Matsuzaki Namishirō

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Introduction

We discuss details surrounding the martial arts and competitive practices of Matsuzaki Namishirō [松崎浪四郎], master of Katōda Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu.

Matsuzaki Namishirō ( 松崎浪四郎 (opens in a new tab)), personal name Naoyuki (直之), was a swordsman of the late Bakumatsu and Meiji eras, born on 30 March 1833 in Shōjima-machi, Kurume, the son of the Kurume-han samurai Matsuzaki Hachiemon.

In 1844 he entered the Katōda Shinkage-ryū (加藤田神陰流) kenjutsu practice of Katōda Heihachirō (加藤田平八郎), the ninth-generation head of the Kurume-han Katōda line. Katōda Shinkage-ryū was founded by Katōda Shinsaku (加藤田新作), a student of Nakamura Gonnai of Mujūshin-kenryū (無住心剣流).

At the same time, he took up Hōzōin-ryū sōjutsu (宝蔵院流槍術; spear) under Mori Heiemon. He received his Shinkage license in 1848, Hōzōin license in 1849, and the inner license oku-menkyo (奥免許; advanced full license) in Katōda Shinkage-ryū in 1854 . He was reputed to “always take the first point” and came to be called the foremost swordsman of Kyūshū.

Of Heihachirō’s twelve inner-license holders, the two best remembered are Matsuzaki Namishirō and his dōmon (同門; fellow disciple) in the Katōda Shinkage-ryū line, Umezaki Yaichirō (梅崎弥一郎, 1847–1913), who also practiced Tsuda Ichiden-ryū.

The two men jointly received the Seirenshō at the 1895 Butokukai Taikai — co-recipients in the same group, not teacher and student, Umezaki the junior by fourteen years — and he became a Butokukai kendō hanshi in 1909.¹

Matsuzaki’s kenjutsu was forged through shiai and inspired by the swordsmanship and philosophy of Yamaoka Tesshū later in life. From historical records, his teachings most likely survive as influence on higher-level kendō of Sasaburō and his own legacy, rather than through the direct kata-geiko transmission of the Katōda Shinkage-ryū he himself practiced as a youth. Katōda Shinkage-ryū itself is not represented in either the Nihon Kobudō Kyōkai or the Nihon Kobudō Shinkōkai today and appears to survive only as documentary record rather than as a living transmission in Japan.

Musha Shugyō and Gekken

In 1855 he set out on a warrior’s pilgrimage musha shugyō (武者修行; martial arts pilgrimage) to Edo. In a celebrated series of bouts at the Oka-han Edo residence he defeated Momoi Shunzō (桃井春蔵) of Kyōshin Meichi-ryū and Saitō Shintarō (斎藤新太郎) of Shintō Munen-ryū, drew with Ueda Umanosuke, and lost to Chiba Eijirō (千葉栄次郎) of the Genbukan — that is, he bested the representatives of two of Edo’s three great dōjō and fell only to the third.

There is a phrase:

“dignity to Momoi, technique to Chiba, power to Saitō”

(位は桃井、技は千葉、力は斎藤)

that arises from these encounters and spread in the Meiji period. Namashirō encountered all three:

1. The Shigakukan (士学館) of Kyōshin Meichi-ryū (鏡新明智流), associated with “dignity”. Opened in 1773 by the first Momoi Shunzō, Momoi Naoyoshi (桃井直由), at Kayaba-chō, and moved by the second Shunzō to Ōtomi-chō on the Asari-gashi, where it took the name Shigakukan. In Matsuzaki’s day the head was the fourth Momoi Shunzō, Momoi Naomasa (桃井直正, 1825–1885); a Numazu-han samurai’s second son who took full transmission at twenty-four and sharply raised the school’s standing and enrollment. This is the “Momoi” Matsuzaki defeated, and the “位の桃井” of the saying. Among its men were the Tosa figures Takechi Hanpeita and Okada Izō.

2. The Genbukan (玄武館) of Hokushin Ittō-ryū (北辰一刀流), the “technique” house. Founded in 1822 by Chiba Shūsaku (千葉周作) at Nihonbashi Shinagawa-chō, later moved to Kanda Otamagaike. The founder Chiba Shūsaku (1792/94–1855) was still the nominal head but was in his final year; the man Matsuzaki actually faced — and the only one of the three to beat him — was Shūsaku’s gifted second son, Chiba Eijirō (千葉栄次郎). So in the saying’s terms Matsuzaki fell only to “技の千葉,” technique. The Genbukan was the largest and most famous of the three.

3. The Renpeikan (練兵館) of Shintō Munen-ryū (神道無念流), the “power” house. Founded in 1826 by the first Saitō Yakurō (斎藤弥九郎, 1798–1871), who had trained under the third-generation Shintō Munen-ryū head Okada Jūmatsu (岡田十松) at the Gekkenkan, at Kudanshita near the Manaita-bashi; it later stood at Kudan-zaka-ue, on what is now the Yasukuni Shrine grounds. Yakurō remained the patriarch, but daily instruction was led by his sons, and the one Matsuzaki beat was Saitō Shintarō (斎藤新太郎), later the second Yakurō — the “力の斎藤,” power. Katsura Kogorō (Kido Takayoshi) was the Renpeikan’s best-known student.

