Jikishinkage-ryū from Muromachi to Meiji
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Shin-no-shinkage: Muromachi to Edo
Shin-no-shinkage heihō
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 (
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
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;
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
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.
Jikishinkage: Edo to Meiji
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 later life 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 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.
Given the teaching above, I wonder if the loud kiai and ibuki style breathing found in the main lines of contemporary Jikishinkage-ryū were actually a later invention, that became out of balance over time in a desire to instill proper fighting spirit to a very large audience (e.g., first at Sakakibara's dojo and then later the many people learning Kendō in the early 20th century who did not come from samurai backgrounds).
Jikishinkage-ryū survived, but at what cost?
End Notes
- Quanzhen Taoism, Wikipedia.
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 - 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. - Ishigaki, Y., 1992. Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū Gokui Denkai
鹿島神伝直心影流極意伝開 . Shinjusha.