Shishido (swordsman)
Shishido (宍戸) is the family name of a Japanese swordsman believed to have been active in the early years of the Edo period (1603-1868). Legend has it that he was a skilled practitioner of the kusarigama (a metal chain attached to a kama and a weight, also known as the chain and sickle), and around the year 1607 he fought a duel against the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi in which he was killed.
It is debatable if Shishido actually existed or not.[1]. Author William Scott Wilson wrote in his book The Lone Samurai in 2004: "In 1607, Musashi was passing through the province of Iga when he met a man known only by his family name, Shishido, who was a master of the sickle and chain." The first record of Musashi's duel with him is in the Nitenki (二天記) written in 1776, when he was named as Shishido Nanigashi (宍戸某). In Eiji Yoshikawa's novel Musashi in 1935-39, he was named as Shishido Baiken (宍戸梅軒). If fictional, he may have been based on Shishido Ietoshi (宍戸家俊). If he existed, his family name was most likely Shishido. But it is very uncertain if his given name was Nanigashi or Baiken.
In fiction
In the manga Vagabond, the original Shishido Baiken was a bandit leader who did use the kusarigama only to be killed by Tsujikaze Kohei, who then took up the name and weapon and became the source for the kusarigama's notoriety. His duel with Musashi would be significant for Musashi's use of both the long and short swords, allowing him to simply strike back with the katana after his wakizashi was ensnared. Kohei/Baiken would be defeated but survived thanks to Musashi's medical assistance.
In the video game Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! he is an amnesiac Majima Gorohachi, who lost his left eye to an encounter with Sasaki Kojiro and therefore he wore a tsuba for an eyepatch.
Baiken, a character in the Guilty Gear video game series was named after him, though her name (梅喧; Baiken) is spelled using different kanji.