Hi, I will be in Japan for the first time next May. I was looking around for any place related to Musashi Miyamoto in Tokyo or the Kyoto/Osaka areas. I found some things online like Sanjusangendo temple, Hachidai-jinja Shrine and a statue near there? I found another Ichijoji temple near Osaka, but I am not sure if its related to him as the temple he dueled at was in Kyoto. Any other recommendations for places I might be missing?
On a side note, I would like to get down to Reigando Cave in Kumamoto or Ganryu Island, but I am not sure I will be able to on this trip. It seems with the cost of train prices it might be a bit much.
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Kumamoto and Shimonoseki are indeed quite far away, and there’s not much to see on Ganryu island besides a statue.
However, you can take a trip to Mimasaka, which is where he was born / grew up. Take the train to Miyamoto-Musashi station (check timetables, trains are not frequent). You can visit his birthplace (a different house stands there nowadays) and there’s a statue of him nearby (search 青年期宮本武蔵像) as well as Musashi shrine. There’s also a kendo / martial arts facility (Musashi Budokan) built in the town in his honour. There used to be a museum but it’s since closed.
PS: If you start early you can combine this with a visit to Himeji castle, where Miyamoto Musashi served for some time. There’s [a legend](https://thegate12.com/article/162) related to him there.
> I found another Ichijoji temple near Osaka, but I am not sure if its related to him as the temple he dueled at was in Kyoto.
The location of Musashi’s duel with the Yoshioka school is named after the Tendai sect’s Ichijyo-ji temple, which was located there from the mid-Heian period to the Nanbokucho period. Ichijyo-ji in Osaka is a Nichiren sect’s temple and has nothing to do with Musashi. It is not that unusual for different sects to have temples with the same name.