| Musashi Miyamoto | |
 | |
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Kanji Name | 宮本 武蔵 |
| Kana Name | みやもと むさし |
| First Appearance | |
| Anime | None |
| Manga | The Underground Skytree |
| Information | |
| Origin | Japan |
| Age | 32 (Biologically) 350+ (Chronologically) |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Height | About 180 cm (5'11") |
| Fighting Style | Niten Ichi-ryuu |
| Relations | Unknown |
| “ | Anything I wanted was mine! I shall make a name for myself once more! And the streets will again be filled with songs of praise! | ” |
– Musashi to Yuujirou Hanma. | ||
Musashi Miyamoto (宮本 武蔵, Miyamoto Musashi) is a character and the main opponent from Baki-Dou. The legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto is said to be the strongest of his time and possibly the strongest samurai ever. He was cloned from tissue in his spine, with Sabuko Tokugawa infusing the empty clone with Musashi's soul, giving him his former memories and skills.
Personality[]
Musashi is extremely straightforward. He acts more or less like an ambitious fame-striving artist of martial arts, who desires the fame and glory he once had. Unlike any of the other fighters, Musashi is 'alone' and mentally-distant from the rest of the world, even more so than Pickle himself. Unlike him, however, Musashi was unable to adapt to the modern age. The samurai's distorted mindset is seen numerous times across the fourth series of the manga, pointing to the fact that Musashi doesn't indeed feel any semblance of sympathy for others, and only considers sparing those he pities. He hardly shows any concern for who he injures, maims or kills among those unlucky enough to challenge him.
In a similar fashion to Yuujirou Hanma, Musashi very rarely goes all-out and instead chooses to mock most of his opponents, which sprouts the hate other characters bear towards him. In his fight with Pickle, he says that it gets very dull and boring when his enemies and opponent goes down within a single hit, as for Pickle; Musashi can slash him as many times as he wanted to. That said, he does have a code of honor and will only respond to an opponent's level of force with an equal level of force. Anyone who fights him one on one, he will follow the "rules" as his opponent dictates them. If his opponent explicitly won't use lethal force and is not trying to kill him, then Musashi will likewise do the same and only defeat his opponent while not killing them (Doppo Orochi and Baki Hanma only wanted to challenge him to a fight unarmed and while it was a no rules fight, they weren't trying to kill him, merely risking their lives. Thus, Musashi just knocked out both Baki and Doppo). When a police officer challenged him with a gun and stated his intent to kill if Musashi moved then Musashi killed him without hesitation. Even then Musashi paid respects to the man by kneeling down to his fallen body, realizing that he was just doing his job as an officer of the law, while later telling his fellow officers to be at peace as their comrade died in a proper contest without fear. He will, however, show no mercy to multiple opponents attacking him with the intent to kill or do serious harm to him as he sees it as "war" and not a contest.
He has an incredible sense of danger, as he knows when a battle is life-threatening or not. Because Yuujirou wasn't really trying to kill him, in this case Musashi probably treated the fight as another chance to train, one of his repeating motifs. So long as he doesn't consider a foe as trying to kill him, he can simply treat the fight as a means to practice, which is probably why he lost to Izou Motobe as he forwent multiple opportunities to kill Motobe so as he could experience his skills and learn from it. As such, Musashi wasn't really putting intent to kill in his attacks against Yuujirou because he was using the opportunity to try and perfect his previously unfinished style against such an impossibly strong enemy. While it was a blow that could kill Yuujirou, it didn't have the intent to kill in it, so Yuujirou didn't auto-dodge it as it was within the realm of what he could face head-on.
Musashi can also be extremely frightening to his opponents. He has become among the very few things that can frighten Pickle into running away in fear due to his fighting style making the caveman see him as a giant multi-stinger wasp.
