Sasaki Kojirō
Japanese swordsman
Sasaki Kojirō (佐々木 小次郎; also known as Ganryū Kojirō; c. 1585 – April 13, 1612) was a Japanese swordsman who may have lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods and is known primarily for the story of his duel with Miyamoto Musashi in 1612, where Sasaki was killed. Although he suffered defeat as well as death at the hands of Musashi, he is a revered and respected warrior in Japanese history and culture. Later, Miyamoto proclaimed that Sasaki Kojirō was the strongest opponent he faced in his life.
In popular culture
Like most of the well-known samurai of his era, Sasaki was depicted in several places:
He plays a central role in the novel, Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa. His life is described in a parallel storyline.
In various film adaptations of his story or that of Miyamoto Musashi. For example, in Zoku Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijōji no kettō (Samurai 2: Duel at Ichijoji Temple; 1955; Director / Screenplay: Hiroshi Inagaki).
In the manga Vagabond, he plays a central role alongside Musashi and is shown here as deaf.
Tachibana Ukyo from the computer game Samurai Shodown is modelled after Sasaki, just like the character Haōmaru is modelled after Miyamoto Musashi. His signature technique is also called Tsubame Gaeshi.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q549737. VIAF identifies the subject as 23400404. The Library of Congress control number is n78050345. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1585, 1612 and 1955.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sasaki Kojirō” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.