Sasaki Kojirō, Japanese samurai (b. 1585)
Sasaki Kojirō (佐々木 小次郎, also known as Ganryū Kojirō; c. 1575 – April 13, 1612) was a possibly fictional or fictionalized Japanese swordsman who may have lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods and is known primarily for the story of his battle with Miyamoto Musashi in 1612, where Sasaki was killed. Sasaki is of questionable historical veracity; the martial artist and writer Dave Lowry wrote of Sasaki "The folktale of Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro is a famous one... it does not seem to matter much that the whole event might never have happened at all, or that the figure of Sasaki Kojiro has never even been historically ascertained".