Nihonga Series Shinai Bags - Musashi Shrike

These beautifully made shinai bags are exclusive to our shop! Each bag in this series brings you an expressive, powerful, and traditional piece of Japanese art and are made proudly in Japan. Each piece was selected for not only its aesthetic beauty, but for the underlying meaning they possess and the connection that these pieces of art have with budo! 

This design will be known by many as a master work by the renowned swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi! Musashi is well known for his skills on the battlefield and his 60 individual duels. Also, he is well known for having developed the Niten Ichi-ryu style of swordsmanship with several school still in existence today. Less known, however, is the fact that aside from the battlefield, Musashi was also skilled in the arts and an avid craftsman. Multiple works attributed to Musashi remain in collections across Japan. From carvings to ink paintings, there was not an outlet that he would not apply his skills to. He also aided in the design and construction of Akashi castle with the famous garden at the castle grounds still bearing his name. 

The image above was carefully made using the original painting by Musashi, now located in the Izumi City Memorial Museum of Arts, and is highly detailed, allowing you to enjoy the image as it was created by the master himself. Known as "Shrike on a Dead Branch," the image shows a stealthy and focused shrike perched upon a branch glaring hungrily at a small insect making its way up the branch. This image invokes the thin line between life and death and is one of, if not the most well known of Musashi's works. This is not only a beautiful shinai bag, but a wonderful image in general that could serve as a decorative piece in its own right!