Sasaki Kojirō
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Sasaki Kojirō 佐々木 小次郎 |
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| Born | c. 1585 Fukui Prefecture, Japan |
| Died | April 13, 1612 (age 27) Ganryū-jima, Japan |
| Native name | 佐々木 小次郎 |
| Residence | Japan |
| Style | Ganryū |
Sasaki Kojirō (佐々木 小次郎?, also known as Sasaki Ganryū) (1585? – April 13, 1612), often anglicised to Kojirō Sasaki, was a prominent Japanese swordsman widely considered a master of his craft, born in Fukui Prefecture. He lived during the Sengoku and early Edo periods and is most remembered for his death while battling Miyamoto Musashi in 1612.
Sasaki went by the fighting name of Ganryū (巌流?, "Large Rock style"), which was also the name of the kenjutsu school he had founded. It is said that Sasaki studied the Chūjō-ryu of sword fighting from either Kanemaki Jisai or Toda Seigen. Toda Seigen was a master of the kodachi. If Sasaki had indeed learned Chūjō-ryu from Seigen, he would have been his master's sparring partner. Due to his master's use of the kodachi, Sasaki used a nodachi, or a long katana, against him, therefore eventually excelling in its use. It was after defeating his master's younger brother that he left and founded the Ganryū. The first reliable account of his life states that in 1610, because of the fame of his school and his many successful duels, including once when he fended off three opponents with a tessen, Sasaki was honored by Lord Hosokawa Tadaoki as the chief weapons master of the Hosokawa fief north of Kyūshū. Sasaki later became skilled in wielding a nodachi, and used one he called monohoshizao ("The Laundry-Drying Pole") as his main weapon.
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