The Shin-no-Shinkage heihō of Ogasawara Genshinsai

Shin-no-shinkage heihō 真之心陰兵法 is the name Ogasawara Genshinsai used to describe his swordsmanship after his return from Beijing after the death of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ogasawara's time spent in China during the beginning of the Edo period had a profound effect on his swordsmanship. I am similarly influenced by teachings from Taoist martial arts, so wanted to provide some notes below on readings of recent Japanese scholarship on Jikishinkage-ryū.

Two works survive by Ogasawara Genshinsai and can be found in the Odawara City Library collection. Regarding the rise of his tradition, Genshinsai wrote:

I am calm and composed. Although I have tried various streams, I have not yet reached the deepest level of the art. Because I have crossed the river differently, people are in harmony with each other, and they are diligent in their studies. I am thinking about it with a sincere heart. [2]

One explanation, from Karukome and Sakai, is as follows:

The content of this record roughly says that he has studied various schools since he was young, but was unable to reach their profound meaning. However, by traveling overseas and learning from others, he reached the profound meaning, and after carefully thinking about these, he named it Shin-no-shinkage heihō.

The martial arts exchanges between China and Japan in the Ming Dynasty were certainly far more than the Kage-ryu crossing of the sea related to General Qi and the single-sword method related to Liu Yunfeng from Zhejiang. The example here can be called the second Kage-ryu crossing of the sea in terms of the inheritance of Kage-ryu. [2]

The first crossing of Kage-ryu described above, influenced the development of the Chinese martial arts I study. It is only fitting that when I practice Japanese martial arts, I preserve content derived from the second. The Quanzhen School (全真: Quánzhēn, "All-True", Complete Perfection, Integrating Perfection or Complete Reality) of Taoism:

is one of the two dominant denominations of Daoism in China. One of its founders was master Wang Chongyang (1113–1170). When the Mongols invaded China the Quanzhen Taoists exerted great effort in keeping the peace, thus saving most Han Chinese lives. Qiu Chuji, a major disciple of Wang, founded the Dragon Gate lineage (龍門派 Lóngmén pài), along with the White Cloud Monastery in Beijing. This tradition remains one of the largest Taoist sects in China. [1]

I think it is no accident Ogasawara returned from China using the character 真 to describe his heihō, given the strong influence Taoist concepts of yin and yang complementarity and five element theory continue to have on the practice, even over four hundred years later. Quanzhen Taoism is also the type of Taoism associated to the formal lineage in Chinese internal martial arts I am part of, so I feel a special connection to the name Shin-no-shinkage.

In Jikishinkage-ryū, the use of term Kashima-shinden dates from 1765, over one hundred and fifty years after the founding of the art. Its use is due to the influence of Naganuma Shirōzaemon attributing the genesis of the art to Matsumoto Bizen no Kami, a retainer of Kashima shrine. His predecessors, Takahashi Danjozaemon and Yamada Heizaemon (Ippusai), regarded Kamiya Denshinsai as the originator of the art, and in writings by Heizaemon in 1708, no mention of Kashima-shinden is made.

So, in my mind, the concept of Kashima-shinden is not associated to historical Jikishinkage-ryū at the time of early masters like Okuyama and Ogasawara. It is also much more likely Matsumoto Bizen no Kami studied under Kamiizumi Ise no Kami, founder of Shinkage-ryū (all of whose variants credit him as their originator), than the other way around. The emphasis on Kashima-shinden was an Edo period innovation for that art and hides some of its earlier character – that change of emphasis has only increased in modern times with influences from state Shinto and militaristic Zen popular in the Meiji and Taisho periods.

Earlier writings on the art by Ogasawara instead cite a number of esoteric Buddhist guardian deities instead of Takemikazuchi-no-kami, the patron deity of Kashima, as providing protection to its adherents, including: Fudō-o (Acalanatha; 不動明王), the associated naga (divine serpent) Kurikara-ryū-o (倶利伽羅竜王) and Daitokuten (Mahākāla; 大黒天).

無想法身虚実同体—不動経 (Musō-hō mi kyojitsu dōtai) The oneness of reality and emptiness — the Acalanatha Sutra. [3]

The core Shinkage-ryū kata called empi, said to be the essence of Kamiizumi Ise no Kami's Shinkage-ryū, is present in Ogasawara's writing, using the homophone 圓飛 instead of 燕飛. Ogasawara's writing also mentions the gokui practice of tengu-sho 天狗抄. These three sets of teachings are said to be the core of what Kamiizumi Ise no Kami received from Aisu Kage-ryu. Sangakuen, in contrast, which bears a resemblance to Hōjō (most clearly in the names of several of the kata within the set), is said to have been derived from enpi no tachi as a set of explanatory or introductory practices — the name Hōjō literally means "foundational practices" — the relationship in that case seems clear, although Sangakuen and Hōjō looks quite different in contemporary surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū and Jikishinkage-ryū.

また，流儀を興した経緯について，源信斎は，「予 自リ レ若，雖モ レ試ルト 二諸流ヲ一，未ダレ至ラ 二其奥儀ニ一，異朝ニ渡ル故，人ニ相応ズル之旨叶ヒ，忩テ勤メレ之ヲ， 倩々思レ之ヲ以テ真之心陰ト云 26）」（送り仮名，返り点，読点筆者）と述べている。[...] しかし，国郷以前の伝書に「鹿島神伝」と記 されることはなかったようである。 [3]

Most lines of Jikishinkage-ryū no longer practice empi, kuka or tengu-sho. Ogasawara's practice and the earlier teachings of Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami are clearly connected in this manner, the latter which credits Aisu Kage-ryu as its inspiration, as quoted above.

End Notes

1. Quanzhen Taoism, Wikipedia.
2. 小笠原源信斎『真之心陰兵法目録』寛文 10 年, 真之心陰兵法免状』寛文 13 年，小田原市立図書館蔵
3. Karukome Yoshitaka, Sakai Toshinobu: An analysis of the formation of Jikishinkage-ryū in relation to its lineage and transmission. 武道学研究 47―3: 119―138, 2015. 原著.
4. Ishigaki, Y., 1992. Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū Gokui Denkai 鹿島神伝直心影流極意伝開. Shinjusha.