also known as was a Japanese

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

who served the Hosokawa clan, during the early

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

(17th century). It was Nagaoka Sado himself who had protected

Miyamoto Musashi , was a Japanese swordsman, strategist, artist, and writer who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 62 duels. Miyamoto is considered a ''Kensei (honorary title), kensei'' (swo ...

as for him to be able to duel against the famous

Sasaki Kojirō 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 suffering from defeat as wel ...

in 1612. At one time during the year of 1638, Musashi had met Sado. Sado had known at the time that Musashi was living in the house of Ogasawara, but he had learned that it was Musashi's son,

Miyamoto Iori was a samurai during the Edo period of Japan. Iori was an adopted son of legendary ronin Miyamoto Musashi. Early life Iori was the adopted son of Miyamoto Musashi. He was adopted at the age of 11 by the master swordsman in 1623, when his adop ...

who had been under the service of the Ogasawara, and that Musashi was there as a guest. Sado had also learned that Musashi had no true intention of entering under the lord's service, and that he was only taking part in that battle (Ogasawara establishment in northern

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

) as a staff in order to be an advisor to his son. After Sado had then returned to the province of Higo, he began planning the steps to get Musashi into the service of his fief, since he had already known that Lord

Hosokawa Tadatoshi was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Hosokawa Tadatoshi"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 359 細川忠利at ''Nihon jinmei daijiten''; retrieved 2013-5-29. He was the head of Kumamoto Domai ...

was interested in him. However, Tadatoshi had been previously schooled in the wisdom of the feudal system, in which he ordered for Musashi to act prudently, because Musashi's current situation as he had known, was residing within the house of Ogasawara, in relation to the fact that it would be a major mistake to show discourtesy. Sado started out by first sending a letter to Musashi, because the steps for employment had to be taken very discreetly. Musashi had politely responded saying that he had no intention of having a lord. During the year of 1639, Sado had passed through the region of

Kokura is an ancient Jōkamachi, castle town and the center of modern Kitakyushu, Japan. Kokura is also the name of the Kokura Station, penultimate station on the southbound San'yō Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR West. Ferries connect Kokura ...

—within Kyūshū province—on his official business. Sado had taken this advantage to visit the house of Musashi's son in order to see Musashi, to whom he had communicated the wish of his lord, as well as his own. After not receiving a true answer, Sado departed, with Musashi later accepting the Hosokawa offer, as a guest, not a vassal. However, near the end of his life, Musashi was formally received as a retainer of Lord Hosokawa.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsui, Okinaga Japanese swordfighters Samurai 1582 births 1661 deaths Karō