4/6/2023 0 Comments Kenshi miyamotoBoth the Bushū denraiki and the Bukōden mention that, during Musashi's last years in Kumamoto, his monastic friend Akiyama Wanao (1618–73) gave him the spiritual name of Niten Dōraku ( 二天道楽 ), which may be crudely translated as the “Niten dilettante.” Niten, of course, was a reference to his renamed school of swordsmanship, the Niten Ichi-ryū. Generally referred to as dōgō (道号), Musashi had to address another important aspect of his life as a warrior: how to assess his life’s accomplishments and find peace with his own mortality. During his lifetime, then, his given name would have been pronounced as Harunobu and not Genshin.ĭharma names were bestowed by priests when taking the tonsure and pronouced by their on-yomi. This part of Musashi’s given name is perhaps least understood, as it is often read as Genshin. Cause for this confusion is the fact that, in old age, Muashi took on the dharma name of Genshin, which is written with the exact same characters as Harunobu, but pronounced according to the on-yomi, or the Chinese-style reading of the Chinese characters. According to Japanese tradition, however, a given name, or imina ( 諱 ), should be pronounced according to the kun-yomi, which is the Japanese reading of the Chinese character, hence Harunobu. It is not certain where Muni derived the name of Harunobu ( 玄信 ), yet everything suggests that he was alluding to the great warlord Takeda Shingen, whose given name was also Harunobu, though spelled somewhat differently (晴信 ). This was probably sometime during the period he and his father had reconciled and both were living in the port of Nakatsu, on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu. For this Bennosuke and his father would have visited the shrine of their family patron, where Muni would have presented Bennosuke with his adult attire, have his forehead shaven (see Musashi’s Appearance), and given him his adult name of Harunobu ( 玄信 ). This would have been the name by which he was known and called until he reached the age of his so-called genpuku, the Shinto ceremony marking a boy’s entry into adult life, usually before the age of twenty. ![]() In all, there are some nine different names ascribed to Musashi, all associated with a different period in his life, different ways in which he was mentioned, and by individuals who occupied a different status in life that Musashi.Īccording to the Bushū denraiki Musashi’s infant name, or yōmyō ( 幼名 ), was Bennosuke ( 弁助 ). Birth, coming of age, succession, profession, high office, retirement, and death all had to find their expression in a person’s name, and there are few, if any, persons of any significance in medieval Japan who went through life under one single name. Names are one of the most inconstant factors in medieval Japanese texts.
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