When he killed his first man, Miyamoto Musashi was a mere boy of 13 — in present-day terms, a first-year junior-high-school student.

Musashi's exploits are immortalized in countless manga and movies, including Eiji Yoshikawa's 1935 novel "Musashi," which has been translated into 14 languages, with the English version alone having sold more than 170,000 copies.

Armed with one or two deadly blades — and a formidable spirit — Musashi was able to carve out a particularly sanguine name for himself in Japan's blood-soaked history of swordsmanship.