Sasaki Kojir

Ganryuredirects here. For the sumo wrestler in the

Tekken video game series, see List of characters in the
Tekken series Ganryu.
In this Japanese name, the family name is Sasaki.
Sasaki Kojir (, also known as Sasaki
Ganry) (1585? April 13, 1612), often anglicised to
Kojir Sasaki, was a prominent Japanese swordsman
widely considered a master of his craft, born in Fukui
Prefecture. He lived during the Sengoku and early Edo
periods and is most remembered for his death while battling Miyamoto Musashi in 1612.

History

Sasaki went by the ghting name of Ganry (, lit.

Large Rock style), which was also the name of the
kenjutsu school he had founded. It is said that Sasaki studied the Chj-ryu of sword ghting from either Kanemaki
Jisai or Toda Seigen. Toda Seigen was a master of the
kodachi. If Sasaki had indeed learned Chj-ryu from
Seigen, he would have been his master's sparring partner. Due to his master's use of the kodachi, Sasaki used
a nodachi, or a long katana, against him, therefore eventually excelling in its use. It was after defeating his master's younger brother that he left and founded the Ganry.
The rst reliable account of his life states that in 1610, because of the fame of his school and his many successful
duels, including once when he fended o three opponents
with a tessen, Sasaki was honored by Lord Hosokawa
Tadaoki as the chief weapons master of the Hosokawa ef
north of Kysh. Sasaki later became skilled in wielding
a nodachi, and used one he called Monohoshizao(
The Laundry-Drying Pole) as his main weapon.

1.1

Sasaki Kojiro (right) engages Miyamoto Musashi on the shores of

Ganry Island. Note that in this rendering, Musashi is using two
bokken.

and having been the partner of his master,

he excelled him in the wielding of the long
sword. After having defeated his master's
younger brother he left him to travel in various
provinces. There he founded his own school,
which was called Ganryu.
The Nitenkis account initially seems trustworthy, until it
goes on to give the age of Sasaki at the time of the duel as
18 years old; it is known that two years earlier he had been
a head weapons master for a ef but then that would imply he had reached such a position at the age of 16, which
is extremely improbable. A further complication is that
Toda Seigen died in the 1590s. This unreliability of the
sources means Sasaki's age could have varied anywhere
from his 20s to as late as his 50s. Even worse, a number of scholars contend that identifying Seigen as Sasaki's
teacher is a mistake, and that he was actually trained by a
student of Seigen's, Kanemaki Jisai.

The Duel

Sasaki Kojir was a long-time rival of Miyamoto

Musashi, and is considered the most challenging opponent Miyamoto ever faced. There are a number of accounts of the duel, varying in most details except the essentials, such as Sasaki's defeat. The age of Sasaki is es- Apparently, the young Miyamoto, at the time, around
pecially uncertain the Nitenki says that during his child- 29 years old, heard of Sasaki's fame and asked Lord
hood, he
Hosokawa Tadaoki, through the intermediary of Nagaoka
Sado Okinaga, a principal vassal of Hosokawa, to arrange
received the instruction of Toda Seigen,
a duel. Hosokawa assented, and set the time and place
a master of the school of the short sword,
as 13 April 1612, on the comparatively remote island
1

3 SWALLOW CUT

of Ganryujima of Funashima, the strait between Honsh boat and his ight was thus helped by the tide.
and Kysh. The match was probably set in such a remote
place because by this time Sasaki had acquired many students and disciples, and were Sasaki to have lost, they 2 The Drying Pole
would probably have attempted to kill Miyamoto.
According to the legend, Miyamoto arrived more than
three hours late, and goaded Sasaki by taunting him.
When Sasaki attacked, his blow came as close as to sever
Miyamoto's chonmage. He came close to victory several times until, supposedly blinded by the sunset behind
Miyamoto, Miyamoto struck him on the skull with his
oversized bokken, or wooden sword, which was 110 centimeters long. Miyamoto supposedly fashioned the long
bokken, a type called a suburit due to its above-average
length, by shaving down the spare oar of the boat in which
he arrived at the duel with his wakizashi. Miyamoto had
been late for the duel on purpose in order to psychologically unnerve his opponent, a tactic he used on previous occasions, such as during his series of duels with the
Yoshioka swordsmen.

Sasaki's favored weapon during combat was a straightedged nodachi with a blade-length of over 90 cm (2 feet,
11.5 inches). As a comparison, the average blade-length
of the regular katana are usually 70 cm (2 feet, 3 inches)
but rarely longer. It was called the Monohoshi Zao
(Clothes/Laundry-Drying Pole, , often translated into English as The Drying Pole). Despite
the sword's length and weight, Sasaki's strikes with the
weapon were unusually quick and precise.

