Kondō Yanosuke (近藤弥之助) was the Chūya-ha Ittō-ryū representative among the eleven initial kenjutsu instructors at the Kōbusho; the appointment record places him under the supervision of Matsudaira Uneme. The sources are consistent on his school but offer little personal detail, and he is best treated as thinly attested.
Chūya-ha Ittō-ryū (忠也派一刀流)
Also called Itō-ha Ittō-ryū (伊藤派一刀流), this is one of the direct lineages of the Ittō-ryū founded by Itō Ittōsai Kagehisa (伊藤一刀斎景久). Its founder, Itō Tenzen Tadanari (伊藤典膳忠也; who later styled himself Chūya), is recorded variously as the son or the younger brother of Ono Tadaaki (小野忠明; formerly Mikogami Tenzen), the second-generation master who founded the Ono-ha. Tadaaki is said to have designated Chūya as successor to the orthodox Ittō-ryū, granting him the founder’s Itō surname and the kamewari-tō (瓶割刀; “jar-splitting sword”) said to have been used by Ittōsai in some thirty matches; because Tadaaki’s own son Tadatsune (忠常) continued the Ono house, the Chūya / Itō line and the Ono-ha line diverged from this point. Chūya is described as headstrong, disliking official service, and living as a rōnin throughout his life. His students seeded several further branches, including Mizoguchi-ha and Mamiya-ha Ittō-ryū. The line is essentially of historical rather than living interest today.
