Miyamoto Musashi vs Shaka Zulu

Miyamoto Muashi, the legendary japanese swordsman who fought in 60 duels and never lost. 

Miyamoto Musashi

Vs.

Shaka Zulu, the African warlord, who built a Zulu army that killed 2 million enemies, and transformed a continent.

WHO?

IS?

DEADLIEST?

Shaka Zulu

Bio

Miyamoto Musahi

Born in 1584 in Miyamoto village, much of the detail about Musashi’s childhood is obscure however it is known that he was born into a samurai family and probably grew up with his mother or step mother. His father, Shinmen Munisai, was an accomplished warrior who would regularly visited his son and give him instruction on swordsmanship and other aspects of samurai culture. However, by the time he was around 10 years old, Musashi’s mother was dead and his father had either died also or completely abandoned him, so he found himself living in a monastery where he learned Zen Buddhism from the monks there. At the age of 13, he challenged a samurai named Arima Kibie. Arima made the mistake of disrespecting Musashi by treating him like a child, which resulted in Musashi throwing him on the floor and beating him with a six foot wooden staff until his opponent died vomiting blood. In the years to come, Musashi fought in 60 duels winning every single one, and was in a couple of military campaigns and lived. He also wrote the book of Five Rings

Shaka Zulu

Prior to Shaka, warfare in Southern Africa consisted mainly of tribes throwing spears at one another and ritually challenging warriors from other tribes. Shaka developed the iklwa spear and ishlangu shield and created the Buffalo formation. The Zulu sought to kill their enemy to the last man, taking no prisoners. Shaka also forged his troops into the greatest warriors in Southern Africa. Every Zulu male was expected to be a warrior, with those unable or unwilling to meet Shaka's specific physical requirements were killed. The Zulu Kingdom, along with similar militaristic tribes inspired by the empire or nomadic tribes that escaped from the Zulu and adopted their military tactics, led campaigns of slaughter against other tribes. An estimated 1,000,000 people were killed in the Mfecane. Also the final years of Shaka's reign over his own people was met with chaos as Shaka became mad over the loss of his mother. In his madness Shaka demanded farming and dairy production to be reduced and for pregnant women to be executed along with their family. In one massacre, 7000 Zulu were killed just for not grieving during a ceremony.

Weapons

Miyamoto slashes in with...

Primary: Katana and Wakizashi

• Katana
• Wakizashi

1/2

• Material: High-carbon steel
• Weight: 1.4 kilograms and 1 kilogram
• Length: 60-80cm and 30.3cm
• Use: Two japanese swords, one smaller than the other. Both were excellent slashing weapons and ok at thrusting. Miyamoto often dual weilded them in his famous Niten-Ichi Ryu style. They could easily slice through bone and even slice people clean in half.

Secondary: Bokken

• Bokken

1/1

• Material: Oak wood
• Weight: 1.15 kilograms
• Length: 127cm
• Use: Usualy used as a training weapon, Miyamoto used this in his famous duel with Sojaki Kojiro, where he used it's reach to beat Sojaki to death, broke Seijuro Yoshioka's arm, and split open Denshichiro Yoshioka's skull.

Long range: Bo-Shuriken

1/1

• Material: Steel
• Weight: 35-150 grams
• Length: 12-21cm
• Use: These are throwing weapons. Often used as distraction tools, granted they can be lethal in Musashi's hands, as demonstrated in one of his duals when he threw one into the heart of one of his opponents (correct me if i'm wrong).

Special: Naginata

1/1

• Material(s): High-Carbon steel blade and wooden shaft
• Weight: 650 grams
• Length: 255cm
• Use: It's essentially a katana on a pole. It has incredible range, and it's light weight gives it great swing speed for a pole arm. And it has enough cutting power to easily slice through bone

Shaka Zulu charges in with...

Primary: Iklwa and Ishlangu

• Zulu with Ikwla and Ishlangu

1/1

• Maerials: Iron & wood;Wood and Ox-hide
• Weight: 680 grams and 1.36 kilograms
• Length: 76.2 cm and 121.9 cm
• Use: The Ishlangu was designed to take glancing blows, deflecting an opponent's weapon rather than try to block it head on.Shaka taught the Zulu to use their Ishlangu to hook an opponent's shield out of the way, exposing the ribs to a strike by the Iklwa.

Secondary: Zulu axe

1/1

• Materials: Iron & Hardwood
• Weight: 1.13 kilograms
• Length 76.2 cm
• Use: Like most axes, it was a two-handed chopping weapon. The handle could also be used for blocking, while the shape of the blade would have allowed the user to hook an enemy's weapon with it.

Long range: Iwisa

1/1

• Materials: African Hardwood
• Weight: 453.592 grams
• Length: 60.96 cm
• Use: The Iwisa was thrown end over end as a distance weapon or used for clubbing the enemy's head at close range. In addition to the Zulu, this weapon was used by protesters and the police opposing them during the Apartheid era in South Africa.

Special: Assegai

1/1

• Materials: Iron tip and wooden shaft
• Weight: 1.36 kilograms
• Length: 182.88 cm
• Use: Often used as a throwing weapon, it can be thrown over 50 feet away, and can easily impale unarmored enemies

X-Factors

• Physical ability (Strength, speed, toughness, ect.)

