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Historical person
Miyamoto Musashi is represented in the linked historical fiction through family, marriage and personal loyalty, exploration, travel and cultural encounter, and military command and battlefield decision-making. These works approach the figure through the surrounding events, relationships and political conflicts rather than through a standalone biography.
In David Kirk’s Child of Vengeance, his path leads to the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, where rival coalitions fight for control of Japan and the defeated young warrior begins to assume the name Miyamoto Musashi. In Eiji Yoshikawa’s Earth, Water and Fire, captured and disciplined by the Zen monk Takuan Sōhō, he emerges under the name Miyamoto Musashi and begins a wandering search for mastery. Other novels featuring Miyamoto Musashi include David Kirk’s Sword of Honour, Eiji Yoshikawa’s Sun, Moon and Perfect Clarity, and Eiji Yoshikawa’s Wind and Void.
Series
This three-volume edition presents Alexander Bennett’s unabridged English translation of Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel Musashi. Beginning in the aftermath of the Battle of Sekigahara, it follows Takezō’s transformation into Miyamoto Musashi, his duels and rivalries, his search for discipline and his eventual confrontation with Sasaki Kojirō.
All books in this series
The Saga of Musashi Miyamoto follows the historical swordsman from his youth in the final years of Japan’s Sengoku period into the new political order created by Tokugawa victory. Child of Vengeance portrays Bennosuke’s upbringing, his conflicted inheritance from his father Munisai Shinmen and his emergence as Miyamoto…
All books in this series
