and his appearance was “uncouth and wretched” Warrior Pilgrimage

2. Training in Kendo meant subjugating the self, bearing the pain of grueling practice, and cultivating a level mind in the face of peril • Warfare was the spirit of the samurai’s everyday life and death was a constant reality • The Way of the sword is the moral teaching of the samurai, fostered by the Confucianist philosophy which shaped the Tokugawa system, together with Japan’s native Shinto religion Kendo

3. Musashi found employment serving the house of Ogasawara as an army captain • At age 55 he fought against Christians in the Shimawara uprising in 1638 • After serving the Ogasawara Tadazene for six years he was invited to stay at Kumamoto Castle as the guest of Hosokawa Churi Later years

4. While Musashi lived for a few years as the guest of lord Churi at Kumamoto Castle he spent his time teaching and painting • In 1643, he retired to a life of seclusion at a nearby cave called “Reigendo” where he lived the final two years of his life • Musashi wrote Go Rin No Sho(A Book of Five Rings) to one of this pupils, Teruo Nobuyuki, a few weeks before his death on May 19, 1645 Retirement