Research on lines of Shinkage-ryū. [ Jiki Shinkage-ryū content is hosted on its own page. ]
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 Jiki Shinkage-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 Jiki Shinkage-ryū mokuroku overlap substantially with the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū Okugi, suggesting a majority of those concepts were preserved in Jiki Shinkage-ryū.
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.
September 2024
Link to an essay on kata, heihō and shugyō, where I compare and contrast different surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū and reflect on my own practice.
February 2023
An essay published at Kogen Budō, 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.