3 Swallow Cut

Another version of the legend recounts that when

Miyamoto nally arrived, Sasaki shouted insults at him,
but Miyamoto just smiled. Angered even further, Sasaki
leapt into combat, blinded by rage. Sasaki attempted
his famous swallow's bladeor "swallow cut,but
Miyamoto's oversized bokken hit Sasaki rst, causing
him to fall down; before Sasaki could nish his swallow
cut, Miyamoto smashed Sasaki's left rib, puncturing his
lungs and killing him. Miyamoto then hastily retreated to
his boat and sailed away. This was Miyamoto's last fatal
duel.
Among other things, this conventional account, drawn
from the Nitenki, Kensetsu, and Yoshida Seiken's account,
has some problems. Kenji Tokitsu discusses a number
of obscurities and counterintuitive claims that have been
identied in the account by him and previous scholars.
Would Miyamoto only prepare his bokuto while going to
the duel site? Could he even have prepared it in time,
working the hard wood with his wakizashi? Would that
work not have tired him as well? Further, why was the
island then renamed after Sasaki, and not Miyamoto?
Other texts completely omit thelate arrivalportion of
the story, or change the sequence of actions altogether.
Harada Mukashi and a few other scholars believe that
Sasaki was actually assassinated by Miyamoto and his students the Sasaki clan apparently was a political obstacle Kabuki actor Ohtani Tomoemon as Sasaki Kojiro in the ill-fated
to Lord Hosokawa, and defeating Sasaki would be a po- duel with Miyamoto Musashi at Ganryu Island.
litical setback to his religious and political foes.
The debate still rages today as to whether or not
Miyamoto cheated in order to win that fateful duel or
merely used the environment to his advantage. Another
theory is that Miyamoto timed the hour of his arrival to
match the turning of the tide. He expected to be pursued
by Sasaki's supporters in the event of a victory. The tide
carried him to the island then it turned by the time the
ght ended. Miyamoto immediately jumped back in his

His favorite technique was both respected and feared

throughout feudal Japan. It was called theTurning Swallow CutorTsubame Gaeshi( lit.Swallow Reversal / Return), and was so named because it mimicked
the motion of a swallow's tail during ight as observed at
Kintaibashi Bridge in Iwakuni. This cut was reputedly so
quick and precise that it could strike down a bird in midight. There are no direct descriptions of the technique,
but it was compared to two other techniques current at

3
the time: the Itt-ry's Kinshi Cho Ohken and the Ganry 6 Further Reading
Kosetsu To; respectively the two involved erce and swift
cuts downward and then immediately upwards. Hence,
6.1 Children's Books
the Turning Swallow Cuthas been reconstructed as
a technique involving striking downward from above and
Moore, JS (2014). Under the Sun: The Miyamoto
then instantly striking again in an upward motion from
Musashi Story. Understanding Apples Press. ISBN
below. The strike's second phase could be from below
9-781502804914.
toward the rear and then upward at an angle, like an eagle
climbing again after swooping down on its prey. Sasaki
created this technique around 1605.

7 External links

Sasaki Kojir in ction

Main articles: Sasaki Kojiro in ction and Miyamoto

Musashi in ction
Sasaki Kojiro has appeared in many forms in pop culture
in Japan. He features in a lot of the lms about the life
of Miyamoto Musashi, most prominently in Samurai III:
Duel at Ganryu Island. In the manga Vagabond, Sasaki
Kojiro is portrayed as a deaf man raised by a retired
samurai after he is found in the ocean clinging to a long
sword. He appears as a cultured and soft speaking psychopath with a white painted face in Samurai Warriors 2.
In the PlayStation 1 video game Brave Fencer Musashi,
Sasaki appears as a result of a secondhero summoning
to save the princess of the Allucaneet Kingdom. Sasaki
Kojiro also appeared as one of the servants(heroic spirits)
in the Fate/Stay Night anime and visual novel of 2006 and
played the role of the Assassin Servant. His turning swallow strike literally bent reality by striking so fast that his
blade appeared in three places. He denied his identity as
a fake by saying he is nothing but a character with fabricated past that has been made into a master swordsman
inside of people's memories.His technique, theTsubame Gaeshi, resurfaced as a boxing move in the Hajime
no Ippo TV special, Champion Road. In the video game
series Dark Souls, a possible reference to Sasaki's sword
is the Washing Pole, which is a very long Katana.

References
Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings, Kenji
Tokitsu (trans. Sherab Chodzin Kohn), Shambhala
Press, 2004. ISBN 1-59030-045-9
Miyamoto Musashi, Eiji Yoshikawa (translated as
Musashi by Charles S. Terry ISBN 4-7700-1957-2)
Takeshi, Abe; Keiko, Nishimura (1990), Sengoku
Jinmei Jiten Concise hen, Shinjin Oraisha, ISBN 4404-01752-9.
Japan: Jubei's vengeance (game).

Sasaki Kojir at the Internet Movie Database

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