Zen & Sword: The Miyamoto Musashi Saga at Toei on Blu-ray in February

Eureka Entertainment has announced the release of Zen & Sword: The Miyamoto Musashi Saga at Toei, a five-film chronicle that captures the rise and legacy of Japan’s legendary swordsman. Newly restored in 4K by Toei, the films will make their worldwide Blu-ray debut — and their first-ever UK appearance in any format — as part of the Masters of Cinema Series. Available from 23 February, this strictly limited edition of 2,000 copies comes housed in a hardbound slipcase and includes a 100-page collector’s book.

A swordsman, writer and artist who lived between 1584 and 1645, Miyamoto Musashi is a near-mythic figure in Japanese history and an icon of Japanese popular culture. The first film based on his life was produced in the silent period, followed by dozens more made over the next decades. In the early 1960s, Toei launched into an entire series focused on the legendary samurai – a five-part saga adapted from the works of Eiji Yoshikawa and completed under the direction of Uchida Tomu between 1961 and 1965.

Miyamoto Musashi (1961) charts the origins of the eponymous swordsman (Nakamura Kinnosuke) following his participation in the Battle of Sekigahara and traces his path towards the way of the samurai. In Miyamoto Musashi II: Showdown at Hannyazaka Heights (Miyamoto Musashi: Hannyazaka no kettō, 1962), Musashi emerges from a period of learning and contemplation, soon coming into conflict with a rogue group of ronin. Then, in Miyamoto Musashi III: Birth of the Two Sword Style (Miyamoto Musashi: Nitôryū kaigen, 1963), the samurai develops his personal style of swordsmanship and first encounters Sasaki Kojiro (Takakura Ken), who will become his arch-rival. His feud with Sasaki intensifies in Miyamoto Musashi IV: Duel at Ichijyo-ji (Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijōji no kettō, 1964) and Miyamoto Musashi V: Duel at Ganryu Island (Miyamoto Musashi: Ganryū-jima no kettō, 1965), ultimately leading to an epic final battle.

A greatly accomplished samurai saga featuring two titans of Japanese cinema in Nakamura Kinnosuke and Takakura Ken, Toei’s Miyamoto Musashi films deserve to stand with the Zatoichi series as one of the great samurai sagas of the 1960s. The Masters of Cinema Series is presenting all five films on Blu-ray from new 4K restorations by Toei.