Kokusai Bugei Kessha
International Bugei Society
Kokusai Bugei Kessha Disciplines
Toyama Ryu Morinaga ha Iaido
Toyama-ryū (戸山流?) established in 1925 by Nakamura Taisaburo, is a modern sword-drawing, test-cutting system, with little battlefield application. Nakamura Taisaburo called his swordsmanship battōjutsu in order to point out the central subject of his school.
The special school for training army personnel founded in 1873, called Rikugun Toyama Gakkō or "Toyama Army Academy" in Toyama, Tokyo, Japan, led to the establishment of Toyama-ryu.[1] Today, separate lines of Toyama-ryū are primarily located in the Kantō,Tokai and Kansai region of Japan.
Background
After the Meiji Restoration, officers in the Japanese army were required to carry Western-style sabres. However, this caused problems during battles against rebels in Satsuma(now Kagoshima Prefecture), since soldiers equipped with single-shot rifles and sabres were frequently overwhelmed by samurai who knew Jigen-ryū (示現流）and could charge much faster than the non-Samurai soldiers could cope with.
During the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05), the Cossack cavalries frequently charged against the Japanese infantrymen and again it was extremely difficult for the Japanese to defend themselves using sabres once their enemy reached them.
The Japanese studied the First World War with great enthusiasm, hoping to learn more about fighting modern warfare. They discovered that much fighting was still occurring at close quarters in trench warfare, often with heavy swung weapons like entrenching tools. This likely prompted the Japanese to tighten up their close quarter combat training. The katana was therefore readopted as the Japanese could access domestic sword masters more easily than European ones. Jūkenjutsu (銃剣術?) was also developed at this time, being based on the use of sōjutsu (spear) techniques. This later became the rarely practiced sport of jūkendō, after the war ended.
Thus, Japanese army officers were later issued new swords shaped more like katana. However, not all officers had sufficient background in kenjutsu to deploy these weapons in combat. Consequently, in 1925, a simplified form of sword technique was devised that emphasized the most essential points of drawing and cutting. For instance, the army iai-battō kata differ from those of many koryū sword schools in that all techniques are practised from a standing position. (Koryū schools included a number of techniques executed from seiza.) Also, this modern ryū has a strong emphasis on tameshigiri, or "test-cutting.
At the end of World War II, the Toyama Military Academy became the U.S. Army's Camp Zama. Nonetheless, the military iai system was revived after 1952. By the 1970s, three separate organizations represented Toyama-ryū Iaido: in Hokkaidō, the Greater Japan Toyama Ryu Iaido Federation (established by Yamaguchi Yuuki); in Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka area), the Toyama Ryu Iaido Association (established by Morinaga Kiyoshi); and the All Japan Toyama Ryu Iaido Federation (established by Nakamura Taizaburo). Each of these organizations was autonomous and retained its own set of forms; the Hokkaido branch even included sword versus bayonet exercises. Today, there are also at least half a dozen active instructors of Toyama-ryū outside Japan, in California , Illinois and New York.
The adoption of the katana by the Westernised Japanese army was also part of a Nationalist trend in Japan. During the 1920s Japan went through a phase of Militant Nationalism that lasted until defeat in the Second World War. By adopting the katana, the traditional sword of the Samurai[3] the Japanese were allying themselves with the Samurai military tradition. Adopting the Katana also served to calm discontent among the more politicized sections of the army who had been outraged at mechanization (another lesson learned from World War I) which had de-emphasized the role of infantry and cavalry.
Mugai Ryu
Mugai ryu (無外流 Mugai-ryū?) is a Japanese koryū martial art school founded by Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi (辻月丹資茂?) in 23 June 1680.
History
The founder of Mugai ryu, Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi 辻月丹資茂 was born to Tsuji Yadayū descendant of Sasaki Takadzuna, in the second year of Keihan (in 1649, in the early Edo period), in the Miya-mura-aza village area 宮村字 of Masugi 馬杉, in the Kōka-gun district 甲賀郡 of Ōmi 近江; what is now Shiga Prefecture. When he was 13 he went to Kyoto to study Yamaguchi-ryū swordsmanship under Sensei Yamaguchi Bokushinsai, and at the age of 26 he received kaiden (full transmission) and opened a school in Koishikawa 小石川 in Edo; what is now Tokyo. In order to cultivate, train and improve his spirit, mind and body, he went to study Zen and Classical Chinese literature under Zen monk Sekitan Ryouzen 石潭良全 at Kyūkōji temple 吸江寺 in Azabu Sakurada-cho 麻布桜田町. At the age of 32 he reached enlightenment and received from his Zen teacher a formal poem taken from the Buddhist scriptures as an acknowledgment and proof of his accomplishment. Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi used the word Mugai from this poem to represent his school of swordsmanship.
