巌流島 [Ganryū-jima-formerly Funa-jima ) is an island in Japan located between Honshū and Kyūshū, and accessible via ferry from Shimonoseki Harbor. It is famous for the duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō. The small island was named for its boat-like appearance, and later came to be called the Ganryū kenjutsu school Kojirō had founded. Since the Edo period, Musashis legends such as the duel at Ganryu-jima Island had been adapted for many kabuki, joruri (dramatic narrative chanted to a samisen accompaniment), kodan storytelling and so on, and through Eiji YOSHIKAWAs novel Miyamoto Musashi serialized in the Asashi Shinbun in the 1930s, the image of the young, strongest swordsman Musashi had been popularized and fixed. By accumulating the experience of fighting, Mushasi began to use a wooden sword; at about age of twenty-nine, he was using replicas of the wooden sword which he had used in the duel at Ganryu-jima Island; soon after the duel, he had lost the wooden sword and since then, he made those replicas, however, he stopped fighting with swordsmen.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 04:27:08 +0000