Matsuzaki bested dignity (Momoi) and power (Saitō). He was stopped only by technique (Chiba Eijirō).²

Shunpūkan Training

It was during this period that Matsuzaki Namishirō formed his lifelong friendship with Yamaoka Tesshū (山岡鉄舟).

Matsuzaki fought in the battle of Iwaki-Taira during the Boshin War, on behalf of the Kurume domain. It is said that Matsuzaki also participated in the Battle of Taharazaka during the Satsuma Rebellion.

On 17 November 1870 (Meiji 3) Matsuzaki was appointed official kenjutsu instructor shinan-yaku (指南役; instructor/guidance role) to the Kurume-han (久留米藩), receiving one-generation samurai (shizoku) status; among the domain’s instructors he was made chief.

When the domains were abolished in Meiji 5 (1872), the post of shinan-yaku lapsed with the institutions that had sustained it, and for the next several years Matsuzaki served as a civil official in Mizuma Prefecture (三潴県) as a village headman kochō (戸長; village headman) and head of its second district, retiring in March 1876 when Mizuma was absorbed into Fukuoka Prefecture.

In the Meiji period Yamaoka, by then a chamberlain to the emperor, brought Namishirō to Tokyo (1883–84), where he trained at Yamaoka’s Shunpūkan (春風館). This is where Matsuzaki’s late identity as a Zen-influenced kenshi took place.

Yamaoka Tesshū (山岡鉄舟, 1836–1888) is one of the bakumatsu no san-shū, the three “shū” — with Katsu Kaishū and Takahashi Deishū. He had trained in Jikishinkage-ryū, Hokushin Ittō-ryū and Nakanishi-ha Ittō-ryū kenjutsu and the spear school of Jitokuin-ryū / Ninshin-ryū (自得院流・忍心流; two alternate names).

Out of his own practice and Zen training he deepened the Ittō-ryū maxim that “one sword becomes ten thousand and the ten thousand return to one,” proclaimed “no sword beyond the mind” (心外無刀), founded Mutō-ryū (無刀流) in 1880 and opened the Shunpūkan dōjō in 1882. Its full name is Ittō Shōden Mutō-ryū (一刀正伝無刀流). The ideal Yamaoka set down for it is the opposite of a prize-fighting hall: Mutō-ryū swordsmanship does not contend over win-or-lose between self and other, but requires only the forging of the mind, the tempering of technique and the taking of a natural victory — sword and Zen as one (剣禅一如; sword-Zen unity).

That ethos did not mean soft training. The Shunpūkan was known for an extraordinarily severe trials. Practitioners could engage in 200 matches throughout a single day, 600 over three days or in the most extreme trial, called tachikiri or seigan (立ち切り／誓 願), 1,400 bouts over seven days. Through all of this, spiritual cultivation was held as central. This is the environment Yamaoka brought Matsuzaki into in 1883–84. Yamaoka taught at the Imperial Household Ministry’s Saineikan (済寧館) and ran the Kensō Jūjutsu Eizoku-sha (剣槍柔術永続社), which became a model for the Dai Nippon Butokukai — and Matsuzaki is counted among his disciples.

Matsuzaki later fought a match against Yamaoka and won — but as a direct result of that bout he decided to become the student of his long-time colleague. He cut his shinai down from three shaku eight sun to the Mutō-ryū length of three shaku two sun and dedicated himself towards cultivating Tesshū’s mindset on Zen swordsmanship.

The mature Matsuzaki that modern kendō remembers is, in large part, the Matsuzaki of the Shunpūkan. Matsuzaki’s very last recorded match, at the 1895 Butokukai, was against Kagawa Zenjirō (香川善治郎) — the man who succeeded Yamaoka as the second-generation head of Mutō-ryū.

Namishirō later took charge of a dōjō at the Washio residence, and took part in matches at the Imperial Household Ministry’s Saineikan (済寧館) and in the budō-preservation society Eizoku-sha (永続社) alongside Yamaoka, Sakakibara Kenkichi, and others. Sakakibara’s 1873 gekiken-kōgyō public exhibitions did more than anything to keep swordsmanship alive through the post-Meiji Restoration collapse.

Namishirō’s opponents through his later career include Tokuno Sekishirō (得能関四郎), Shimoe Hidetarō (下江秀太郎), Hemmi Sōsuke (逸見宗助) - who he defeated in an imperial-viewing match - and Okumura Sakonta (奥村左近太). Namashirō was defeated by Okumura in late 1884 and remained a recurring rival once he was in Kyōto.

Tokunō met Matsuzaki twice in 1884 — a draw at the Imperial Household Ministry’s Saineikan, and a win over him at the Mukōgaoka Yayoi-sha tournament on 8 November (Meiji 17). Matsuzaki had a poor day at that meet: Okumura beat him there as well, losing himself only to Kuchihara Yoshitsugu (朽原義次) of Ryūgō-ryū — the surviving bout-by-bout results (Okumura’s, for one) show these were direct head-to-head matches, not bracket placings.

