Shinkage heihō [神陰兵法] refers to the broad grouping of swordsmanship deriving from or influenced by Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami Nobutsuna, including Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, Hikita Kage-ryū, several lines in Kyūshū as well as Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū, which had become widespread by the end of the Edo period of Japan.
Research Articles
July 2026
Summarizing Karukome's analysis of the content of two Edo period Jikishinkage-ryū transmission documents.
July 2026
Using NDL cursive OCR models Waseda University Jikishinkage-ryū densho holdings allows us to better gloss commentaries in cursive script as well as small block character notes.
July 2026
Reading an analysis of the mokuroku of the immediate descendents of Ogasawara Genshinsai. Comparing the evolution across branches.
July 2026
The term gekiken (撃剣) dates at least from the Gekiken Sōdan (撃剣叢談) from Kansei 2 (1790), which inventoried in its five volumes kenjutsu schools and master-houses between Okayama and Edo across the 1760s–1790s. We examine some details on Shinkage-ryū from that work.
July 2026
A small textual diversion: a matching-rhyme quatrain, brushed on a slip and bound into the front matter of the 1898 Takuan Zenshū, that turns on the Zen topos of drifting with conditions and remaining untouched by the world's dust.
July 2026
Attestation, source context, and Biyan lu Case 42 for the Chan kōan phrase carried as a gokui in both Yagyū and Jiki Shinkage-ryū densho.
June 2026
A survey of Jikishinkage-ryū memorial steles across Kashima Jingū and Chiba — their texts, and the succession dispute they record.
June 2026
Examining factions of Jikishinkage-ryū and their practice in different areas of Japan.
June 2026
Extensive documents from Kyushu in 1766 and how they relate to the Edo area Yagyū and Jikishinkage-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 Jikishinkage-ryū mokuroku overlap substantially with the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū Okugi, suggesting a majority of those concepts were preserved in Jikishinkage-ryū.
May 2026
Details on the writings and practice of Ogasawara Genshinsai.
May 2026
Summary of 1800 Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū densho by Naganuma Tadasato, copied by Ogawa Yashichi, comparing it against other densho I analyzed in my recent book.
May 2026
A poem by Fu Dashi (497-569).
December 2024
Text on Jikishinkage-ryū Hōjō (foundational) swordsmanship, provided for reference based on Jikishinkage-ryū Sōhonbu and Hōbyōkan material. This is typically chanted or recited before performance of the Hōjō kata of Jikishinkage-ryū.
