Miyamoto Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi was born about 1584 in Harima or Mimasaka and is the most famous swordsman in Japanese history. By his own account he won his first duel at thirteen and, by the age of twenty-nine, had fought more than sixty contests without ever being defeated, the most celebrated being his duel with Sasaki Kojirō on the island of Ganryū. He founded the two-sword school of Niten Ichi-ryū, and in old age retired to the Reigandō cave near Kumamoto; he was also a fine ink painter and calligrapher. He completed The Book of Five Rings in 1645, shortly before his death.