A short wartime fable, based on the exploits of the seventeenth-century master swordsman whose career later inspired Inagaki's Oscar-winning Samurai, The Legend of Musashi (1955). “Kawarazaki, bearded and intense, is a fine figure of a hero seeking through celibacy and contemplation for the perfect stroke in both swordplay and sculpture. While the philosophy is Zen Buddhist, the conventions are clearly reminiscent of the Western showdown in search of the best and the fastest. The samurai mystique is very much a spiritual metaphor, however, and in its ritual resolutions of minimalist, bloodless swordplay, Musashi captures the essence of the steel blade as a pure, cleansing instrument.” --Tom Allen, Village Voice