It is recorded that among his pupils were Ogasawara Sado-no-kami* Nagashige, a very powerful feudal lord, Sakai Kangeyu* Tadataka, a feudal lord of a castle in Maebashi, Yama-no-uchi Toyomasa, a powerful feudal lord of the Tosa area, as well as 50 daishōmyō, high level samurai having a status slightly lower than that of a feudal lord level with stipends above 10 000 koku, 150 jikisan-no-shi, the Shōgun's direct vassals with stipends below 10 000 koku, and 932 baishin, the vassals of feudal lords. (* These names were given to these feudal lords by the emperor and are symbols of their very high status.)
Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi was unmarried and it is assumed that he had no offspring as he took the eldest son of Head priest Sawatari Bungo-no-kami 神官 猿渡豊後守, of Ōkunitama 大国魂神社 Shrine in what is now known as the Tokyo provincial government area, as his successor. Shinkan Sawatari (Bungo-no-kami)'s eldest son took the name **Tsuji Kimata Sukehide 都治記摩多資英 after Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi and thus became Nidai, Tsuji the II. Kimata opened the dojo in Kojimachi 麹町 (** Although the kanji for 都治 is different from the original 辻 the pronunciation is the same and represents a succession.)
Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi was known not just as a master of the sword, but as an enlightened philosopher and scholar, and his writings Mugai Shinden Kempō Ketsu 無外真伝剣訣 is recognized as a superb and unique book in Japan's martial arts literature for its depth, flowing style and elegant composition.
Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi died on June 23 in the 12th year of Kyō-hō 享保 (1725) at the age of 79. The tombs of Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi's successors are kept at the Buddhist priest's cemetery for Nyoraiji temple 如来寺, which is in the town of Nishiōi 西大井町 in the Shinagawa 品川区 area.
The school retains both iaijutsu and kenjutsu in its curriculum, and has a strong connection with Zen due to Gettan's belief that the "sword and Zen are the way of the same Truth". The name "Mugai" comes from the following poem:
一法実無外
乾坤得一貞吸毛方納密動着則光精
Ippou jitsu mugaiKenkon toku itteiSuimo hou nomitsuDouchaku soku kousei
"There is nothing other than the One True WayHeaven and Earth profit from this single VirtueThe fluttering feather knows this secretTo be settled during confusion is to be enlightened and pure"
Today Mugai-ryu has splintered into several lines and there is no one sōke.[2] Nakagawa Shiryo Shinichi is generally considered the last soke. He did not appoint a successor, but awarded several menkyo kaiden, and his students continue to teach the school and several new lines have been established, each with their own soke.
KATAYAMA HOUKI RYU
Hōki-ryū (伯耆流) is a Japanese koryū sword-fighting martial art founded in the late Muromachi period by Katayama Hōki-no-kami Fujiwara Hisayasu (片山伯耆守藤原久安) (1575–1650).
History[edit]
Although often stated to be a student of Hayashizaki Jinsuke (林崎甚助), the ryū itself states that Katayama Hisayasu inherited eighteen secret sword techniques from his uncle Katayama Shōan.[1] Additionally, Katayama Hisayasu was also said to have been the younger brother of Takenouchi Hisamori (竹内久盛), founder of Takenouchi-ryū (竹内流).[2] In 1596, he traveled to Atago Shrine in Kyoto and for seven days and seven nights trained and prayed continuously. In a divine dream, Hisayasu was supposedly given insight and was said to have attained enlightenment to the mysteries of the art of iai.[3] Using this insight and the teachings received from his uncle he formed his own tradition of swordsmanship.
In 1610, he was called to the Royal Palace to demonstrate before the emperor. He demonstrated Iso-no-nami, one of the teachings he received from his uncle, in front of the Emperor Go-Yōzei.[4] For this, he was given the court rank ofJyu-Goi-Ge and made governor of Hōki province. In 1650, at the age of 76, Hisayasu died in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture.[4] The original name for Hisayasu's tradition was said to be Ikkan-ryū (一貫流) for a time, but was known within the Katayama family as Katayama-ryū (片山流). Katayama Hisayasu's teaching also became widely spread in Kumamoto and the name Hōki-ryū (伯耆流) and Katayama Hōki-ryū (片山伯耆流) became more widely known there and throughout the country. The present day the tradition is generally referred to as just Hōki-ryū.
The art had been handed down in the Katayama family (in Iwakuni) and the Hoshino family (in Kumamoto), however, the family of the last Katayama head was wiped out in World War II and that direct line, known as Katayama-ryū, is no longer extant. The Hoshino family in Kumamoto regularly maintained contact with the Katayama family[5] and the majority of groups practicing Hōki-ryū today come from the Hoshino lineage. Today, the Hōki-ryū tradition is today in its 12th or 13th generation.
Using Iso-no-nami as a base, Hisayasu and later generations of the Katayama and Hoshino families developed and established over seventy sword forms,[3] although many of these have been lost in most groups practicing Hōki-ryū today. Presently, fifteen basic forms form the basis of nearly all Hōki-ryū groups, with different groups having varying numbers of the remaining kata surviving . These fifteen forms are divided to two sets; six forms in Omote and nine forms in Chudan. Most forms are started from the seiza posture.