Appearance[]
Musashi is a tall well-built man with scars on his body and extremely thick wrists for a man his size. He acquired a new scar on his mouth from his fight with Izou Motobe. He has wild black shoulder length hair, similar to the style of Yuujirou Hanma's, as well as having facial hair . His eyes look nearly feline-like giving him an intimidating face which looks like a cross between a lion and human, especially when he's positioned sideways sitting down. He has a constant dead-eyed look.
When he's successfully cloned, he dons a blue Gi and leather sandals. When in a proper fight, he slightly changes his look by rolling his sleeves up to his shoulders, wrapping bandages around his torso and wearing a bandana.
History[]
Past[]
Musashi Miyamoto was originally born in 1584 during the peak of the Sengoku era of Japan, where various warlords constantly fought for survival and dominance against one another. Musashi killed his first opponent at only 13 years old, and went on to become undefeated in 62 recorded duels. Throughout his original life, Musashi travelled around Japan to duel and served as a ronin (masterless samurai) for various warlords), eventually settling down and founding his own school. He died in 1645 at the age of 61 due to lung cancer. Long after his death, Musashi's reputation as the "Greatest Swordsman in History" has become legend, and he was praised to no end as Japan's greatest hero.
Baki-Dou[]
Almost 400 years later, Musashi Miyamoto's mummified corpse was secretly exhumed and brought to an underground laboratory located under the Tokyo Skytree. It is revealed that an eccentric billionaire Mitsunari Tokugawa, one of the descendant of the Tokugawa clan that Musashi once served with, is responsible for the funding and construction of the tower as a cover for his secret plan to bring Musashi back to life. Mitsunari personally invested in the project and even uses his influence among Japanese politicians to allowed his project to come into fruition.
To accomplish this, Mitsunari hired a number of scientists from all over the world to work on a project to recreate Musashi and bring him back into his prime body. After using DNA extracted from Musashi's spine, Musashi's body was recreated and grown to adult size in 11 months. However Musashi's recreated body did not respond or shown signs of life, and as such Mitsunari invited his younger sister, a powerful spirit medium known as Sabuko Tokugawa, to complete the operation by transferring Musashi’s soul from the afterlife into his new body.
Shortly after getting accustomed to his revival, Musashi settled into a residence with Tokugawa. While being hosted by the old man, Musashi is also given numerous invitations to fight the modern world's top champions. Seeing this as an opportunity to reclaim his lifetime's glory and fame, Musashi isn't one bit reluctant in his decision to cut down the strongest.
Abilities[]
Musashi is renowned for his skill in swordsmanship. He is the creator of Niten Ichi-ryuu (Two Swords as One) and the founder of the legendary Niten Ichi-ryuu school, which is a sum of all his skills and philosophies. During his original lifetime, Musashi exhibited several legendary feats. Even at the age of 17 Musashi often fights as a one-man army and wins battles mostly unharmed, as once demonstrated when he singlehandedly killed 72 samurai from a rival clan without taking a single hit, despite several of them being armed with rifles. When he was 58, Musashi was still undefeated and had perfected the Imitation Cut technique that allows him to stun his opponent simply by inflicting an "imaginary" slash on them.
Musashi's body is immensely durable and has a high tolerance to pain, taking many blows from Retsu and his whip. Even going so far as to not even blink when hit in the eye by nails and teeth sent from Retsu's shirt, and still going on to defeat him. He endured punches from Hanayama and even from Pickle, even though the latter's attack is enough to dent a titanium wall. He is also able to endure a 200,000 volt electric shock from a special stun gun. The one of the very few times that Musashi was legitimately hurt was when he took a kick the groin from Yuujirou Hanma, and even then he managed to recover only a few seconds later.
He has incredible grip strength, comparable to Kaoru Hanayama, being able to crush green bamboo with a simple swing, lift Baki and Retsu Kaiou effortlessly with one hand and lift Yuujirou Hanma while at a mechanical disadvantage. When Yuujirou took hold of the blade of his katana and knocked him out with a palm to the face, he is sent flying backward. Yet his grip on the sword remained strong enough that Yuujirou is sent flying with him. Musashi is even able to cut through the skin of some of the toughest fighters in the series (Baki, Hanayama, Pickle and even Yuujirou himself).
