The Gekiken Sōdan is found on NDL images 90 to 114 of Hayakawa Junzaburō. It is printed in five kan (卷一–卷五) or volumes with variant kanji (擊劔叢談 / 擊劍叢談) used in the marginal headers. It lists information on many ryūha, including several that are inspired by Tengu and Kuramadera.
Kurama-ryū
Kurama-ryū (鞍馬流) has a single sentence on p. 171 (img 095, upper tier, leftmost column), and Yoshitsune-ryū (義經流) begins immediately below it in the lower tier — so there’s no missing body:
一、鞍馬流は、天正年中、大野將監と云ふ人有りて、此流を傳ふ。
Item. Kurama-ryū: in the Tenshō era (1573–92) there was a man called Ōno Shōgen (大野將監), who transmitted this school.
The distribution of the legend across the cluster, which the author never consolidates, contains:
- 鞍馬流 — named for Kurama, but stripped of myth: only Ōno Shōgen, Tenshō era.
- 義經流 — carries the iconographic Kurama-tengu claim (the Ushiwaka-with-tengu picture, “是より出づるか”), offered as speculation.
- 京流 / 吉岡流 — carry the doctrinal Kurama transmission: the 京八流 and, via the Bugei Shōden, descent from 鬼一法眼 (Kiichi Hōgen), the legendary Kurama master who in the Yoshitsune cycle teaches at the mountain.
The tengu/Kurama transmission in the Sōdan is a diffuse complex — Yoshitsune-and-tengu iconography on one side, Kiichi-Hōgen/Kyō-hachi-ryū pedigree on the other — with the plainly-named Kurama-ryū conspicuously not the bearer of either. That gap (the “Kurama” school itself has no Kurama origin-story, while the myth attaches to its neighbors) is a clean structural observation for the essay, and it’s the same evidentiary posture the author took elsewhere: he records the legendary framing where the sources put it, but declines to weld it onto the school that would seem to invite it most.
Kyō-ryū (京流)
一、京流は昔の京八流の一也と云ふ。近江佐々木六角家の家人、荒井治部少輔と云ふ者此流に達し、後は小田原北條家に仕へて頗る世に名有り。又、山本勘介晴幸入道道鬼、此流に達し名を得たりと云ふ。
Item. Kyō-ryū is said to be one of the old Kyō-hachi-ryū (京八流). A retainer of the Ōmi Sasaki-Rokkaku house, one Arai Jibu-shōyū (荒井治部少輔), mastered it and later served the Odawara Hōjō, becoming widely known; and Yamamoto Kansuke Haruyuki, the lay-monk Dōki (山本勘介晴幸入道道鬼), is also said to have mastered it and gained fame by it.
Yoshioka-ryū (吉岡流) — the Kiichi Hōgen line
一、吉岡流は、吉岡拳法〔一に憲法〕、或は建法と云ふ者、室町家の御師範として兵法所と稱す。鬼一法眼、京八流の末也と、武藝小傳に見へたり。
Item. Yoshioka-ryū: the man called Yoshioka Kenpō (吉岡拳法 〔also written 憲法〕, or 建法), served as fencing instructor to the Muromachi (Ashikaga) house and was styled a “hyōhō-sho.” According to the Bugei Shōden (武藝小傳), [the line] is a downstream branch of Kiichi Hōgen’s Kyō-hachi-ryū (鬼一法眼京八流の末). The lower tier of that page then runs the Yoshioka Kenpō set-pieces you’d expect — that he was originally a Kyoto dyer (京師の染匠) who worked out a kodachi method, that “Kenpō komon” (憲法小紋) cloth is named for him, and the Keichō 17 (1612) enthronement-day brawl in which he cut down an opponent and was finally bested by the naginata-man Ōta Chūbee (太田忠兵衛), retainer of the Kyoto shoshidai Itakura Katsushige — plus the note that whether this Kenpō is the same as the school’s founder is chronologically doubtful.
