Religion

Even from an early age, Musashi separated his religion from his involvement in swordsmanship. Excerpts such as the one below demonstrate a philosophy that is thought to have stayed with him throughout his life:

"The Way of the warrior does not include other Ways, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, certain traditions, artistic accomplishments [,] [-and] or dancing. But even though these are not part of the Way, if you know the Way broadly you will see it in everything. Men must polish their particular Way." ^{[citation needed]}

The idea that Musashi hated Shinto is a somewhat inaccurate translation, since he only notes differences in its style of swordsmanship (which he refers to as "strategy") when speaking on Shinto, and their "alien" practices, is believed by many to be completely false. The argument that Musashi was biased against Shintoists finds much of its basis in the fact that he duelled with a great many followers of that religion. However, since Shintoism is the native religion of Japan and adherents of that religion were in the majority at that time, the prevalence of Shintoists as opponents hardly seems unreasonable. According to other sources, Musashi was really an atheist but he never expressed it in public when Japanese society was extremely uptight about atheism. Most historians have tried to delete atheism from popular celebrities' biographies, and includes Musashi's.