Since the Edo period, Musashi's legends such as the duel at Ganryu-jima Island had been adapted for many kabuki, joruri (dramatic narrative chanted to a samisen accompaniment), kodan storytelling and so on, and through Eiji YOSHIKAWA's novel "Miyamoto Musashi" serialized in the Asashi Shinbun in the 1930s, the image of the young, strongest swordsman Musashi had been popularized and fixed.
巌流島の戦いなど、武蔵に関わる物語は江戸時代から脚色されて歌舞伎、浄瑠璃、講談などの題材にされ、吉川英治が1930年代に朝日新聞に連載した小説『宮本武蔵』によって最強の青年剣士武蔵のイメージが一般に広く定着した。