Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Anyone familiar with my old sig will remember I had a list of everyone Musashi had cut down. Since I no longer have it up, I thought I'd make a thread about it, and examine it a little more closely, particularly Musashi's recent, so-called, 70 man battle. Here's the list:
Arima Kihei, llll llll llll, Tsujikaze Tenma, llll llll llll llll, Aoki, llll llll llll lll, Kaji, Hasuzawa, Nimura, Chihara, Takashina, Agon, l, Inshun, lll, Murata Yozo, Debuci Magobe, Kimura Sukekuro, Shoda Kizaemon, llll llll, Takakura Sobe, llll, Shishido Baiken/Tsujikaze Kohei, Yoshioka Seijuro, Gion Toji, Yoshioka Denshichiro, Oe, l, Ueda Ryohei, llll ll, Horikawa Yoshibee, llll lll, Fujiie, lll, Azuma Koshiro, llll llll, Juzo, llll llll llll llll l, Mihara, Takashima, Nanpo Yoichibe, llll llll llll, Tagaya Hikozo, llll, Kobashi Kurando
Now, the most, though certainly not the only, challenging and disputable part of this was the duel with the Yoshioka school at Ichijoji. If it were just a number count, I could add the proverbial 70 and be done with it, but, as you can see, I'm putting them in order, meaning I'd actually have to count the Yoshioka in the order they were slain to see where to add the nameless hash marks. Well, I did exactly that, trying my best to avoid possible doubles or repeats, and the results were more interesting than I expected. My final count above is way beyond 70, up to 80 actually. Well, I counted pretty closely, of course there's still a margin of error for debate, but then there's this; before the fight, the two page spread of all the Yoshioka awaiting Musashi:
As you can see, I counted every single one, and while there's a couple of questionable shapes, it's about 80 again, up to 82 as a matter of fact. I'm splitting the difference and calling it 81 (maybe Inoue was honoring Kobe Bryant =).
In any case, why the consistent inconsistency with the number 70, the official figure which has been repeated ad nauseam? I tried coming up with explanations, like maybe there were some extra stragglers or ronin around, hired swords as they tried with Kojiro, or just men out to observe and make a name for themselves. That one's not too likely, or at least there's nothing else that suggests it. Maybe the 70 didn't count the 10 swords, but of course, there weren't even that many left anyway, and even if there were, it wouldn't account for anything over 80. Maybe 70 was a very loose estimation, like they didn't know exactly how many students were in reserve on the periphery... but, if it were actually closer to 80 or over, wouldn't they still say 80? Maybe it's a combination, maybe Ueda didn't know the exact number, or they just casually said 70, but there were actually 74-76 students with the remaining members of the 10 swords making up the difference. Finally, most likely, maybe Inoue just got carried away. Anyway, I always thought it would be cool if Inoue basically showed Musashi individually slaying all 70; turns out they both went above and beyond the call of duty.
81
Now, the most, though certainly not the only, challenging and disputable part of this was the duel with the Yoshioka school at Ichijoji. If it were just a number count, I could add the proverbial 70 and be done with it, but, as you can see, I'm putting them in order, meaning I'd actually have to count the Yoshioka in the order they were slain to see where to add the nameless hash marks. Well, I did exactly that, trying my best to avoid possible doubles or repeats, and the results were more interesting than I expected. My final count above is way beyond 70, up to 80 actually. Well, I counted pretty closely, of course there's still a margin of error for debate, but then there's this; before the fight, the two page spread of all the Yoshioka awaiting Musashi:
As you can see, I counted every single one, and while there's a couple of questionable shapes, it's about 80 again, up to 82 as a matter of fact. I'm splitting the difference and calling it 81 (maybe Inoue was honoring Kobe Bryant =).
In any case, why the consistent inconsistency with the number 70, the official figure which has been repeated ad nauseam? I tried coming up with explanations, like maybe there were some extra stragglers or ronin around, hired swords as they tried with Kojiro, or just men out to observe and make a name for themselves. That one's not too likely, or at least there's nothing else that suggests it. Maybe the 70 didn't count the 10 swords, but of course, there weren't even that many left anyway, and even if there were, it wouldn't account for anything over 80. Maybe 70 was a very loose estimation, like they didn't know exactly how many students were in reserve on the periphery... but, if it were actually closer to 80 or over, wouldn't they still say 80? Maybe it's a combination, maybe Ueda didn't know the exact number, or they just casually said 70, but there were actually 74-76 students with the remaining members of the 10 swords making up the difference. Finally, most likely, maybe Inoue just got carried away. Anyway, I always thought it would be cool if Inoue basically showed Musashi individually slaying all 70; turns out they both went above and beyond the call of duty.
81