Takenouchi-ryu

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Takenouchi-ryu

is one of the oldest jujutsu

Jujutsu

, literally meaning the "jutsu of :wikt:?", or "way of yielding" is a collective name for Japanese Japanese martial art styles including unarmed and armed techniques....
koryu

Koryu

is a Japanese language word that is used in association with the ancient Japanese martial arts. This word literally translates as ":wikt:? :wikt:?" or "traditional school." Koryu is a general term for Japanese schools of martial arts that predate the Meiji Restoration ....
in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. It was founded in 1532, the first year of Tenbun on the twenty-fourth of the sixth lunar month

Lunar month

In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two identical syzygy . There are many variations. In Middle-Eastern and European traditions, the month starts when the new moon becomes first visible at evening after Astronomical conjunction with the Sun 1 or 2 days before that evening ....
by Takenouchi Chunagon Daijo Nakatsukasadaiyu Hisamori, the lord of Ichinose Castle in Sakushu

Mimasaka Province

Mimasaka or Sakushu was a Provinces of Japan of Japan in the part of Honshu that is today northeastern Okayama Prefecture. Mimasaka bordered Bitchu Province, Bizen Province, Harima Province, Hoki Province, and Inaba Provinces....
. Although it is famous for its jujutsu, Takenouchi Ryu is actually a complete system of martial arts

Martial arts

Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat. While they may be studied for various reasons, martial arts share a single objective: to physically defeat other persons and to defend oneself or others from physical threat....
including armed grappling (yoroi kumiuchi), staff (bojutsu
Bojutsu

, translated from Japanese language as "staff technique", is the martial art of using a staff weapon called bo which simply means "staff". Staffs are perhaps one of the earliest weapons used by man....
), sword (kenjutsu
Kenjutsu

, meaning "the art of the sword", is a term for classical Japanese sword arts , in particular those which predate the Meiji Restoration. It is sometimes used more generally to describe any martial art which makes use of the Japanese sword....
), sword drawing (iaijutsu
Iaijutsu

, often translated roughly as the "art of mental presence and immediate reaction", is the Japanese martial art of drawing the sword. At least one author makes the distinction that, strictly speaking, iaijutsu consists exclusively of the portion of combat where the sword is drawn, and that any further techniques are technically classified as kenju...
), glaive (naginatajutsu
Naginatajutsu

is the Japanese martial art of wielding the naginata.This is a weapon resembling the medieval European glaive. Most naginatajutsu practiced today is in a modernized form, a gendai budo, , in which competitions also are held....
), iron fan (tessenjutsu
Tessenjutsu

Tessenjutsu is the martial art of the Japanese war fan, Japanese war fan. It is based on the use of the iron folding fan, which usually had eight or ten ribs....
), restraining rope (hojojutsu
Hojojutsu

Hojojutsu or Nawajutsu, is the traditional Japanese martial art of restraining a person using cord or rope.Encompassing many different materials, techniques and methods from many different schools, Hojojutsu is a quintessentially Japanese art that is a unique product of Japanese history and culture....
), and resuscitation techniques (sakkatsuho).

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Encyclopedia

is one of the oldest jujutsu

Jujutsu

, literally meaning the "jutsu of :wikt:?", or "way of yielding" is a collective name for Japanese Japanese martial art styles including unarmed and armed techniques....
koryu

Koryu

Japan

Lunar month

Mimasaka Province

Martial arts

History

According to the Takenouchi Keisho Kogo Den, the document recording the establishment and development of the school, Takenouchi Hisamori retired to the mountains near the Sannomiya shrine to train his martial skills. He practiced there for six days and six nights, wielding a bokken
Bokken

A bokken , is a wooden Japanese sword used for training, usually the size and shape of a katana, but sometimes shaped like other swords, such as the wakizashi and tanto....
(wooden sword) two shaku and four sun in length (about 2 ft. 4 in. or 72 cm), a relatively long weapon for his purportedly short stature. On the sixth night he fell asleep from exhaustion using his bokken as a pillow. He was woken by a mountain priest with white hair and a long beard who seemed so fearsome to Hisamori that he thought it must be an incarnation of the god Atago. Hisamori attacked the stranger, but was defeated. The priest said to him "When you meet the enemy, in that instant, life and death are decided. That is what is called hyoho (military strategy)." He then took Hisamori's bokken, told him that long weapons were not useful in combat, and broke it into two daggers one shaku and two sun long. The priest told Hisamori to put these in his belt and call them kogusoku, and taught him how to use them in grappling and close combat

