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A sweeping historical novel based on the life of Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary seventeenth-century swordsman, Musashi traces the making of a warrior from reckless youth to disciplined master.

After surviving the Battle of Sekigahara, the young Takezō renounces his past and begins a long apprenticeship to the sword — and to himself. Across villages, temples and duelling grounds, he confronts rival schools, political unrest, and the limits of brute strength. A study in self-forging: how skill becomes philosophy, and violence becomes a path toward discipline.

Yoshikawa writes in the grand tradition of serialised epics, those expansive, character-driven, attentive stories deeply sensitive to landscape and code. It’s part adventure, part moral inquiry, and remains one of the most widely read works of Japanese historical fiction in translation.

Kodansha International, English edition (First edition 1981; this copy: first Kodansha paperback edition, 1993)