Register record
Identity & authority
- Attestation
- corroboration: —
Names
| type | kanji | romaji | reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| myoji | Imahori |
Imahori (今堀), whose given name is written 千五百蔵 or 千五百歳 and whose reading cannot be confidently established, but may be Chiiozō, is among the least documented of the eleven initial Kōbusho kenjutsu instructors.
He was appointed in the shinban (新番; New Guard) unit under Yamaguchi Kanbei. The Wikipedia roster attaches him to Shinkage-ryū (神陰流); the Mata-shichi blog describes him as a Jikishinkage-ryū (直心影流) swordsman “of whom the particulars are unknown.”
If the Shinkage-ryū reading is correct, it would point not to Jikishinkage-ryū but to another Shinkage-ryū line still living in the bakumatsu. An Imahori Toyotarō (今堀登与太郎, also written 登代太郎) appears among the sewa-kokoroe appointed later the same year. He is a second man, not this one under another name: the Rikugun rekishi gives each of them a separate dated career — Toyotarō at koma 145 and 149, the present figure at koma 152 — and they are kept distinct throughout this book. A family relationship is likely but undocumented.
Whether Imahori’s “Shinkage-ryū” denotes a branch of the Kashima / Jikishinkage tradition, a separate Shinkage line or a copyist’s substitution for 直心影流 cannot be settled from the available material, and is left open here.
