Essays
Every essay across Inner Dharma, most recent first. Individual Kōbusho swordsmen and school profiles are reached from within their projects or via the topic map.
July 2026
Analysis of the concept Shin-hen Bankyō (心遍萬境; the mind pervades all realms) found in a Kyūshū Shinkage-ryū densho.
June 2026
A short description of Kukishin-ryū history and is provenance.
June 2026
Ming Chinese master of Taisha-ryū and Shugendō practitioner. Some contrasts between Hiko Shugendō and Dewa Shugendō and a digression to a famous school of sword smiths.
June 2026
The famous poem on the three mountain pilgrimage of Dewa Sanzan
June 2026
A brief discourse on the jūjutsu associated or affiliated with different branches of Shinkage-ryū.
June 2026
Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū descends from the Yōshin-ryū grappling stream, but its founding by Iso Mataemon at Kitano Tenmangū is a Tenjin-cult devotional act, not a mountain-Shugendō revelation like Kage-ryū's — the tengu and Kurama material survives only as okuden iconographic residue. Its Chinese-origin legend likewise collapses on inspection to a Nagasaki medical/kappō residue, while the actual technical lineage runs through the domestic willow revelation and the Kurama warrior substrate.
June 2026
Examining the Kashima Shin-ryū of Kunii Zen'ya. Early influences, Shintō education, military contributions, martial reputation and memorial tributes provide a rich view of this important budōka.
June 2026
Dewa area bujutsu and the Shugendō connections of the original iai ryūha. Tengu-related origins as told in several martial traditions, contrasting them based on their period of development and social perspectives. How attitudes towards China affected origin tales over time.
June 2026
Summarizing Karukome's research into the composition of written densho of Jikishinkage-ryū, especially where Kashima-centric claims enter the art.
June 2026
How the nativist undertow inside Edo Sinophilia grew through kokugaku — Motoori Norinaga and Hirata Atsutane — into the kokutai/Kōdō ideology of Imaizumi Sadasuke and the early-Shōwa nationalist milieu of the Ketsumeidan Incident that the budō world brushed against.
June 2026
One thread that affects multiple articles here, whether on kobudō or Japanese religion, is the early Edo importance of Ming Dynasty culture in Japan as being desirable as an influence and the mid-to-late Edo scorn for Qing Dynasty China. This is only amplified in Meiji and beyond.
June 2026
Text, Translation and Roster of a 1960 memorial stele to honor Kawashima Takashi in his birthplace, Kitashimizu Fudō-in (北清水不動院), Yokoshiba (横芝), Chiba.
June 2026
Text, Translation and Roster of a Jikishinkage-ryū memorial stele erected at Kashima Jingu in 1968. A Telescoped Lineage in Imperial-Shinto Idiom.
June 2026
We examine a densho from 1792 of Ōshima-ryū, a spear tradition stemming from Ōshima Hanroku Yoshitsuna who studied methods passed down from Yuasa Shinroku. Its signature weapon was a long suyari and it held a long-time rivalry with the Hōzōin-ryū.
☰ Kitō-ryū
June 2026
Kitō-ryū (起倒流) was taught at the Kōbusho (講武所) by Motoyama Shōō (本山正翁) and Iikubo Tsunetoshi (飯久保恒年) — the latter was later best known as Kanō Jigorō’s (嘉納治五郎) teacher.
June 2026
Examining factions of Jikishinkage-ryū and their practice in different areas of Japan.
June 2026
We discuss details surrounding the martial arts and competitive practices of Matsuzaki Namishirō, master of Katōda Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu.
June 2026
Extensive documents from Kyushu in 1766 and how they relate to the Edo area Yagyū and Jikishinkage-ryū densho contents. We find independent corroboration of common Shinkage-ryū influence in these arts at the same time of the writings of Naganuma Kunisato in 1768. Specifically, the gokui section of Jikishinkage-ryū mokuroku overlap substantially with the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū Okugi, suggesting a majority of those concepts were preserved in Jikishinkage-ryū.
June 2026
Sōjaku-no-koto (相尺之事; mutual distance or measure) is one of the formal matters listed in historical mokuroku of Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu. We examine its relationship to Sino-Japanese philosophical concepts.
