Shinkage-ryū is the swordsmanship of Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami and the schools that descend from his teachings. I began practicing Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū (opens in a new tab) kenjutsu in 2008.
Books
The Truth of the Calm Spirit. Inner Dharma, 2025. 368 pages. An examination of the practice of Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu through the lens of internal martial arts.
Mikkyō, Zen, and Daoist Sources in Shinkage-ryū. Mountain, Sword, and Mind, Volume II. Inner Dharma, 2026. 437 pages. The Heihō Kadensho, the Tsuki no Shō and Takuan’s writings in translation, with the later Shinkage-ryū tradition.
Essays and Articles
Translations of densho, analyses and essays on Shinkage-ryū, Jikishinkage-ryū, and related arts. Companion historical work focused on the transition of kenjutsu into modernity can be found here. My research into the influence of Shugendō on early martial traditions is also available.
Yamada Ippūsai Mitsunori
Yamada Ippūsai Mitsunori (山田一風斎光徳) studied Jikishin Seitō-ryū as a youth and then studied Yagyū Shinkage-ryū heihō in a faction of the Edo line of that art. Later in life he returned to his first training, and eventually inherited that line of practice.
Shinkage-ryū in Kyushu
The Kyushu area Shinkage-ryū densho and the Tsuki no Shō of Yagyū Mitsuyoshi both provide descriptions of gokui and kuden level Shinkage-ryū teachings, the first in the form of makimono that list topics and the second in commentary by Mitsuyoshi.
The Shinkage-ryū Sotomono of Nabeshima Naotomo (1705)
We provide a translation of a text on military strategy by Nabeshima Naotomo, as related to Yamazaki Jinzaemon in 1705 when Nabeshima was ninety years of age. From Fukui 1937’s multi-volume work on the Tokugawa.
Comparing the Heihō Zakki (1708) to the Mokuroku Kudensho (1764)
Summarizing Karukome’s analysis of the content of two Edo period Jikishinkage-ryū transmission documents.
Analysis of Jikishinkage-ryū Densho Commentary
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.
Drifting East, Mooring West
A short translation of a matching-rhyme quatrain, brushed on a slip and bound into the front matter of the 1898 Takuan Zenshū, likely by Takuan, that turns on Zen imagery of drifting with conditions and remaining untouched by the world.
Taisha-ryū, Denrinbō Raikei, and Hikosan Shugendō
Ming Chinese master of Taisha-ryū and Shugendō practitioner. Some contrasts between Hiko Shugendō and Dewa Shugendō and a digression to a famous school of sword smiths.
Evolution of Jikishinkage-ryū Densho
Summarizing Karukome’s research into the composition of written densho of Jikishinkage-ryū, especially where Kashima-centric claims enter the art.
Memorial Steles of Jikishinkage-ryū
A survey of Jikishinkage-ryū memorial steles across Kashima Jingū and Chiba — their texts, and the succession dispute they record.
Matsuzaki Namishirō and Katōda Shinkage-ryū
Matsuzaki Namishirō (松崎浪四郎, 1833–1896) of Kurume: his training in Katōda Shinkage-ryū, his musha shugyō and gekken years, the Shunpūkan, and his place in the early kendō world.
Ōshima-ryū Sōjutsu Densho
We examine a densho from 1792 of Ōshima-ryū, a spear tradition stemming from Ōshima Hanroku Yoshitsuna who studied methods passed down from Yuasa Shinroku. Its signature weapon was a long suyari and it held a long-time rivalry with the Hōzōin-ryū.
Ibaraki area Jikishinkage-ryū
Hakomori Yosaburō (箱守与三郎祐郷) taught Jikishinkage-ryū in Makabe-gun, Ibaraki, founded the Genbukan at Shimotsuma in 1904 and was the later Jikishinkage-ryū teacher of Nakayama Tatsusaburō (中山辰三郎).
Fixed measurement and the three accordances
Sōjaku-no-koto (相尺之事; mutual distance or measure) is one of the formal matters listed in historical mokuroku of Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu. We examine its relationship to Sino-Japanese philosophical concepts.
Eight Phases and Eight Extremes
Detail of Hassō Happa from the 1800 Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū Hōjō densho of Naganuma Tadasato, copied by Ogawa Yashichi, its place in Hōjō swordsmanship, and how the eight phases may relate to the eight extremes of Daoist Huainanzi geography.
Kodachi: The ura of Hōjō
Discussion of kodachi and habiki practice in Jikishinkage-ryū Seitō-ha as informed by an examination of Saitō Akinobu (1901) Gokui Kyōju Zukai, explaining brief oral teachings.
Late Ming Chinese Influence on Ogasawara Genshinsai
The writings and practice of Ogasawara Genshinsai, his travels in late Ming China, and what Wú Shū’s 1662 preface shows about the direction of sword transmission between Japan and China.
A-Un, Gogyō, Godai and Beyond
A brief discussion of the seasonal mappings of kata in Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu and how those relate to Daoist complementarity, five phase theory, and partially to Mikkyō concepts.
On Researching Gokui
Reflections on researching and writing about inner principles of Japanese swordsmanship and relating those back to philosophical topics.
Sente, Kuzushi and Marobashi
Reading the kata of Jikishinkage-ryū through kuzushi — from the hidden order of initiative in tō-no-kata, through the turning point at its capstone, to the close-quarter application of kodachi — framed by the triad of heaven, earth, and man.
Hōjō ken Kokoro-e sho
Text, with a translation, 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.
Divergence and Unification in Shinkage-ryū (opens in a new tab)
An essay on kata, heihō and shugyō, comparing and contrasting different surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū, with reflections on my own practice.
General Qi Jiguang’s Jixiao Xinshu and Reflections on Claims of Martial Virtue (opens in a new tab)
A look at some older writings from Japanese koryū that reference classical Chinese military treatises, and how the practices described in those works may be represented in arts surviving today.
