As part of my writing here and in print, I have examined Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū (opens in a new tab) heihō kenjutsu and the transition of Japanese swordsmanship from the end of Tokugawa period to the early modern era.
The Truth of the Calm Spirit
The Truth of the Calm Spirit (opens in a new tab), Inner Dharma, 2025. 368 pages. An examination of the practice of Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu through the lens of internal martial arts.
This work contains my research and notes on Jikishinkage-ryū through the end of 2025, including a summary of its early history, including the travels of Ogasawara Genshinsai to Ming China, its kata, and descriptions of its philosophical content drawn from available Japanese language scholarship and library holdings.
Contents Includes: Introduction (Origin Myths, Broader Context of Transitional Arts, Free Practice), Lineage, Philosophical Context (A-Un Kokyū, Shunkashūtō, Unpō, Kiai, Kuraidori), Kata (Hōjō, Tō no Kata, Kodachi, Habiki, Older Kata), Advanced Matters (Koto, Gokui), and the Ryū no Maki.
From the Kōbusho to the Butokukai
From the Kōbusho to the Butokukai: Swordsmanship in Transition (opens in a new tab), Inner Dharma, 2026. 360 pages. The late Edo period Kōbusho, the martial academy of the Tokugawa, its swordsmen and their styles, and the institutions that followed it into the modern era.1
During my research on Jikishinkage-ryū, I became interested in the late Edo period Kōbusho that many famous Jikishinkage-ryū swordsmen were attached to. That exploration grew into its own work covering over 20 traditions and 45 practitioners from this time period and serving as a companion to my first book.
Contents Includes: Overview of the Kōbusho Organization, Major Teachers and its roster, the 1839 Kenpō Ryakki of Kubota Sugane, Bakumatsu Units (Yūgekitai, Seieitai, Shōgitai), Gekken-kōgyō, Battōtai, Keihōkan, Keishichō, Dai Nippon Butokukai, Budō Senmon Gakkō, Nativist Shintō from Kokugaku to the Ketsumeidan, and Kobudō Preservation.
End Notes
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These volumes attempt to be precise but are not academic histories. Instead they are close readings of historical sources. In doing so, we relate the statements made about many older martial traditions by their witnesses and practitioners, but each surviving faction or group will have their own in-tradition orthodoxy ↩