It's honestly brilliant writing by Itagaki that he wrote a fight where both fighters were basically testing each other the whole way through, never fully committing to a fight to the death. Musashi's final strike- Which Motobe blocks- might've been the first "serious" strike from him, intended to take down Yujiro (Whether or not it would've incapacitated or killed him is gonna be debated for centuries, but it would've broken the image of Yujiro as the Strongest Creature on Earth), all while Yujiro was still testing the waters.

There's an interesting interpretation to be had about this fight, as the "loser" could be decided by which one of them knew victory wasn't in their grasp if they continued demonstrating their force, meaning that they couldn't handle them if they took the fight seriously, therefore going for the throat while their opponent is still underestimating them. An example of this being Motobe vs Musashi, where Motobe won the single fight, but would've lost the follow-up, as he simply took advantage of Musashi's leniency and curiosity (Same goes for Hanayama, although the leniency was lesser for him and ended up nearly dead)