Icarus's blog: "Augurs, Martyrs, and Agnostics"

*scratches his neck*
Sanjuro (the character behind Yojimbo and Sanjuro) is a grimey dude. Badass itchy samurai mongrel.
When I shave my head I picked up the habbit of rubbing my head like the guy from 7 Samurai. When I haven't shaved, I scratch my neck and chin like Mifune as Sanjuro.

I'm cookin rice beans steak and peppers.
NCIS marathon.
And I gotta drink like... half a gallon of water.

Yeap- first appointment to sell my plasma.

Did you know that Musashi had excema (spellcheck?). And Mifune even played Musashi in a movie serial.

Now
Musashi is -not- my favorite samurai. He's probably my besty's favorite samurai because he was literate, wiley and talented, and perfected the zen of asskicking.

He was a swordfighter. A man's man. Not a perfumed noble or a groomed lapdog.

And he was a grimey motherfucker, and apparently quite terrifying looking. He stopped bathing because he (waste of time) was worried about being attacked by some braggart and killed unarmed.
He wasn't even originally a swordmaster
his father was a policeman- so he actually studied the use of the truncheon (a small metal club with a sword catcher) and eventually developed a sword school that uses the katana and wakizashi (short sword) that most samurai carried at all times. "2 sticks beating the same drum"

Me?
I like Iaido.
The art of drawing the sword.
If you can throw a rice bowl in someone's face, and draw your sword laying at your knees and catch the dude in the stomach
I like you.

There's a technique in WOTS3 where you actually go down into a sitting position- and then draw your weapon.
...
It didn't fit in that game, mid fight-
but it was kinda badass that they'd actually put that in there.

Sanjuro definitely knew how to draw his sword.
But a lot of times we just see him flailing wildly.
He's a paradox of orthodox and unorthodox- which may have just been a result of movie makers at that time not knowing much about sword fighting
or
it was supposed to be representative of his ronin flailing, snapping dog style
and reminiscent of Musashi-
Just win.

Musashi would use his whole persona to manipulate people and push towards victory.

"I challenge you to a duel" Foppish samurai or infamous dojo swordsman sends his second, meets face to face or sends a letter
"...*sigh* do I have to?"
Visibly offended by his lack of "manners/decorum".

He'd show up to duels late, well rested, alone and dirty.

His opponents would show up tense, hours early, and pristine with their fans and procession present.

So from the very start his opponents are looking to kill some infamous monster of swordsmanship who obviously holds them and their lifestyle in contempt-
they weren't just fighting for their reputation
but their honor.

Musashi was just fighting, and he was fighting someone pissed off.

"You must stab the face"

This is a beautiful... blood chilling concept to me.

And I admit to using it.

When you are in a duel- you should always attempt to stab your opponent in the face- he will then try to dodge, or put himself off balance and out of the way of your stab to his face.
This is especially true when you cross blades.

See
the Katana is a "back-sword" as europeans would call it.
Backswords have several advantages to being single edged- you can put your hand on it and pivot the blade for finer control.

So if you cross swords- place weight forward toward the tip of the sword- and drive it's point toward your opponents face suddenly-
yeah

it was actually a new concept.

Or at least a previously unarticulated one.

I fought an SCA guy with a half length backsword- and I told him to pick any blade he wanted.
He grabbed a bastard sword (double edged and massive) and swung straight down at me- I crossed, shifted, he drove the sword into the ground, and I stabbed right in the chest (its against the rules to hit someone in the head or face in SCA).

Over in one riposte.

I had been fencing for a year, he had been sparring since I had been born.

Strength alone cannot win.

Crazy thing was he had apparently fought "kendo guys" from all over the country for decades. Do you know what that says about Musashi, and about modern kendo?
Style flourish and ritual doesn't matter if you win.

I can't believe people haven't picked up on that in a couple hundred years...

Oh
spreaking of "just winning".

I'm going in to sell my plasma in about 40 minutes.

Did I tell you Musashi won duels with a god damn carved boat oar?
It speaks of his truncheon mastery, swordsmanship, and ... disdainful badassery/

I need a boat oar legend killer...