Yoshitsune-ryū
Yoshitsune-ryū (義經流) entry, from kan 1, img 095 lower band (p. 167):
一、義經流といふは〔上の鞍馬流とは異なる傳なるべし〕、此流の勝負する樣、右の手に太刀をかざし、左の手を差出して敵を引起し、左の手を打せてかはり打也。又傳に、〔鞘に夫を切〕羽織にても手拭にても懸けて敵の面にうち掛け、拂ふ處をかわりて打つと云ふ。其勝負の態を見るに、牛若、鞍馬にて天狗どもと藝を演じ玉ふ繪に、左の手に日出したる扇、右に太刀を持ちたる體を描きたる有り。是より出づるか。又、當流に虎亂と云ふ太刀有り。小太刀を以て敵の態に從ひ、或は打ちき或はぬかし、縱橫上中下に振り廻し、終に付け込みて腕を切りて勝つ事を專らとす。予、父に從ひ江戶に有りし時〔鍛冶橋外、稻荷新道〕、稻荷の神主に義經流を指南せし者あり、名は忘れたり〔もし杉下伊織と云ひしに非ずや、されど混じて定かならず〕。邸中の足輕なんど多く彼に就きて學びしまま、さま〲の咄聞きし事もあれど今は忘れたり。此師は兼ねて棒をも教へしなり。
Item. As for Yoshitsune-ryū 〔this is probably a transmission distinct from the Kurama-ryū above〕: the way this school engages is — with the right hand one holds the sword raised, extends the left hand to draw the enemy up, lets him strike at that left hand, and counters with a switching cut. Another transmission holds that one hangs out a haori or a hand-towel 〔a garbled note here, “鞘に…を切”〕 and casts it at the enemy’s face, then, as he brushes it aside, shifts and strikes. Looking at the form of its engagement: in the picture of the young Ushiwaka (牛若, i.e. Yoshitsune) performing techniques with the tengu at Kurama, he is drawn holding a fan with a rising sun in his left hand and a sword in his right — perhaps [the school] derives from this. This school also has a sword-kata called Koran (虎亂): with a kodachi (small sword), following the opponent’s posture — now striking, now slipping aside — one whirls it vertically and horizontally, high, middle and low, and finally closes in and wins by cutting the arm. When I was in Edo accompanying my father 〔outside Kajibashi, on Inari Shindō〕, there was a man who taught Yoshitsune-ryū to the kannushi (priest) of an Inari shrine; I have forgotten his name 〔was it perhaps one called Sugishita Iori? but it is muddled and I cannot be sure〕. Many of the residence’s foot-soldiers (ashigaru) studied under him, and though I heard various stories, I have now forgotten them. This teacher also taught the staff (bō).
Hōgan-ryū 判官流
Hōgan-ryū (判官流) — kan 1, img 096 (p. 168) sits in the Yoshitsune cluster (判官 Hōgan being Minamoto no Yoshitsune’s title, 九郎判官), grouped with Kurama-ryū (鞍馬流) and Yoshitsune-ryū (義經流), and the author treats it agnostically:
一、判官流と稱するも、義經流と異同を詳にせず。備前にても、今平野多三郞が祖父治左衞門と云者、此流を傳へたり。靑木三郞兵衞、若き時治左衞門に從ひて學びし由聞きて、其習はすわざを尋ね求めしかども、三郞兵衞も年久しき事ゆへ分明ならずとて語らざりき。此等の傳來も如何といふ事をしらず。
Item. As for the school called Hōgan-ryū, whether it is the same as or different from Yoshitsune-ryū is not clear in detail. In Bizen (備前) too, one Jizaemon (治左衛門) — grandfather of the present Hirano Tasaburō (平野多三郎) — transmitted this school. Hearing that Aoki Saburōbee (青木三郎兵衛) had studied under Jizaemon in his youth, I sought him out to ask what techniques were practiced; but Saburōbee, saying it was too long ago to be clear, would not speak of it. So the transmission of these [Yoshitsune-adjacent schools] too is unknown.
