a retainer under the Japanese clan of Hosokawa during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

(17th century) of Japan. Lord

Hosokawa Tadatoshi was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Hosokawa Tadatoshi"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 359 細川忠利at ''Nihon jinmei daijiten''; retrieved 2013-5-29. He was the head of Kumamoto Domai ...

had previously practiced the

Yagyū Shinkage-ryū is one of the oldest Japanese schools of swordsmanship (''kenjutsu''). Its primary founder was Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, who called the school Shinkage-ryū. In 1565, Nobutsuna bequeathed the school to his greatest student, Yagyū Munetoshi, who ...

art of the sword, in which the principal sword master of the fief was none other than the renowned swordsman, Yashiro. Tadatoshi had at one time wanted for Yashiro to duel against the famous swordsman,

Miyamoto Musashi , also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin, who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship a ...

. Musashi had hesitated when hearing this, because Ujii had precedence of rank over him within the fief and had the status of master. However, they both finally agreed to have a duel against each other. During their duel, Yashiro had fought within the presence of his lord, who had sent away all other vassals, with the exception of one, who was to bear his sword. After the two adepts had fought for three rounds, Yashiro could not defeat Musashi in any way, who did not even yet deliver a blow. When taking into the account of Tadatoshi, Musashi had contented himself with dominating Yashiro by rendering the whole of techniques as ineffective. Tadatoshi himself had fought Musashi after this duel, in which he had later said after never being able to deliver a single blow of his sword, "''I never imagined there could be such a difference in levels of accomplishment!''.

References

''Miyamoto Musashi - Life and Writings'' Ujii Yashiro {{Japan-martialart-bio-stub