Close combat

*Close combat is a generic term for both Close Quarters Battle and Hand to hand combat.*M?l?e generally refers to disorganized close combat.*CQB is an acronym for Close Quarters Battle, such as that which occurs in urban warfare....
. These techniques became called koshi no mawari, literally "around the hips". The priest then taught Hisamori how to bind and restrain enemies with rope, using a vine from a tree. Then the priest disappeared mysteriously amidst wind and lightning.

Takenouchi Hisamori's second son Hitachinosuke Hisakatsu became the second head of Takenouchi Ryu after his father formally passed him the tradition at the age of 64. He and his successor and son Kaganosuke Hisayoshi added their own techniques to the curriculum, extending it into a complete sogo bujutsu system.

Curriculum

Takenouchi Ryu is best known for its jujutsu, over which it covers an extensive ground. Its unarmed jujutsu techniques include tehodoki (grip breaking), ukemi (tumbling), nagewaza (throwing), kansetsuwaza (joint dislocation), atemi (striking weak points), shimewaza (choking), newaza(ground techniques), and kappo (resuscitation). These are combined to form kata

Kata

is a Japanese language word describing detailed choreographed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs. Kata are used in many traditional Japanese arts such as theater forms like kabuki and schools of tea ceremony , but are most commonly known for the presence in the martial arts....
for the various sections of jujutsu taught, including toride (capturing and restraining), hade (attacking vital points unarmed), and kumiuchi (grappling). These unarmed kata are the best known of the Takenouchi Ryu jujutsu, but they are not truly its foundation. As related in the establishment myth of the school, the central forms of jujutsu in Takenouchi Ryu are the kogusoku koshi no mawari, techniques of armed grappling using the short sword kogusoku against armed opponents. It is upon this foundation that the rest of the jujutsu techniques were developed by Hisakatsu and Hisayoshi, the second and third heads of the school.

Beyond the core of jujutsu, many different weapons are taught. These include the sword, the staff, rope tying, the naginata, and more. The sword curriculum is divided into major sections, with kenjutsu covering basic swordsmanship against a similarly armed opponent, saide covering grappling with the sword, and iai covering the techniques of rapid sword drawing and striking. The staff is central to Takenouchi Ryu's study of movement, and as such forms an important part of the curriculum. Staff work addresses various lengths of staff, in particular bojutsu for the six shaku staff and shinbo for a slightly shorter staff. Other sizes taught include jojutsu for the common four shaku two sun staff, and hanbo for shorter sticks around three shaku in length. Rope restraints are an important adjunct to the arresting arts of toride, and the techniques of tying up opponents called hojojutsu or hobaku are taught using the haya nawa which is a two shaku five sun rope, traditionally of a purple color.

Takenouchi Ryu is perhaps lesser known for its other weapons techniques, but as a true sogo bujutsu it retains a number of weapons for use both on and off the battlefield. The naginata and kusarigama are covered, as well as the jutte truncheon, shuriken throwing darts, and the tessen iron fan. Some kata feature rather peculiar weapons intended to show the use of everyday objects for defense against sword attacks. These include the kasa, a Japanese style umbrella, and the nabebuta, a wooden lid for a cooking pot.

Takenouchi Ryu's Influence

Takenouchi Ryu has exerted a strong influence in the development of jujutsu. The branches of the Takenouchi Ryu have subsequently have influenced schools directly or indirectly and thus many techniques found in modern judo

Judo

, meaning "gentle way", is a modern Japanese martial art and combat sport, that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either Throw one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling manoeuvre, or force an opponent...
and aikido

Aikido

is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying Qi" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker fro...
can be traced back to their roots in Takenouchi Ryu in one way or another. A number of important jujutsu koryu were founded by students of the school, such as the Rikishin Ryu, Fusen Ryu, and Sosuishitsu Ryu, the Takagi Ryu and its branches (such as the Hontai Yoshin Ryu

Hontai Yoshin-ryu

is a traditional school of Japanese martial arts founded c.1660, by Takagi Shigetoshi. Some sources give Takagi's middle name as Setsuemon, while others give it as Oriemon....
, Takagi Ryu) and Araki Ryu

Araki-ryu

is a Japan koryu martial art founded in the early 1570s by . The Araki-ryu is a system that specializes in close combat grappling with weapons....
to name a few. These ryuha have incorporated many techniques from Takenouchi Ryu either directly from the school or by analyzing the techniques of its exponents.

