Yagyu Mitsuyoshi

Yagyū Mitsuyoshi ( Japanese 柳生 三 厳 ; * 1607 in Yagyū (part of today's Nara ), Yamato Province ; † April 21, 1650 ) also better known as Yagyū Jūbē / Jūbei ( 柳生 十 兵衛 ) was a Japanese sword master at the beginning of the Edo Time .

Life

He was born as the eldest son of Yagyū Munenori and was first called Shichirō ( 七郎 ) and later Jūbē Mitsuyoshi. He learned the sword art of Shinkage-ryu from his father.

In 1619 he entered the service of the shogun heir Tokugawa Iemitsu as a page . He won his favor as a training partner. After a falling out with Tokugawa Iemitsu, he returned to Yagyu in 1626. Little is known about the following twelve years. It is believed that he roamed the country to improve his skills. He occasionally trained in his father's dōjō and was often a guest at Takuan Sōhō . This phase led to a later romantic transfiguration of his person and to the formation of some legends. In 1638 he was again placed in the service of the Shogun as the best swordsman of the Shinkage-ryu at the time.

In 1642 he completed his most famous font, Tsuki no shō ( 月 之 抄 ), which was the result of his comparative studies of technical and intellectual problems in swordsmanship by the style founder Kamiizumi Hidetsuna , his grandfather Yagyū Muneyoshi and his father.

In 1646 he inherited a fiefdom with 8300 koku from his father . However, only four years later on April 21, 1650 he died unexpectedly of a heart attack while hunting for a falcon .

As a fictional character in popular culture

Yagyū Jūbē is a well-known figure in Japanese popular culture. In particular, he is characterized by wearing an eye patch, usually in the form of a tsuba . The loss of the eye is generally explained by an accident while exercising with his father. However, one-eyedness is not historically secured.

Web links

• Entry in online version of Nipponica ( 日本 大 百科全書 Nihon Daihyakka Zensho ), Shōgakukan (Japanese)

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Yagyū is the family name, Mitsuyoshi the first name.