What a Friend We Have in Jizōs 22

Miyamoto Musashi was born in 1584, to an accomplished martial artist and swordsman. The eczema he contracted in infancy would forever affect his appearance. When Musashi was seven, his father was killed, and the boy was farmed out to two uncles at a temple in southern Honshu, who continued to train him in basic martial skills, Buddhism, and reading and writing. At the age of thirteen, he wrote his name on a challenge posted by a samurai named Arima Kehei, looking to hone his art. His uncles tried to beg off the duel on account of his young age, but Arima, arrogant and overly eager to battle, was adamant that the only way out was to have Musashi apologize to him at the site and time of combat. On the day, as his uncles began apologizing in earnest, Kihei attacked with a wakizashi short sword. Musashi merely charged him with a six-foot quarterstaff, struck him between the eyes, and then beat him to death.
Two years later, Musashi left his village, and spent some time traveling and engaging in duels. 
In 1600, war began between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans. Musashi fought for the Toyotomi, in the attempt to take Fushimi castle in July, in the defense of besieged Gifu Castle in August, and finally, October 21, in the Battle of Sekigahara. The Toyotomi lost, and Musashi fled to Mount Hiko, and disappeared.
It took him four years to resurface, this time in Kyoto, to confront the renowned Yoshioka School of Swordsmanship. Musashi challenged Seijūrō, master of the school, to a duel. Seijūrō accepted, and they agreed to meet at a northern temple on 8 March 1604. Musashi arrived late, greatly irritating Seijūrō. They faced off, and per their agreement Musashi struck a single blow, knocking him out, and crippling his left arm. The headship of the school passed to his equally accomplished brother, Denshichirō, who promptly challenged Musashi for revenge. Outside Sanjūsangen temple Denshichirō brought a staff reinforced with steel rings and an attached ball-and-chain. Musashi arrived late a second time, and disarmed and defeated him. This second victory outraged the Yoshioka family, whose head was now the 12-year old Matashichiro. They assembled a force of archers, musketeers and swordsmen, and challenged Musashi to a third duel at another temple outside Kyoto. This time Musashi arrived early. Hidden, Musashi assaulted the force, killed Matashichiro, and was attacked by dozens of his victim's supporters. To escape he was forced to draw his second sword and defend himself with a sword in each hand. At this precise moment was the birth of the classical samurai niten’ichi sword-fighting style, battling with a long katana in one hand and a shorter wakizashi in the other. Two heavens as one. Perhaps Musashi had been inspired by the two-handed movements of temple drummers, perhaps the paired jutte and sword technique of his father, perhaps the Kongen sutra about the two guardians of Buddha, or perhaps the idea of holding the twin swords up in the light to form a perfect circle of mu nothingness. Whatever the inspiration, Musashi had found and founded a superior form of double-bladed combat. Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki bestowed upon him the title of ‘Unrivaled Under Heaven.’
But his development as a rōnin transcended any single fighting style. From 1605 to 1612, Musashi travelled extensively all over Japan, on a musha shugyō warrior pilgrimage to hone his fighting skills. He used only wooden bokken training swords in actual duels not caring which weapon his foe used, such was his mastery, and never defeated in over 60 battles. In 1607 he killed a chain and sickle kusarigama warrior named Shishido Baiken in Nara, and a staff-wielding samurai, Musō Gonnosuke, in Edo. Musashi was also became an expert in throwing weapons, and was rumored never to bathe, not wanting to be surprised unarmed. During this period he began practicing zazen seated meditation at the Myōshin temple in Kyoto, where he met Nagaoka Sado, teacher of the powerful lord Todaoki. What emerged was a proposal for a duel that would crystallize Musashi’s reputation forever. Todaoki’s chief weapons master was Sasaki Kojirō, who went by the fighting name of Ganryū ‘Large Rock,’ after the style of the school he had founded. He was known as ‘The Demon of the Western Provinces.’ Kojirō’s favored wielded weapon during combat was a three-foot blade, called the ‘laundry-drying pole.’ Despite the length and weight of his sword, Kojirō's strikes were unusually quick and precise. This agility was impressive, but not the source of his lethality. That came from his technique of the Tsubame Gaeshi ‘Turning Swallow Cut,’ which mimicked the motion of a swallow’s tail during flight. Striking downward from above, and instantly reversing in an upward motion toward the rear, like an eagle climbing after swooping on its prey, the motion could take down a bird in mid-flight, or slice a man in two. Sasaki Kojirō was respected and feared throughout the length and breadth of feudal Japan, and the most undeniably daunting opponent Musashi would ever face.