Shaka Zulu trained both himself and his warriors for speed, endurance, and agility, any who failed to meet his requirments were outright killed. Miyamoto is very physically strong, being able to easily break through bone with his Bokken and easily slice through bamboo trees. His reflexes were fine tuned enough to allow him to reach for his Wakizashi and throw it into an opponent's heart in the same motion. The average time it takes fof a human to react to movement is .25 seconds, assuming musashi was 13 feet away (which is the average length of a kusarigama chain), this means that Musashi reached for his wakizashi amd threw it at 37mph.

• One-on-one experience

I think Sun Tzu is a perfect example of why this is important. Miyamoto Musashi was on of the most legendary duelists, having fought 60 duels and never losing a single one. Shaka Zulu was an army commander, he usually had his Zulu warriors to back him up, although, he did fight warriors on his own during the battles.

• Tactics

Miyamoto's phycological warfare vs Shaka Zulu's use of the Iklwa and Ishlangu to overwhelm his enemies. Both these tactics allowed them to accomplish great things, such as defeating legendary warriors and conquring rival tribes. Miyamoto purposfully showed up late to his duel with Sojaki Kojiro and showed up with a bokken, both these things angered Sojaki and caused him to make fatal mistakes, he would also laugh at, riticule, and moon his opponents to rile them up and make a sloppy move or fatal mistake. Shaka Zulu's (at the time) new fighting style, along with his famous Buffalo formation. The "horns", or flanking right and left wing elements. The "chest" sometimes referred to as “head” or central main force. The "loins" or reserves. It was these tactics that allowed him to win the Battle of Gqokli Hill.

Fight simulation

A small raft washes up on a South African beach, the legendary ronin, Miyamoto Musashi steps on to the beach and observes his surroundings. Several meters away, two Zulu warriors sit waiting for their king, and notice this strange man on the shore and charge. Miyamoto sees them coming and quickly throws two Bo-Shuriken, peircing one of the Zulus between the eyes, while the other blocked it with his Ishlangu. When the remaining Zulu gets in range, Miyamoto hits him in the lower leg with his Bokken, fracturing his tidia, then brings his Bokken to his head and breaks his skull, killing him. As this happens Shaka Zulu arrives, seeing his men killed and this stranger standing over their corpses was proof enough. Shaka takes out his Iklwa and bangs it against his Ishlangu, Miyamoto responds by drawing his katana and wakizashi. Shaka lets out a warcry as he charges and thrusts his ikwla at Miyamoto, whom parries the attack with the wakizashi and swings the katana at Shaka's neck, but Shaka blocks it with the center of his ishlangu and kicks Miyamoto in the stomache, causing him to stumble back. Shaka jumped back and growled feircly, but instead of seeing the stelly, battlehardened look of a warrior on his enemy's face, he sees Miyamoto laughing in his direction. Shaka was confused for a moment, but realized what was so funny when he realized the feel of blood trickling down his hand. He quickly examines his ishlangu and notices a sizable cut through it's center, and his blood flowing down it from a cut on his hand. Shaka looked up and ducked under a swing from Musashi's katana in the nick of time and thrusts his ikwla, but Musashi parries the thrust with his wakizashi and slashes downward with his katana. Shaka rolls to the right and thrusts his ikwla at Musashi's head, but Musashi dodges and swings his wakizashi at Shaka, in response, Shaka raises his ishlangu to block, but the wakizashi slices the ishlangu clean in half and grazes Shaka's cheek-bone. Shaka immediatly recovers and slashes Musashi across the chest with his ishlangu and headbutts him, causing Musashi to stumble backwards. Shaka sees this opening and luges forward with his Zulu axe and chops downward, but Musashi cross blocks it with his swords and pushes Shaka away. Shaka then pulls out his iwisa and throws it at Musashi, whom dodges and throws his wakizashi directly into Shaka's right lung. Shaka, having enough common sense not to pull it out, leaves it there and charges with his axe. Musashi, suprised by Shaka's incredible pain tolerance, gets slashed at the left humerous, and the axe gets stuck in the bone. Musashi quikly punches Shaka in the face and makes a mad dash to his boat and Shaka takes pursuit. Miyamoto pulls a Naginata from his boat and stares Shaka in the eyes. Shala was sweating, panting, and bleeding in 3 different places. Suffice to say, he was not happy. Shaka charges with his ikwla, but, before he could get close enough to use it, he gets his right arm gets hacked off and slashed across the gut by the Naginata. Shaka is stunned by the blood loss and Musashi uses this opening to rip his wakizashi out of Shaka's chest and slices left and right with swords, causing Shaka to fall to his hand and knees. Musashi sheathes his wakizashi and swings his katana downwards, decapitating the Zulu king. Musashi then sheaths his katana and bows to his fallen opponent

Expert's opinion

WINNER: MIYAMOTO MUSASHI

Musashi: 840   Shaka: 160

Primary: 700          94

Secondary: 40       50

Thrown: 5              6

Special: 95           10

Overall: Out of 1000 battles, Musashi won the majority of them due to his far superior Niten-ichi ryu combo and Naginata dominating the kills and his phycological warfare would definatly throw Shaka off his game, but the biggest reason for his victory is the fact that Musahi was in his element, he was much more well-versed in this kind of one on one duel while Shaka was more versed in army battles.

ADMINISTRATOR'S NOTE: The original comments for this blog have been deleted due to the author's username being changed. The original comments and votes can be viewed here.