Page "Miyamoto Musashi" Paragraph 22

After the battle, Musashi disappears from the records for a while.

The next mention of him has him arriving in Kyoto at the age of 20 ( or 21 ), where he began a series of duels against the Yoshioka School.

Musashi's father, Munisai, also fought against a master of the Yoshioka school and won 2 out of 3 bouts in front of the shogun at the time, Ashikaga Yoshiaki who granted him the title of " Unrivaled Under The Sun ".

The Yoshioka School ( descended from either the Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū or the Kyo-hachi-ryū ) was the foremost of the eight major schools of martial arts in Kyoto, the " Kyo-ryū " / " Schools of Kyoto ".

Legend has it that these eight schools were founded by eight monks taught by a legendary martial artist resident on the sacred Mount Kurama.

At some point, the Yoshioka family also began to make a name for itself not merely in the art of the sword but also in the textile business and for a dye unique to them.

They gave up teaching swordsmanship in 1614 when they fought in the Army of the West against Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Battle of Osaka, which they lost.

But in 1604, when Musashi began duelling them, they were still preeminent.

There are various accounts of the duels  — the Yoshioka family documents claim that there was only one, against Yoshioka Kenpō, which Musashi won.