Takenouchi Ryu has documents by its founder on the use and teaching of rokushakubojutsu (six foot long stick). This makes it the oldest verifiable school to teach these skills and it is believed to have had a great influence on other arts teaching rokushakubojutsu. Other arts have long histories and claim to have been teaching rokushakubo, but so far no documents from the period have been found. It may be that these other schools added it later on to their teachings.

Lineage

As with any koryu, the lineage of Takenouchi Ryu is a matter of importance and pride to its members. Since the tradition was maintained in the family a careful account of the successive leaders of the school has been kept over the centuries.

After the 8th headmaster, Takenouchi Toichiro Hisataka, the lineage was split into two branches called the soke and sodenke lines. This was done to ensure that the blood line and tradition would be preserved. The first headmaster of the soke lineage was Ikeuchi Gamonta, whose name was changed to Takenouchi Gamonta Hisayori when he was adopted into the Takenouchi family. The sodenke lineage began with Takenouchi Tojuro Hisatane.

Bitchu Den

As well as the two divisions of the school given above, another lineage exists branching from the third head of the school. This lineage, called the Bitchu Den Takeuchi Ryu, developed through Takeuchi Seidaiyu Masatsugu who moved to Okayama, the capital of Bitchu Province

Bitchu Province

was a Provinces of Japan of Japan on the Seto Inland Sea side of western Honshu, in what is today western Okayama Prefecture. Bitchu bordered Hoki Province, Mimasaka Province, Bizen Province, and Bingo Province provinces....
(now western Okayama Prefecture

Okayama Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located in the Chugoku region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Okayama....
). Note that the Bitchu Den pronounces the name as Takeuchi rather than Takenouchi.

The Bitchu Den lineage maintains the same curriculum with the addition of a few more techniques in certain areas. Although being cut off from the mainline for some time, practitioners of both the mainline and Bitchu Den have in recent times compared their techniques and found them to be essentially the same despite many generations of separation. This strongly attests to the successful transmission of this koryu over the years.

Bitchu Den lineage:

4. Takeuchi Seidaiyu Masatsugu.

5. Yamamoto Kazuemon Hisayoshi.

6. Shimizu Kichiuemon Kiyonobu.

...

14. Takeuchi Tsunaichi Masatori. Head of Nisshinkan dojo.

15. Nakayama Kazuo Torimasa. Current head of Nisshinkan dojo, second head of Okayama Daigaku College Kobudo Section.

16. Ono Yotaro Masahito. Head of Chofukan dojo and Doshisha Daigaku College Kobudo Section.

International branches of Takeuchi-ryu Bitchuden

There are two kinds of authorized training groups: dojo and study circles. Authorized dojo are usually headed by someone ranked Daigeiko or higher, have full teaching authority and limited authority to award rank. Study circles train with the permission of the head of Chofukan Dojo, have limited teaching authority and no authority to award rank. As of February 2009 there are three international dojo and two study circles.

Dojo

Shofukan ???, run by Anna Seabourne, located in the United Kingdom (West Yorkshire).

Gyofukan ???, run by Anthony Abry, located in the United States (Idaho). Training is currently suspended.

Seifukan ???, run by Wayne Muromoto, located in Hawaii.

Study circles

Shofukan ???, started by Kei Ota and currently managed by Alex Kask, located in Canada (Vancouver).

Ryufukai ???, run by Andrew Antis, located in San Francisco.

There are no known dojo of the Soke and Sodenke lines outside of Japan.

External links

at the Seifukan dojo in Hawai‘i
in the Koryu.com Guide to Classical Ryuha
Takenouchi Ryu in San Francisco
at the Shofukan dojo in Vancouver, Canada