Kitō-ryū (起倒流) was taught at the Kōbusho (講武所) by Motoyama Shōō (本山正翁) and Iikubo Tsunetoshi (飯久保恒年) — the latter was later best known as Kanō Jigorō’s (嘉納治五郎) teacher.
Motoyama Shōō was a Kōbusho Kitō-ryū jūjutsu kyōju-kata (教授方; instructor) at the bakumatsu and the father of Kanō Jigorō’s Tokyo University classmate Motoyama Masahisa (本山正久〔reading tentative〕); it was Motoyama who introduced Kanō to Iikubo.
Iikubo Tsunetoshi (common name Kuwakichi, 鍬吉) was Edo-born, learned Kitō-ryū from youth under Takenaka Tetsunosuke (竹中鉄之助) as his senior disciple, opened a dōjō at Azabu Higakubo (麻布日ヶ窪) and likewise served as a Kōbusho kyōju-kata; after the Restoration he followed the Tokugawa to Shizuoka, then returned to a post in Tokyo. He received his license in 1856 and was Kanō’s last jūjutsu teacher. Iikubo also regularly cross-matched with Totsuka-ha Yōshin-ryū (戸塚派楊心流).
Chén Yuánbīn
Chén Yuánbīn (陳元贇; Chin Genpin) was a late-Ming literatus who came to Japan and lodged at the Kokushō-ji (国昌寺) in Azabu (麻布) around 1625–27, where the temple record says he conveyed something of Chinese grappling to three rōnin (浪人):
- Fukuno Shichirōemon Masakatsu (福野七郎右衛門正勝)
- Isogai Jirōzaemon (磯貝次郎左衛門)
- Miura Yojiemon (三浦与次右衛門)
That thread of instruction then runs into Ryōi Shintō-ryū (良移心当流) and Kitō-ryū (起倒流), commemorated on the 1779 Kitō-ryū kenpō stele at Atago Jinja (愛宕神社).
The researcher Takahashi Masaru (高橋賢) argues Chén’s martial transmission is a later fiction, claiming that Fukuno’s Ryōi Shintō-ryū densho are identical in content both before and after his supposed encounter with Chén. At both points the school is yoroi-kumiuchi (鎧組討; armored grappling), which is assumed to have little technical overlap with Chinese kenpō (拳法; boxing). Older records describe Chén talking about Chinese seizing-techniques, not necessarily teaching them directly.
Kitō-ryū is the school behind jūdō’s Koshiki-no-kata (古式の形; “ancient forms”), and the contrast between throw-centric Kitō-ryū and the atemi-and-grappling of Tenjin Shin’yō-ryū (天神真楊流) is what pushed Kanō toward his synthesis. Kanō Jigorō rejected the Chinese-origin thesis of older Japanese yawara (柔). This is in keeping with the sentiment of his era. He believed the Takenouchi-ryū (竹内流), not Chén Yuánbīn, was the likely origin of Japanese formalized grappling.
