Causa Sasaki Kojiro

I learned of the existence of a potato salad called Causa. It seems it is eaten in Peru.
South America is the birthplace of the potato. This is a record of my delusions about my master Miyamoto Musashi's rival, while I used trial and error to create something similar to the potato salad from there.

Potatoes: 3
Green beans: 4
New onion: 1/4
Carrot: 1/3
Japanese mustard: 2 teaspoons
Turmeric: 1/2 teaspoon
Olive oil: 4 tablespoons
Salt: 1 teaspoon and an appropriate amount
Egg: 1
Vinegar: appropriate amount
Rice oil: appropriate amount
Cherry tomatoes: as desired

I cook while having delusions about Miyamoto Musashi in a Taiga drama style on an irregular basis (whenever I feel like it). ↓

The biggest highlight of Musashi's life was the duel at Ganryu Island.
For Sasaki Kojiro, whom he faced, it was the same.
However, almost nothing is known about the person Sasaki Kojiro.
In addition to the fact that the mark Miyamoto Musashi left on history is not very large, it is even harder to know about the person who lost to him. After all, history is written by the victors.

In Eiji Yoshikawa's novel "Miyamoto Musashi," Sasaki Kojiro is said to be from Iwakuni, Suo Province (Yamaguchi Prefecture). It is stated that he trained on the riverbed under the Kintai Bridge, but this is a fabrication. The Kintai Bridge had not been built when Sasaki Kojiro was alive.
In Toyoda Kagehide's "Nitenki," he is said to be from Jokyoji Village, Echizen Province (Fukui Prefecture). However, no family with the surname Sasaki could be confirmed in that area.
The theory that seems most likely is that he was from Soeda, Buzen Province (Fukuoka Prefecture). This was advocated by Yumeka Harada, a local historian from Fukuoka.

As for the swordsmanship that Sasaki Kojiro supposedly used, the Ganryu style, this has not been passed down to the modern day, so it is unclear what kind of swordsmanship it was. It is often said that he used a technique called the Swallow Cut (Tsubame Gaeshi). This is a technique where the tip of the sword, having been swung down, is quickly reversed to slash upward. It is also called the Tiger Cut.
The sword swung down initially is, so to speak, a feint. It is a technique of delivering a fatal wound with the returning blade.
According to the stories passed down, Sasaki Kojiro was a disciple of the Echizen master swordsman Toda Seigen. Seigen was a master of the short sword, and it is said that Kojiro wielded a long sword as his practice partner. It is said that the length of the sword he used gradually increased, until he was finally able to freely swing a long sword nearly one meter in length.

However, Toda Seigen was a master swordsman from a generation prior, so if Kojiro was his disciple, would he have been an old man by the time of the duel at Ganryu Island?
In Yasushi Inoue's novel "Two Musashis," the theory that Kojiro was an old man is adopted.
Perhaps to make him the same generation as Musashi, in Eiji Yoshikawa's novel, Kojiro is a disciple of Kanemaki Jisai, who was a disciple of Seigen. In other words, a grand-disciple.

Authentic Peruvian Causa uses a yellow chili pepper called Aji Amarillo, but there is no such thing in a rural supermarket. I used a combination of Japanese mustard and turmeric as a substitute.

In Toyoda Kagehide's "Nitenki," it is written that Sasaki Kojiro was seventeen years old at the time of the duel at Ganryu Island. That seems way too young.
If it is a typo for twenty-seven, he would be about the same age as Musashi. Well, that is plausible.

In the theory proposed by Yumeka Harada that he was from Buzen, his age is not entirely clear, but it is speculated that the swordsmanship he practiced might have been a style developed by mountain ascetics (yamabushi) for self-defense.
In Kokura, Kitakyushu, which was in Buzen Province, there is an area where it is said Kojiro's residence once stood. It is within walking distance of Kokura Castle.

In the early Edo period, the lord of Buzen was the Hosokawa clan.
It was common for new lords who arrived after the Battle of Sekigahara to hire influential local figures or form alliances with them to reconcile with local powers.
They appointed the local Sasaki clan as swordsmanship instructors. They hired Kojiro as their representative. Or perhaps they simply granted him permission to teach swordsmanship in the castle town without going that far?

Sasaki Kojiro's martial art is called Ganryu, but could this name have come from Mount Ganjaku, which was also a sacred site for Shugendo? There was a mountain castle called Ganjaku Castle on this mountain, and for the Buzen Sasaki clan, that place must have been a sacred site. Was Ganryu originally 'Rock Style' (Ganryu)?
Incidentally, Ganjaku Castle fell during Hideyoshi's Kyushu campaign. It continued to exist as a branch castle during the Hosokawa era.
The fact that a castle was located there means that a castle guard from the Hosokawa family was likely stationed there. It is possible that access was restricted. If Sasaki Kojiro was from Buzen, he might have wished that one day he would be able to freely enter that castle, or at least the mountain.

Serve in a bowl and place cherry tomatoes on top for color.
A potato salad with a subtle spiciness—this is a new flavor. I have never eaten authentic Causa, so I don't know how close it is to the real thing, but I'll pat myself on the back and say this is good in its own way.
The new onion doesn't have a very strong bite, so it can be eaten raw without soaking it in water. It might even help thin your blood.
The texture of the mixed-in green beans is also nice. I'm getting beta-carotene from the carrots and lycopene from the cherry tomatoes.

A long time ago, I wrote a novel about Sasaki Kojiro. I will omit the details for fear of being identified, but because he is such a mysterious figure, there is plenty of room for imagination.
While imagining what Sasaki Kojiro was thinking in the land of Buzen Kokura as he lived his life leading up to the duel on Ganryujima, I finished my Causa Sasaki Kojiro.