Yoshioka Seijūrō

Yoshioka Seijūrō was the head of the Yoshioka school, a prestigious Kyoto family that for generations served as swordsmanship instructor to the Ashikaga shogunal house. The school is said to descend from the Kyō Hachiryū. Since its founder, Yoshioka Kempō (Naomoto), the Yoshioka family had served the shogunate as swordsmen, and their technique was also called the 'Kyō school.' The family later also made a name for itself in dyeing (Kempō-zome), but in Seijūrō's time, when the Muromachi shogunate had already fallen, his generation faced a period in which the strength of the family's swordsmen was itself put to the test.

In 1604, Miyamoto Musashi, then traveling the provinces for training, sent a challenge to the Yoshioka school, and is said to have fought Seijūrō in a duel on the outskirts of Kyoto, at Rendaino. According to tradition, Musashi held a wooden sword while Seijūrō held a live blade. Musashi's single strike shattered Seijūrō's arm, and the contest was decided in an instant. Seijūrō survived, but, humiliated by the defeat, he is said to have abandoned swordsmanship and taken Buddhist vows.

Afterward, Seijūrō's younger brother Denshichirō challenged Musashi to avenge his brother, but was defeated. Furthermore, a large party of the school's disciples lay in wait for Musashi at Ichijōji Sagarimatsu and were also overcome, in what is known as the Duel at Ichijōji Sagarimatsu. Following this series of defeats, the prestigious Yoshioka school is said to have declined rapidly. This duel episode is an indispensable anecdote in the telling of Musashi's life. It has been repeatedly recounted in later biographies such as the Niten-ki, which was compiled later, and in swordsman tales, and it is passed down as one of the finest contests in the history of Japanese swordsmanship. However, the Niten-ki was completed in 1776, more than 170 years after the duel, and scholars have pointed out that later embellishment may have entered the details of the tradition.