Miyamoto Musashi

Why is he so revered in modern Japanese society? And why others samurais and/or Ronin like him are not on the same level of reverence as him despite some of them having actually participate in battles and are important retainers to their lords.

He is revered in Japan? I thought they were more like "wow, pretty cool guy huh?"

In my opinion the greatest duelist in Japanese history.

IIRC, top businessmen in Japan sees him like how they see Sun Tzu

Because he won.
Then he wrote a book about him winning.

What did he won exactly? Sure the fight with Sasaki Kojiro is amazing and all but other samurai are even better like Benkei or Nasu no Yoichi, but why aren't they getting the spotlight

Oh no you don't understand. He won. Like a lot. Like winning so much you get tired of it winning.

He was the duelist with more confirmed victories. He wrote a cool book.

Because he wrote some good books and a really fun historical fiction novel was written about his life.

He just captured the popular imagination. probalby because his students wrote a book about him and then a novel was written.

you can rest assured among Japanese sword art practitioners he is just one of many admirable swordsmen.

He wasn't even regarded as the best swordsman in Japan during his life, a Yagyu held that title, He might have been considered the best in Kyushu.

He never fought against Togo Chui.

Perhaps not, but he did take challenges from several other prominent swordsman in the area.

The strength of a style today or in the bakumatsu is not necessarily a reflection of how strong its founder was, being that the scope and severity of training is often changed generation to generation.

This is the correct answer, in times of Musashi the best swordman of all Japan was considered Yagyū Munetoshi and later his son Munenori.

He quite literally always won. Every single fight. Despite being a part of a warrior culture that fetishized dying in battle he lived to old age and became a docile painter because he just couldn't be killed.

To be fair most of his fights were probably not to the death but to surrender or incapacitation. In one of his later duels they other party used a stalk of bamboo as a makeshift shinai.

fighting like that can still be dangerous, since there is no guarantee that a hard blow with wood or bamboo will not cause bodily harm, but the intent was probably to prove skill rather than kill or maim.

During the later part of his life when he was a sword instructor, rules were beginning to be levied on challenge matches and duels. fights with live blades began to require the approval of the local daimyo.

Cause he wrote a book and it caught on.

He wrote a book, that's really it. If Jubei Yagyu wrote a book about himself and his feats we might be considering him as the greatest samura but instead Jubei disappears for long periods of time while Musashi had his autobiography to play himself (whether exaggerated or not).

Musashi was also kind of a cheater. Throwing his sword, starting duels before the other opponent was prepared, etc. His victories are due as much to mind games and being able to fight dirty as they are to skill.

>Throwing your sword
There is nothing wrong with throwing your sword.

His book was probably written by his students based on his stories and teachings. He probably did not write it himself.

It is interesting however how is book shits on many of the popular sword schools at the time, either directly or indirectly

Bump

OP here, what inspired Musashi to adopt the dual-wielding style that he is so famous for and what is it main purpose for? Disorienting the enemy or for parrying?

Supposedly watching Portuguese using rapier and main gauche, probably just decided to try it out from boredom

Did he ever even seen a Portuguese in his life? Wasn't Musashi living during the Sakoku period?

Sakoku only came into effect when he was in his 50's

As far as I know this is incorrect. He was not the first person to use two swords and two sword techniques predate both his birth and the arrival of the Portuguese

Ok, so where did he got the idea from then?

that's a pretty important lesson in of itself to be fair

Like I said, as far as know two sword technique existed before he was born,he could have picked it up anywhere.