At the beginning of the Edo period, Japan was moving toward pacification and stabilization of the political system, under the command of a central authority, represented by the powerful Tokugawa clan. Some fundamental turning points in this long process were the clashes between the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and at that of Osaka in 1614-1615. Following the latter conflict, the Tokugawa, resulting victorious, were able to stabilize and govern the territory of Japan, after centuries of conflict between countless war-lords and clans in perennial competition for the conquest of power. At that precarious time of continuous changes, some of the most famous swordsmen and warriors of Japanese history emerged (their martial schools of origin, in the following centuries, were structured, and many of them still exist today). The battles that were fought were very bloody, and consequently at the end, only the strongest (and luckiest) men remained on the