Miyamoto Musashi

Born in the year of the monkey (1584), Miyamoto was a samurai wizard. He started teaching himself the art of the sword when he was very young. By the time he was 13, Miyamoto was traveling around the country challenging grown men to a dual, but it’s not much of a shock since Miyamoto’s father was a martial artist and a swordsman himself.

There is some conflict with whether Miyamoto learned the sword from his father before the age of seven (that’s when his dad died) or from his uncle after the age of 7 (where he went to live after his dad died). But there is no conflict about how often Miyomoto bathed. He didn’t. He said he didn’t want to be taken by surprise and attacked while he bathed so he just opted out of it. Between the lack of bathing and childhood eczema, it’s probably safe to say that Miyamoto was only sleeping with his sword at night. But that didn’t matter because his sword never let him down.

Miyamoto won over 60 duels in his lifetime and never suffered a loss. He was so good at the sword that when he got older, he wrote a book about sword handling to teach others his masterful secrets. He gave the book to his brother right before he died in 1645. He died with his cane in one hand and his sword in the other.