Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi
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"Jubei Yagyu" redirects here. For other uses, see Jubei Yagyu (disambiguation).
Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi (柳生十兵衞三厳 1607?-1650 April 21) is one of the most famous and romanticized of the samurai in Japan's feudal era.
Very little is known about the actual life of Yagyū Jūbei as the official records of his life are very sparse. Yagyū Jūbei (born "Shichirō") grew up in his family's ancestral lands, Yagyū no Sato, now in Nara. He was the son of Yagyū Tajima no Kami Munenori, master swordsman of the Tokugawa Shoguns, especially Ieyasu and Tokugawa Iemitsu, who prized Munenori as one of his top councillors. Munenori fought for the first Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, at the Battle of Sekigahara, expanding the Shogun's territory. For his efforts, Munemori was made the Shogun's sword instructor and a minor daimyo or provincial ruler. Munenori would go on to train three successive Shoguns: Ieyasu, Hidetada, and Iemitsu.
In 1616, Yagyū Jūbei became an attendant in the court of the second Tokugawa Shōgun, Tokugawa Hidetada and became a sword instructor for the third Tokugawa Shōgun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, occasionally filling his father's role. Records of Yagyū Jūbei, however, do not appear again until 1631, when Jūbei, by now regarded as the best swordsman from the Yagyū clan, is summarily and inexplicably dismissed by the Shōgun either due to Jūbei's boldness and brashness or his decision to embark on a Warrior's Pilgrimage (武者修行, Musha Shugyō). His whereabouts are then unknown over the next twelve years, (even the Yagyū clan's secret chronicles, which contained lengthy passages on numerous members, has little solid information on Jūbei, particularly during these years), until Yagyū Jūbei reappears, at the age of 36, at a demonstration of swordsmanship in front of the Shōgun. Following this exhibition, Jūbei was reinstated and serves for a short time as a government-inspector (御所印判, Gosho Inban), taking control over his father's lands until Yagyū Tajima no Kami Munenori's death in 1646. Jūbei also authored a treatise known as Tsukimi no Sho (月見の諸) or The Text of Looking at the Moon, outlining his school of swordsmanship as well as teachings influenced by the monk Takuan Soho who was a friend of his father's. In this work, he briefly provides hints on his whereabouts during his absence from Edo Castle from 1631 to 1643 - traveling the countryside in perfecting his skills.
Due to Yagyū Jūbei's disappearance and the fact of no existing records of his whereabouts, his life has bred speculation and interest and was romanticized in popular fiction. After residing in Edo for several years after his father's death, Jūbei left his government duties and returned to his home village where he died in early 1650 under uncertain circumstances. Some accounts say he died of a heart attack, others say he died while falcon hunting, some during fishing, while still others presume he was assassinated by his half-brother's attendants.
Jūbei was laid to rest in a small village called Ohkawahara Mura, nearby his birthplace, which was also the resting grounds for his half-brother, Yagyū Tomonori. In keeping with tradition, Yagyū Jūbei was buried alongside his grandfather, Yagyū Muneyoshi, and was survived by two daughters. Jūbei was given the Buddhist posthumous name of Sohgo.
[edit] Yagyū Jūbei in Japanese Pop Culture
Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi might likely have been relegated to obscurity in Japanese history were it not for the mythos his name developed from the authors, artists and filmmakers who attempted to fill in the gaps of Yagyū Jūbei's many missing years.
One of the earliest examples of developing the story around Yagyū Jūbei was from Japanese author Fūtarō Yamada's 1967 book, Makai Tenshou (Resurrection from Hell), which featured Yagyū Jūbei involved in the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637 and 1638. This story was eventually adapted into a live-action picture in 1981, directed by Kinji Fukasaku, who later went on to direct the cult hit, Battle Royale. The story of Makai Tenshou was also turned into a manga by manga-ka Shouko Toba as Makai Tenshou: Yume no Ato (Resurrection from Hell: Sign of Dreams). This was then adapted into two anime OVAs (although originally planned for four) as Makai Tenshou Jigokuhen, later released in the U.S. under the name Ninja Resurrection. Director/writer Yoshiaki Kawajiri in his enormously popular animated film Ninja Scroll, created the lead character Jubei Kibagami as a homage to Yagyū Jūbei. For the Samurai Shodown video game, his voice is provided by either Takayuki Sakai, or Kiyoshi Kobayashi, depending on the installment he appears in.
