Saimura Gorō

Saimura Gorō (斎村五郎, 1887–1969) was, with Mochida Moriji, one of the two most eminent kendō masters formed at the Butokukai’s teacher-training school, and one of the five men ever awarded the tenth dan; his fierce temper earned him the by-names “Thunder Gorō” (雷五郎) and “Brawler Gorō” (ケンカ五郎).¹

Born in Fukuoka as the third son of the former Fukuoka-domain samurai Saimura Kasei, he entered the prefectural Shūyūkan middle school and learned swordsmanship at the Iaidō (遺愛堂) dōjō under Yoshidome Katsura, an Abetate-ryū (安倍立) instructor and Genyōsha member; his classmate and lifelong friend there was Ogata Taketora, later a deputy prime minister. In 1906 he entered the Bujutsu Kyōin Yōseijo (武術教員養成所) as a first-term student under Naitō Takaharu, graduated in 1909, and — after taking the seirenshō (精錬証) in 1913 — became assistant professor of kendō at the institute’s successor, the Budō Senmon Gakkō (Japanese Wikipedia, n.d.).

In 1916, at twenty-nine, he moved to Tokyo. He received the hanshi title in 1928 and the kyōshi title in 1933, and taught at the Metropolitan Police, the Imperial Palace Police, the Army Toyama School, several Waseda schools and Nihon University, and as professor at the Kokushikan Senmon Gakkō. He appeared in the imperial-review special bouts of 1934 and 1940. On the eve of his suicide on 15 August 1945, the war minister Anami Korechika met and practiced kendō with him; after the war, Saimura worked to revive kendō under the Occupation ban. In 1957 he received the tenth dan, in 1963 the Medal of Honour with Purple Ribbon (紫綬褒章), and in 1964 he performed the Nihon Kendō Kata with Mochida Moriji at the Tokyo Olympics.²

Open Questions

• His Abetate-ryū (安倍立) grounding under Yoshidome — the school’s transmission and what grade he reached before the Yōseijo — is thinly documented and worth a dedicated source.
• The relative weight of his Kokushikan professorship in the school’s prewar kendō program, given his connection to Shibata Tokujirō, could be developed from the Kokushikan side.

References

secondary

End Notes