In Ancient Japan two famous Samuarai Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro duelled in 1612 AD with Musashi emerging as victor. I’ve created a fictional context around that historical duel and tried to have some fun with imagery here. Hope you enjoy it!
“You killed him!” yelled Sasaki in horror, tears streaming down his cheeks. His eyes were blazing and
body trembling, but his feet were rooted to the ground, paralyzed.
“Indeed,” came Musashi’s terse reply after a moment’s silence. Blood dripped from the tip of his
sharp nose, but it was not his own. His face and clothes were splattered red. He remained unmoved and his eyes pierced the void.
The tone of Musashi’s voice broke the paralysis that had grabbed hold of Sasaki and he fell to the
ground sobbing violently, “Why? Why? Wh….why would you do something like that?”
The agony in his voice touched Musashi and he looked down for the first time and reviewed the
carnage at his feet. Their revered teacher, O Yoshi dono, lay listless amidst red rivulets desecrating the temple grounds.
“It was the only way,” Musashi said lowering his outstretched “dotanuki”, battle sword, breaking his
warrior’s stance for the first time. “It was the way he taught me.”
“Are you insane?” Sasaki retorted, standing up, his blood starting to boil. “This holy man never
taught anyone to take life. He’s never harmed an insect in his whole life. He was a living Buddha!”
“…which is why I killed him.” Musashi completed as he wiped the blade of his dotanuki on his robes. “We live in a material world, full of attachments. To be really free, we must let go. If you meet the Buddha, you kill the Buddha. So he taught me.”
Sasaki had now moved closer to Musashi. “You’re a demon; A monster! You killed the one person who loved you, who gave you life itself, took you in as an orphan, and raised you as a Samurai. Is this how you repay his kindness? To think you were always his favorite!”
Musashi kept his lowered dotanuki in between them, “You wrong me brother. He died proud that I
learnt his most important lesson. I gave up that which I loved most. I gave up my Buddha and today I am a Samurai.”
Sasaki unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Musashi. “You’re no Samurai! You’re a fiend and I will
end you. Prepare to enter meifumado, hell.”