Jikishinkage-ryū passing from Edo to Meiji
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When one has mastered the harmony of spirit, sword, and body, they will have achieved the ultimate goal of swordsmanship.
Jikishinkage-ryū, which was quite small at its inception and influenced more than one deep tradition over time, grew in the late Edo period to a very large size, where some of its original character was very likely lost in its most prolific branches of practice.
The lineage of what is considered today the main line of Jikishinkage-ryū was very likely broken with the death of its 14th headmaster, Sakakibara Kenkichi. Sakakibari had issued several upper level licenses in the art over time, but his chosen successor was killed in battle at the end of the Edo period. Sakakibara's dōjō was famous for sparring and would only do traditional kata practice periodically, or at the very least emphasized it much less than they did jigeiko and shiai. Practices such as yawara and sojutsu in this line of practice were lost over time — telling, because Matsumoto Bizen no Kami, the founder of Jikishinkage-ryū, was most famous as a spearman.
It is said by Ishigaki and others that Yamada Jirokichi had to go to another line, the Fujiwara-ha, to learn the upper level kata after Sakakibara's prassing. For all we know, much of what is done in what is called the mainline or standard line of Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū practice today might be drawn from that Fujiwara line and not Sakakibara's. I mention this because of the pride Jikishinkage-ryū practitioners take in referring back to famous kenshi such as Sakakibara, who was bodyguard of the last Tokugawa shogun and keeper of Edo castle.
Yamada's menkyo kaiden, according to Iwasa Minoru, was stamped by Sakakibara's widow after Sakakibara died. According to Ishigaki, the document has siddham characters towards it end reading kanman – a reference to intuition and fudoshin – used in the Fujiwara line instead of the siddham characters for A-Un used in the Odani line Sakakibara was part of. So, Yamada potentially copied from a Fujiwara example he found ( versus Sakakibara having drawn a license up for him but not stamping it due to illness or circumstance ). It may also be the case that Yamada never saw a menkyo-kaiden from Sakakibara or others in that line, as he would potentially have included the A-Un character choice on his own. Or, was the choice quiet homage to where he completed his training under Saito Akinobu after Sakakibara's passing? We may never know, but if true, then in the strictest sense, the main line of Jikishinkage-ryū ended at that moment.
Yamada Jirokichi is said to have received the secret teachings of Hōjō and other kata from Saito Akinobu over a period of two years around the year 1909. Therefore, it is possible that Yamada Jirokichi misunderstood the siddham characters in the instructions he received at that time to mean the same as those in the Sakakibara instructions
In the sense of traditions as flows through time, if this narrative is true, we can say a new modern branch started with Yamada Jirokichi. The dominant narrative is that Sakakibara named Yamada before he died, but this is a subject of debate among surviving lines of Jikishinkage-ryū — including those that passed through Yamada. I myself respect his efforts to preserve Jikishinkage-ryū. Yamada Jirokichi was a great scholar of Kendō and well respected — his books on the history of Japanese swordsmanship, both older styles and kendo, seem monumental in their scope. I have in particular found his 1927 book on Jikishinkage-ryū very useful. He wanted to increase the martial vigor of Kendō instruction as it spread, and associated to his efforts and those of others, Hōjō clubs were founded where Kendō ka would practice the foundational kata of Jikishinkage-ryū in order to develop what they felt was martial vigor.
One example of what may be a modern innovation is the harsh breathing associated to foundational Jikishinkage-ryū practice. Jikishinkage-ryū documents contain the following passage:
We must not forget that we also have two energies, real and false. We must be careful not to let others notice when we breathe in and out, and we must practice suppressing rough breathing and harmonizing the seven energies and the a-un energies into one.
I wonder if the loud kiai and ibuki style breathing found in the main lines of Jikishinkage-ryū were actually a later invention, inspired by demonstrations becoming more common of Okinawan Karate-do such as Goju-ryu and Uechi-ryu that possess a hard style of qigong encoded in their sanshin kata.
Even if the strong breathing of Hōjō came from the time of Ogasawara and others, given the passage above, they I believe are training mechanisms and not what one cultivates during armed conflict. But all too often in modern practice they can become training scars — students would be wise to realize this, and not attempt to replicate the slow breathing associated to unpō practice during tameshi-ai.
Taking the exaggerated breath practices as more modern an innovation might more easily explain some of the differences between contemporary Jikishinkage-ryū and other Shinkage-ryū more than Ogasawara's earlier time in China. From that early influence due to Ogasawara I think instead we find the encoding of Taoist cosmology and philosophy into the Jikishinkage-ryū kata, as well as the walking patterns and practices which are similar to basic training modalities found in other Northern Chinese martial arts.
I have abandoned the ibuki breathing in my own practice, and cultivated breathing practices that are drawn from Indian traditions that map into Hōjō very smoothly. In doing so, am I violating the tradition or restoring it?
In many ways, my tutelage in Jikishinkage-ryū was incomplete. My teacher was the first western student of the art, and trained in an arduous manner, but only recieved a middle level license in the art before returning to the United States. He was given permission to teach in America to preserve his practice by the 17th generation master of one of the main lines of the art, Namiki Yasushi. At the same time, I learned in a broader context of my teacher's study of Shinkage-ryū and I practice internal martial arts that have since deeply affected my swordsmanship.
In my case, given my views on classical traditions and their layers of meaning I am compelled to keep my teaching small, even if it is something both old and new — because it feels wrong to deprive people of the opportunity to connect with culture, group, and lineage were they to train elsewhere. And Jikishinkage-ryū itself may not be as whole as others – who maintain an air of culture, group, and lineage – would have us assume. If the lineage was broken long before I encountered it, that does not mean the efforts of teachers such as Kawashima, Ōnishi, Namiki and others were any less important. I am grateful to have received the limited knowledge I possess. It is my responsibility to take that knowledge as far as I am able in its expression within my own swordsmanship and also to not convey that understanding to a large number of people.
Visiting sacred places has been an important component of my
martial arts training over the years.
"Moon Mountain Hall" (
These are all reasons why I have stopped teaching Jikishinkage-ryū to new students and plan only to work with a few people moving forward. At an appropriate time, the people I have mentored can seek out formal certification from one of the surviving lines of Jikishinkage-ryū as they desire. My choice not to do so should not imply a preference they limit their own freedom and experience in that way. They will know enough to make an educated decision. But if they continue to train, and absorb many layers of this practice, they too might find they do not have a strong desire to return to exaggerated unpō and A-un kokyu practice of post-Edo Jikishinkage-ryū we see practiced so commonly today.
Only time will tell.
Postscript
This is likely my last essay about Jikishinkage-ryū — thank you to all of those who traveled with me as I explored topics from older Japanese martial culture on Inner Dharma.
End Notes
1. Ishigaki, 1992. Kashima Shinden Jiki Shinkage-ryū Gokui Denkai.