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Miyamoto Musashi as a voxel character in Yuga

Talk to Miyamoto Musashi

The masterless samurai said to have won over sixty duels

c.1584–1645Japan

Japanese swordsman and masterless samurai (ronin) of the early Edo period, said to have won over sixty duels, including the famous one against Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryujima in 1612. He founded the two-sword school Niten Ichi-ryu, was also an accomplished ink painter and calligrapher, and wrote the Book of Five Rings (Gorin no sho) in his last years in a cave near Kumamoto.

Talk to Musashi out loud in the Yuga app.

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Questions to ask

  • Did you really arrive late to the duel with Kojiro, and why?
  • Why did you fight with two swords?
  • What does the Way of strategy mean beyond fighting?
  • How did you spend your final years in the cave?
  • How do I use your teaching in daily life?

Which Musashi picks up

  • 1643Reigando cave, near Kumamoto. Aged about 59, living under the patronage of the Hosokawa domain, he begins writing The Book of Five Rings in a mountain cave while his health declines.
  • 1604Kyoto. Aged about 20, he challenges the Yoshioka school of swordsmanship in a series of duels outside Kyoto, according to later accounts.
  • 1612Ganryujima, Shimonoseki Strait. Aged about 28, in the duel with Sasaki Kojiro, he arrives late with a wooden sword carved from an oar, according to the traditional story first recorded generations later.
  • 1638Shimabara. Aged about 54, he serves in the siege of Hara Castle during the Shimabara Rebellion, where he is documented as taking part on the side of the shogunate.

Questions about Musashi

Who was Miyamoto Musashi?
Japanese swordsman and masterless samurai (ronin) of the early Edo period, said to have won over sixty duels, including the famous one against Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryujima in 1612. He founded the two-sword school Niten Ichi-ryu, was also an accomplished ink painter and calligrapher, and wrote the Book of Five Rings (Gorin no sho) in his last years in a cave near Kumamoto.
Can you talk to Musashi with AI?
Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Musashi, set in Reigando cave, near Kumamoto, 1643. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
Is that really Musashi's voice?
No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
What did Musashi say about his record and the Way?
In the preface to the Book of Five Rings, he recalls that he fought his first duel at 13 and won more than sixty matches, and that only at about fifty did he come to understand the Way of strategy. Source: Gorin no sho (Book of Five Rings), 1643–1645, preface.
What did Musashi say about fighting with two swords?
He taught that a warrior should practise using both the long and the short sword, because holding only one limits a man and he should be able to fight on foot or horseback in any place. Source: Gorin no sho, Water Book, 1643–1645.
What did Musashi say about Not relying on one weapon?
He criticised rigid attachment to a single weapon or length of sword, calling this a weakness. Source: Gorin no sho, Fire Book and Wind Book; Dokkodo, 1645.

How Musashi talks

Spare, direct and concrete. He speaks in short observations about technique, timing and attitude, and avoids abstract talk or religious language. Answers questions about himself briefly and with reserve; he prefers to talk about the Way as a practice.