Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (originally Miyamoto Musashi) is a Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and made by the Toho studio. It premiered in Japan on 26 September 1954 and is the first part of a trilogy, followed by Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955) and Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956). The source is Eiji Yoshikawa's novel Musashi, serialised in the daily Asahi Shimbun from 1935 to 1939; the screenplay is based on an adaptation by Hideji Hojo. The novel rests on historical events but adds invented characters, and Edwin O. Reischauer called it "Gone with the Wind of Japan". Inagaki's film keeps to its version, so it depicts the life of the real swordsman only loosely. Toshiro Mifune plays Takezo, a young man in whom the story presents the future Miyamoto Musashi. The opening situation follows the battle of Sekigahara, although historians question whether the real Musashi took part in it. The real Miyamoto Musashi was born around 1583 and died on 13 June 1645. He founded the Niten Ichi-ryu sword style, in which the katana and wakizashi are used together, and in the last year of his life he completed the treatise Gorin no sho in the Reigando cave. We did not find in the sources whether the film shows his two-sword style. At the 28th Academy Awards the film received the Academy's honorary award for the foreign-language film of 1955.

Martial arts in this work

Fight choreography

According to English Wikipedia, the fight scenes of the whole trilogy were designed by Yoshio Sugino of the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu school, who also coached the swordplay in Seven Samurai. According to the article about him, he left the earlier kabuki-influenced style and sought the most realistic duels possible. We have not been able to confirm a named credit for this first part; for the second part English Wikipedia lists the choreography as by Tokuho Azuma and Yoshio Sugino. According to a critic cited by English Wikipedia, the trilogy's duels are "relatively chaste" and do not show the bloodshed that real duels would involve. Prince's essay notes that Inagaki often cuts away from sword clashes to surrounding scenery, for example to fluttering ribbons, and skips some duels by ellipsis. The trilogy was shot in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and the first film, unlike the other two, was shot outdoors.

Fact and fiction

Historical facts about Musashi and Yoshikawa's fiction intertwine in Inagaki's trilogy. Three duels with the Yoshioka family in Kyoto in 1604 and the duel with Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryu Island on 13 April 1612 are considered documented; they are the subject of the later parts of the trilogy. The traditional 62 duels without a defeat are documented only weakly for most encounters. Musashi's participation in the battle of Sekigahara is also disputed: recent Japanese historians doubt that he stood with the Western Army, and the sources rather point to the Eastern Army under Kuroda Yoshitaka; whether he fought at all remains open. According to Prince, the author of an essay for Criterion, the historical Musashi lived as an ascetic loner who never had a lord, a love affair or a formal teacher. Yoshikawa's novel adds characters such as Otsu and several mentors, and Inagaki's films keep to that.

People and martial arts

• Miyamoto Musashithe real person the work is about
• Hiroshi InagakiDirector
• Toshiro MifuneActor — as Takezo / Miyamoto Musashi· Koryu Bujutsu (portrays the art on screen)

Awards

• Won · Academy Award, Honorary Award (cizojazyčný film, 28. ročník) (1955)