June 2026
Detail of Hassō Happa from 1800 Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū densho by Ogawa Yashichi, its place in Hōjō swordsmanship, and how the eight phases may relate to the eight extremes of Daoist Huainanzi geography.
May 2026
Some details on the Shugendō of Udo in Kyushu and how it might relate to the founding of Aisu Kage-ryū and the later influence of Shugendō on Shinkage-ryū.
May 2026
Last in a series. We examine a seal of transmission of self-protective methods dated 1675 and compare it against a different line of transmission from 1812.
May 2026
Details on choices of romanization of 直心影流 — this project uses Jikishinkage-ryū, but other choices are also valid.
May 2026
Discussion of kodachi and habiki practice in Jikishinkage-ryū Seito-ha as informed by an examination of Saitō Akinobu (1901) Gokui Kyōju Zukai, explaining brief oral teachings.
May 2026
Summary of 1800 Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū densho by Naganuma Tadasato, copied by Ogawa Yashichi, comparing it against other densho I analyzed in my recent book.
May 2026
A brief discussion of the seasonal mappings of kata in Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu and how those relate to Daoist complementarity, five phase theory, and partially to Mikkyō concepts.
May 2026
Tracing the threads from the legendary Kyō Hachi Ryū and Kiichi Hōgen at Kurama, through the tengu pantheon of Mt. Atago, Kōyasan and Kotohira, to the eight cipher-names Sekishūsai used to hide the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū Tengushō kata in his picture catalog.
May 2026
Examining some evidence for the genesis of upper-level Shinkage-ryū teachings based on information available about Aisu Ikōsai's founding vision of Sarutahiko, Kamiizumi's early training in Kashima, and the arrangement of Shinkage-ryū kata over time.
May 2026
A poem by Fu Dashi (497-569).
April 2026
Tàijíquán, along with Xíngyìquán and Bāguàzhǎng, forms the core of the internal martial arts, distinguished by their grounding in Daoist philosophy and Nèigōng practices.
March 2026
These notes collect the documentary side of some of my research into the *gokui* (極意; ultimate principle) of Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū.
October 2025
We examine some features of armed and unarmed grappling and small weapon styles from the medieval period to modernity and draw some parallels and distinctions between them, especially as related to combat sport and contemporary military practices.
May 2025
When people become devoted to a martial art, they are doing so not at a single point in time but in a process that extends through time — the present moment, the memory they have of their training, and their expectations of the future. This can interfere with progress if nostalgia for their first impression of an art is in conflict with its higher-level teachings.
April 2025
Last year I began additional training in the union of Yoga and Buddhism offered through Tibet House. As part of this training, an essay comparing the Astanga (8-limbs) of Patanjali with the Buddhist Noble Eightfold path.
December 2024
Text on Jikishinkage-ryū Hōjō (foundational) swordsmanship, provided for reference based on Jikishinkage-ryū Sōhonbu and Hōbyōkan material. This is typically chanted or recited before performance of the Hōjō kata of Jikishinkage-ryū.
September 2024
Link to an essay on kata, heiho and shugyo, where I compare and contrast different surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū and reflect on my own practice.
February 2023
An essay published at Kogen Budo, where I look at some older writings from Japanese koryū that reference classical Chinese military treatises, and then examine how practices described in those works may be represented in arts surviving today.
October 2020
The Tàijí, Bāguà and Xíngyì taught as part of Yin Cheng Gong Fa includes an extensive curriculum of jian (sword), dao (saber), and qiang (spear).
September 2020
On solo practice, free sparring, entering HEMA competition, and the waning intensity of classical martial arts. A synthesis of reflections from 2017 to 2020 on what it means to keep kenjutsu practice alive.
August 2019
Reflections on a decade of practice in Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, the decision to leave the art, and an analysis of what may lie hidden beneath its surface.
July 2017
Some notes on Japanese mountain religion from the Tōhoku region of Japan and its importance to practitioners of arts derived from the teachings of Takeda Sōkaku.
June 2017
An important translation of the Tàijí Classics has been published. Highly recommended.
February 2017
Collected thoughts on the historical influence of Chinese martial arts on Japanese jujutsu and how they relate to the topic of aiki in Aikidō and Daitō-ryū. What interested me about internal martial arts and how I have related that experience to my practice of Japanese budō.
May 2011
A brief discussion of power generation in internal martial arts.