In facing Shimoe — Chiba Eijirō’s student — when he challenged the Tokyo police, Matsuzaki was meeting a direct heir of the one Genbukan line that had beaten him three decades earlier. Okumura remained a recurring rival, and the two met again at the 1895 Butoku-sai, where both were awarded the Seirenshō. Takayama Minesaburō (高山峰三郎), remembered for defeating thirty-six Keishichō fencing instructors in succession, was another of Matsuzaki’s recurring rivals — their long contest is given a chapter of its own by Sonoda.

Kendō Legacy

Late in life Matsuzaki is recorded as having reformed his transmission under the name Yamaoka-ryū (山岡流), in homage to Tesshū.

He returned to his Fukuoka dōjō in 1885 and once more took up prefectural office, serving from September 1886 to December 1887 as a secretary shoki (書記; secretary/clerk) and deputy chief prison warden kanshu fukuchō (看守副長; deputy prison warden) in Fukuoka Prefecture; he was then engaged as a kenjutsu instructor for the Kyōto Prefectural Police from 1888, and in 1895 was among the recipients of the Seirenshō (精錬証) at the first Dai Nippon Butokukai taikai in Kyōto.

He died at his home in Kyoto on 19 June 1896 at age 63 and was buried at Rinka-in (隣華院), a subtemple of Myōshin-ji (妙心寺) — the Rinzai Zen monastery whose mountain name is Shōbōzan (正法山) — under the kaimyō Kenkō-in (剣光院; “Hall of the Sword’s Light”) Gensō Ryōkū Koji (玄叟了空居士).

His documented influence runs into modern kendō through Takano Sasaburō (高野佐三郎), who named him the finest swordsman in Japan, said he had received his inner (hiden) teachings, and praised his match-method — pressing (seme) and breaking the opponent’s spirit before striking, in a kendō he called Zen-deep in an essay later reprinted by the All Japan Kendō Federation.

The 1925 Kendō no Hattatsu (剣道の発達) - NDL 1017872 - first chapter, 緒論, listing densho and diaries item by item, numbered), and two of the entries touch Matsuzaki Namishirō directly.

1. Entry 二九, 剣道比試記. The annotation reads that it collects, from the early Kaei years through early Meiji, the musha-shugyō diaries and records of contemporary teachers’ houses of Katōda’s senior disciple Matsuzaki Namishirō (加藤田家の高弟松崎浪四郎) — and it calls this a peerless historical source (無二の史料) for knowing the state of the kendō world, especially in Edo.
2. Entry 二七, 遊歴日記, is glossed as a musha-shugyō diary of the Tenpō years — very likely part of the same body of Katōda-house travel-diary material, sitting two entries up from the Matsuzaki item under the same run of Katōda densho.

The diaries. All three sit in the numbered catalogue of Katōda-house documents on that one page, and every one is held in the Katōda collection at Kurume:

• 二七 Yūreki nikki (遊歴日記) — a Tenpō-era musha-shugyō diary.
• 二八 Katōda Heihachirō Tōyū nikki (加藤田平八郎東遊日記) — Katōda Heihachirō’s eastern-travel diary.
• 二九 Kendō hishiki (剣道比試記) — the Matsuzaki item.

Sources and Further Reading

secondary

These dictionaries are also the principal published sources for Matsuzaki’s documented contemporaries discussed here — Umezaki Yaichirō (梅崎弥一郎), Okumura Sakonta (奥村左近太), Kagawa Zenjirō (香川善治郎), Takayama Minesaburō (高山峰三郎), Tokuno Sekishirō (得能関四郎) and the rest of the Butōkukai‑era circle.

On the dormant Kurume lines — Katōda Shinkage‑ryū (加藤田神陰流), Tsuda Ichiden‑ryū (津田一伝流) and its parent Asayama Ichiden‑ryū (浅山一伝流) — see the Bugei Ryūha Daijiten; they have little dedicated monographic literature. For Tsuda Ichiden‑ryū’s modern military‑sword legacy through Tsuda Kyōshū (津田教修) at the Army Toyama School, consult histories of the 陸軍戸山学校 and Toyama‑ryū battōjutsu (戸山流抜刀術).

The “three great Edo dōjō” (江戸三大道場) — the Genbukan (Hokushin Ittō‑ryū; Chiba Shūsaku), the Renpeikan (Shintō Munen‑ryū; Saitō Yakurō) and the Shigakukan (Kyōshin Meichi‑ryū; Momoi Shunzō) — and the appraisal “i wa Momoi, waza wa Chiba, chikara wa Saitō” (位は桃井、技は千葉、力は斎藤) attributed to Matsuzaki are a Meiji‑era retrospective, treated in standard bakumatsu‑kenjutsu histories and the Bugei Ryūha Daijiten.

End Notes