Yagyū Jūbei is also featured in other manga, anime and video games, ranging from the epic work, Lone Wolf and Cub, Gosho Aoyama's shōnen manga series Yaiba and the modern parody Jubei-chan (where a young girl from modern times becomes the successor to the 300-year-old Yagyū clan). Several other movies were also created about him, including Darkside Reborn and Shoguns Samurai, which both featured Sonny Chiba as the part of Jūbei. In the fighting game series Samurai Shodown (1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and RPG), Jūbei Yagyū (in western order) is a playable character, and the only actual samurai in the series. The second installment of the Onimusha video game series as well features a swordsman by the name of Yagyū Jūbei, but this is in fact his grandfather, Yagyū Mūneyoshi. In the fourth game a female Yagyu by the name of Akane took the name of Jūbei as the strongest of her clan and is on a mission to go after Munenori. A secret trailer at the end of the first game, however, saw a lead character with an eyepatch, suggesting that Yagyū Jūbei was originally intended as the sequel's protagonist. Samurai Legend features a fictionalized account based on the little known history of Jūbei Yagyū.
An interesting facet of Jūbei's perception among people is that Jūbei is almost always depicted as being a hero of the common people, so much so that nearly every work about him contains at least one scene where he saves innocent peasants from the wrath of overly proud samurai. (In Jūbei's time, samurai had the right to cut down peasants for any reason with little or no consequence, especially if the peasant disrespected them in some way). While certainly heroic, considering the strict caste system of the time, this would be considered inappropriate for someone of the samurai caste like Jūbei, which in turn provokes speculation about how this perception began, and if there was something about the real Jūbei that inspired it, or if it is a case of film makers and writers making Jūbei yet more heroic.
In the first OVA of Rurouni Kenshin, the name Jubei is seen, but the name of the character in the OVA is Shigekura Jubei.
[edit] The Eyepatch Legend
Legend has it that Yagyū Jūbei had the use of only one eye; most legends state that he lost it in a sword sparring session where his father, Yagyū Munenori, struck him accidentally. However, portraits from Jubei's time portray him as having both eyes. The truth is unknown and several authors of recent have chosen to portray Jūbei as having both eyes, though the classical "eyepatch" look remains standard. Others have chosen to have Jūbei lose an eye as an adult in order to incorporate the eyepatch legend.
In popular culture, Jūbei's eye patch is usually just a sword guard with leather wrapped through it. An alternate dramatization to this is found in the manga Samurai Legend, in which a swordsman is seen walking with a sword guard on his right eye, matching the popular culture image, while another character of similar stature follows behind. A group of samurai recognize the eye-patched man as Yagyū (Jūbei) Mitsuyoshi, although this identity is not volunteered. This Jūbei is literally disarmed five pages in, only for the two-eyed Yagyū Jūbei following behind to reveal himself a second later. The fiction appears to imply that Yagyū Jūbei is known through local reputation to have an eye-patch; hence his body double wore one to convince others that he is the real Jūbei (even though the real Jūbei has the use of both eyes). There is no further explanation in the story or by the author why the body-double has this eye patch or where this reputation came from. Near the middle of this manga, the real Jūbei loses his right eye in a swordfight and for the final chapters, he wears an eye-patch. Another exception lies in Jubei-chan, in which the eyepatch passed onto Jūbei-chan is heart-shaped and pink.
[edit] Jūbei as a ninja
Although a samurai, Yagyū Jūbei in popular culture is occasionally depicted with ninja traits; during the missing twelve years of his life, he could have been doing secret missions for the emperor. Also, his family did come from the same region, Iga, as the ninja, and his father was known to have ties to the intelligence networks. Note, however, that Ninja Scroll, Ninja Resurrection, and Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl do not show him as a ninja. Ninja Scroll is about a different character; the other two have had their titles changed for American release and did not originally mention ninja.