A key phrase is ‘其勝負の態を見るに…是より出づるか’ — the 1843 author derives the school’s technical form directly from the Ushiwaka-with-tengu-at-Kurama iconography (the fan-and-sword pose in the picture), and hedges it with か (“perhaps it comes from this”).
That is a clean period instance of a phenomenological/iconographic resemblance being offered as the origin of a transmission, explicitly as speculation rather than documented descent.
Note also that the entry opens by distinguishing itself from Kurama-ryū (上の鞍馬流とは異なる傳なるべし), and Hōgan-ryū in turn says it can’t be told apart from Yoshitsune-ryū — so across the three the author’s consistent posture is that the Kurama/Yoshitsune sword complex trades on the tengu legend while resisting stable lineage differentiation.
The concrete, non-legendary residue in 1843 is small: one kodachi kata (Koran), a face-feint variant, and a half-remembered Edo teacher (tentatively Sugishita Iori) who taught an Inari priest and also taught bō.
Dōki-ryū (道鬼流)
From 096 upper half:
一、道鬼流と稱して山本勘介を祖とし傳ふるは、今往々有り。予が親しく聞きしは、讃州高松に富永甚兵衞あり。
Item. Schools transmitted under the name Dōki-ryū, taking Yamamoto Kansuke (山本勘介) as their founder, are now fairly common here and there. What I have heard at first hand is that in Sanshū Takamatsu (讃州高松) there is a Tominaga Jinbee (富永甚兵衛).
This entry hangs off the Kyō-ryū notice just above it, where Yamamoto Kansuke Haruyuki, the lay-monk Dōki (山本勘介晴幸入道道鬼), is said to have mastered Kyō-ryū. So Dōki-ryū is presented as a set of schools claiming Kansuke as founder, of which the author can vouch only for Tominaga Jinbee in Takamatsu.
Yoshioka-ryū / Kenpō (吉岡流・憲法)
From 096, both tiers:
一、吉岡流は、吉岡拳法〔一に憲法〕、或は建法と云ふ者、室町家の御師範として兵法所と稱す。鬼一法眼、京八流の末也と、武藝小傳に見へたり。
Item. Yoshioka-ryū: the man called Yoshioka Kenpō (吉岡拳法 〔also written 憲法〕, or 建法) served as fencing instructor to the Muromachi (Ashikaga) house and was styled a hyōhō-sho (兵法所). According to the Bugei Shōden (武藝小傳), it is a downstream branch of Kiichi Hōgen’s Kyō-hachi-ryū (鬼一法眼京八流の末).
Origin (the dyer):
一には、憲法はもと京師の染匠なるが、へらを遣ひ覺えて小太刀一流を工夫せりとも云ふ。世に「建法小紋」と號するもの、此建法始めて染出せしといふ。
By one account, Kenpō was originally a Kyoto dyer (京師の染匠) who, having grown adept at handling the dyer’s spatula (へら), devised a kodachi (small-sword) school. The cloth pattern known as “Kenpō komon” (建法小紋) is said to have first been dyed by this Kenpō.