He also possesses incredible speed: being capable of outrunning vehicles, or shorten the distance between his opponent in the blink of an eye and surprise them unseen. In fact, Musashi is so fast that he is able to make an afterimage or, like Yuujirou, disappear from one place and reappear in another, as if it was some sort of teleportation. In addition, he has some of the fastest reflexes among all fighters from series so far: he was able to dodge and even cut bullets in half in mid-air, counter fast opponents in the paper distance and dodge even punches from the fastest fighters, like Baki.
His skill as a swordsman is, of course, also extreme. He was able to counter Retsu Kaiou's Defensive Xiaoli, and kill him with a slash to the stomach that completely destroyed his internal organs and spine. With his superhuman strength, he could cut through Pickle's flesh and Motobe's aramid fiber chain-mail. He is capable of bisecting a stack of eight death row prisoners or a 2-ton giant ox with a single slash, and perfectly split a revolver in two along with the officer holding it, demonstrating no decrease in potency. Even without a sword, Musashi can still cut using his bare hands. As evident when he managed to dismantle Gaia's pistol only with his hand.
Musashi's signature technique, the Imitation Cut, can visualize a sword strike, without having moved an inch. With such accuracy that the people he strikes can feel the nonexistent blade cutting through them and feel the pain fresh in their mind multiple minutes after. Although the technique deals no actual physical damage, the pain and visualization of the cut resulting from it are powerful enough that Musashi can use it to intimidate his opponents into simply surrendering without a fight.
Musashi's swordsmanship is so brutal that anything less than the perfect weapon will break upon use. He is able to swing with such force that he completely destroys a sword that has been in use for more than 60 years. Musashi also broke Retsu's 9-section whip with his bare hands, even though Kaiou Kaku during his prime was unable to break it. He can extend this to people as well: by grabbing them and swinging them like a sword, he is capable of inflicting massive internal damage.
Aside from his swordsmanship, Musashi also seems to have acknowledged the martial arts of his era and many of them mastered, as he can kill people with a single punch, yet relied on his swordsmanship most of the time. His intelligence is very high; in fact, Musashi is a battlefield genius. He is extremely perceptive, thoughtful and has immense wisdom over the arts of war, especially sword fighting. He knows every sword fighting technique there is and many others, which can effectively counter just about every other fighting style in the series. He was so skilled with the sword and in battle, that he learned how to cut people without even using his swords and his mind can pick up the signals of people's brains when they prepare to attack.
Techniques[]
- Imitation Cut – Musashi's signature move; used against Kyouichirou Sabu for the first time.
- Ultra High Level Sen no Sen – used in his fight with Baki Hanma.
- Rope Method – used against Kaiou Retsu.
- Tackle – used against Baki Hanma.
- Shinken Shirahadori– used in his battle with Baki Hanma.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Musashi vs Yuujiro (1).jpg (495 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Musashi was based upon Musashi Miyamoto, a real-life Japanese swordsman and rounin.
- The depictions of the Tokyo Skytree as the location of Musashi's revival operation served as a pun, as in goroawase (Japanese number-based pun), the tower's height of 634 meters can be read as "Musashi". In addition, the underground laboratory being located 366 meters underground also alludes to the year since Musashi's death (1646) until the end of serialization of Hanma Baki (2012).
- It is speculated that Musashi could be related to the Hanma lineage, as he and Yuujirou are both incredibly powerful, have similar hairstyles and personalities. As well as using a matching stance. Additionally, during Baki's battle with Oliva, a guard that was observing the battle stated that Baki resembled Miyamoto Musashi.
- Many fans speculate Musashi to be the second strongest character in the series, right below Yuujirou Hanma.