Tadashima Akiyama, also called , was a Japanese samurai of the
Azuchi–Momoyama period
The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600.
After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nobuna ...
who hailed from
Tajima Province
was a province of Japan in the area of northern Hyōgo Prefecture. Tajima bordered on Tango and Tanba to the east, Harima to the south, and Inaba to the west. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō system, Tajimao was ...
. A rather unknown figure, he is largely remembered for his defeat at the hands of the young
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 ...
, who was sixteen at the time. It has been concluded that Akiyama openly challenged Musashi.
Musashi wrote in
The Book of Five Rings
is a text on ''kenjutsu'' and the martial arts in general, written by the Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi around 1645. Many translations have been made, and it enjoys an audience considerably broader than other martial artists and people ac ...
: ''"When I was sixteen I struck down an able strategist Tadashima Akiyama"''.
References
*Toyota Masataka. "''Niten Ki'' (A Chronicle of Two Heavens)," in ''Gorin no Sho'', edited by Kamiko Tadashi. Tokyo: Tokuma-shoten, 1963.
Further reading
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Samurai
Year of death unknown
Year of birth unknown
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