The enthronement-day duel (lower tier, verbatim)
然るに慶長十七年壬子、後水尾帝御卽位の日、憲法、禁庭警固の雜色と喧嘩を仕出し、相手を一刀に切殺し立たるを、「すは喧嘩よ、狼藉よ」とて大に騒動し、棒・乳切木、手におつ取りて取り圍みたり。憲法は小太刀構へ、當る者を切る程に、卽時に手負・死人數多出來て、後には追付く者もなし。時に所司代板倉伊賀守勝重の家人、太田忠兵衞と云ふ者、長刀の上手なりしが、此騒動を聞きてかけ着け、長刀持ちて立向ひ、しばし勝負も見えざりしが、憲法何とかしたりけん、誤りて踏みすべり仰けに倒れたり。忠兵衞聲を掛け、「倒れたる者はきらぬぞ、起き上りて尋常に勝負せよ」といふ。さしもの憲法も此詞を聞きて起き上りて立向ふを、「待てよ」と心得けるにや、足ふみ直し半ば起き上らんとする所を、忠兵衞すかさず切り伏せて勝ちを得たり。
Now, on the enthronement day of Emperor Go-Mizunoo in Keichō 17 (mizunoe-ne, 1612), Kenpō fell into a quarrel with a menial (zōshiki 雜色) of the palace guard and cut the man down at a stroke. Amid the great uproar of “A brawl! An outrage!”, people snatched up staves and chichigiriki (乳切木) and hemmed him in. Kenpō, in a kodachi stance, cut down whoever came at him, so that wounded and dead soon mounted up and in the end none dared pursue. At that point a retainer of the shoshidai Itakura Iga-no-kami Katsushige (板倉伊賀守勝重), one Ōta Chūbee (太田忠兵衛), a master of the naginata, heard the commotion, rushed up, and faced him with his naginata. For a while the issue was unclear; but Kenpō somehow lost his footing, slipped, and fell on his back. Chūbee called out, “I do not cut a man who has fallen — rise and fight fairly.” Even Kenpō, hearing this, rose to face him; but taking the “wait” [at its word], as he set his feet and was half-risen, Chūbee cut him down at once and won.
Chūbee’s own verdict (upper tier, commentary):
其時の評に、「倒れたるを幸ひと切るとも、名高き憲法なれば一かどの高名也。然るを、起して切りし、見聞せし事なし」〔と〕。剛といひ藝といひ、十分の勝也といふ。忠兵衞之を聞きて大に笑ひ云ふ樣、「それは憲法をしらぬ者の評也。此方を屹と見て太刀構へたる氣色、中々近寄り勝つべしとも見えざりし故、さる者なれども、少し油斷して立上らんとする虛を切りて勝ちし也。我剛なるにも藝のすぐれしにもあらず」と云ひしと也。
The assessment of the day ran: “Even to cut him when he happened to fall — since it was the renowned Kenpō, that alone is a signal feat; but to make him rise and then cut him — such a thing has never been seen or heard.” Some said it was a complete victory, by toughness (剛) and skill (藝) both. Chūbee, hearing this, laughed heartily and said: “That is the judgment of people who don’t know Kenpō. When he fixed me with his gaze and took his stance, his air was such that I could scarcely see how to close and win. So — able man that he was — I cut him in the opening as he grew a little careless and began to rise, and thereby won. It was neither my strength nor any superiority of skill.” So he is said to have spoken.
The chronological skepticism:
此憲法を、最初に云ふ拳法の者と一人とせば、時代相違すべし。何樣、子孫此流を受け傳へて、後、又名をも憲法と稱せし者有りし成べし。又、宮本武藏と勝負せしなど云ふ憲法、又右の喧嘩せし者、皆、吉岡流の祖とする拳法にはあらざるか。河內茂左衞門秀元、若き時吉岡の一流を究めしが書し物に、「此流は其比も遍く世に弘まりし」由見えたれば、行れし事、まがふべからず。
If one takes this Kenpō to be one and the same as the Kenpō (拳法) named as the founder, the dates cannot be reconciled. In all likelihood, descendants inherited the school and later men too took the name Kenpō. The Kenpō said to have dueled Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵), and this man of the brawl above — are these perhaps all not the founder Kenpō whom Yoshioka-ryū takes as ancestor? In a writing by Kawachi Mozaemon Hidemoto (河内茂左衛門秀元), who mastered the Yoshioka line in his youth, it appears that “this school was already widely current throughout the realm at that time” — so its currency in that era is beyond doubt.
Succession Names
憲法/拳法 is not a personal name that collides across two men but a succession-name borne by multiple heads of one house — so “the Kenpō who fought Musashi,” “the Kenpō of the 1612 brawl,” and “the founder Kenpō” get fused in popular telling into a single super-swordsman, and the author pulls them apart on chronological grounds (時代相違すべし).
