Miyamoto Musashi

A swordsman from the early Edo Period, famous s the strongest swordmaster in Japanese history.

Learned in the “Niten Ichi-ryu”, a school that was supposedly founded by Musashi, an expert of “dual wielding” that employs a long sword and a short sword.

....or so it should have been, but seems that her circumstances are somehow different from the Musashi that left his name in history.

“Eh? The ‘Musashi’ in this world is a man?

And also extremely famous? What a surprise!”

As you see, the person herself has a relaxed, open attitude that never gets worked up.

Having no particular interest in victory or prestige, yet sloven with alcohol, a sucker for money and weak against free food.

However, all those who confronted and were beaten by her in battle said this in the end:

---a vibrant flower of tengen(1).

Her sword reaches the heights of nothingness.

In the proper history, Musashi was born in Oohara, Sakushu (modern day Mimasaka, in the Okayama prefecture), at 1584.

His father was a practitioner of martial arts named Shinmen Munisai, who served as an instructor of martial arts to the Shinmen House of lords of the Takayama Castle, and who received the name of Shinmen from his employer’s family. Shinmen Munisai built a dojo of jutte techniques in the Miyamoto village of the Yoshino district, and Musashi would later call himself “Miyamoto” due having this land as his hometown.

He left behind many anecdotes and went through numerous battles against martial artists upon reaching adulthood - especially during the ten years of his 20s. Those famous bouts are even now seen as a staple of the entertainment industry.

However, the truth behind the episodes of these ten years of battle is mostly wrapped in mystery and there are strong suspicions about them being mere fiction.

Cheerful and openhearted, a female swordsman that is lively yet dignified.

Constantly full of pride, acting complacently, but that does not mean she is looking down on her opponent. She is merely enjoying life.

Her way of expressing emotions is somewhat great. She greatly laughs and gets greatly surprised.

While she has a broad-minded personality that laughs off at most things, due being “someone who masters the way of the sword” at her roots, she is very dry and severe in regards to the taking of lives.

That being said, she falls in love easily and likes to be depended on very much.

She also likes to be praised very much. Weak to flattery. A banchou disposition that loves a brawl. Although she has a sense of justice, she never preaches to be righteous herself.

Fundamentally a carefree wandering vagabond, but she becomes ruthless when coming across scenes such as “an one-sided massacre”, “trampling on people’s dignity, convictions for fun” or “stealing my food when I’m hungry”.

Height/Weight: 167cm・56kg

Source: Historical fact

Region: Japan

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Gender: Female

“My formal name? Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara no Harunobu. Still, it’s easier if you just call me Musashi.”

Heavenly Eye: A

Heavenly Eye is regarded as “the power to accomplish an objective”.

Once she has decided to do something, she will devote her body and soul to its fulfillment and achieve it without fail. You might say that this is something that she places her entire existence on her gaze and projects it onto her objective.

In Musashi’s case, her Heavenly Eye is pointed only at the deed of “cutting a certain place”.

For example, once she has decided to “cut the opponent’s right arm”, she will server said right arm by taking all and every measures.

As a result, her attack becomes the optimal answer for a slash - “a sword stroke without anything pointless, which makes even time and space yield”.

A power to take all the “measures for the sake of achieving an objective” and “narrowing them down to one”.

You might as well say that this is an extremely unique set of mystic eyes, which confines the naturally infinite futures into “just a single” result.

Nothingness: A

The highest order a swordsman can attain. The ultimate mental state.

It corresponds to the concept of suigetsu(2) of the Yagyuu Shinkage-ryu.

One is nothing, thus invincible. Only a swordsman who has reached the infinite mental state can perceive this.

The Book of Five Rings

Right before death, Musashi compiled the mental state he attained during his lifetime, his cultivated techniques, into one book.

Divided into the five volumes of Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Void, this book was the culmination of the human being called “Musashi”.

The Book of Five Rings gives an outline of the Niten Ichi-ryu and explains its ideology as an art of war in the Book of Earth, explains concrete techniques on the Book of Water, talks about the art of war in the dimensions of tactics and strategy, and - just like the above-mentioned - explains the fundamental understanding of the Niten Ichi-ryu by means of a repudiation of other schools.

Finally, it has been said that Musashi’s own understanding about “emptiness”, as well as the above-mentioned technique of “confrontation”, has been written down on the Book of Void.

(1): roughly, center of heaven. In the ancient Chinese cosmology, the tengen was the source from which all creation grew from, the “vitality of heavens”.