Asayama Ichiden-ryu
浅山一伝流A composite Japanese old school founded by Asayama Ichidensai. Several separate lines now carry the name, and the details about the founder differ among them.
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Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Asayama Ichiden-ryu
Asayama Ichiden-ryu is a composite Japanese martial arts school. The Nipponica encyclopedia states that Asayama Ichiden founded it around the Tensho era (1573 to 1591), that it at first combined swordsmanship, iai, jujutsu, staff work and other skills, and that in modern times it split into many branches. Koryu.com places its origin in the Tensho or Keicho era and lists a curriculum of kenjutsu, iaijutsu, kamajutsu, bojutsu and taijutsu. The dictionaries Kokugo daijiten and Daijisen Plus speak of the beginning of the Edo period. We have not found the exact year. According to Nipponica, the tradition about the founder differs by branch, and his origin and dates are unclear. The dictionary Nihon Jinmei Daijiten ascribes to him the years 1610 to 1687. An article from 1986 in a Japanese journal on budo, however, ascribes these dates to another man who also used the name Asayama Ichiden. The article's author belongs to one of the school's lines. Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai lists the school with a 22nd holder in Koga in Ibaraki Prefecture, and koryu.com names Ozaki Kiyoshi in Kanagawa as its representative. Japanese Wikipedia knows four living lines: one with the sword, iai and kamajutsu, two focused on jujutsu, and one with bojutsu and hojojutsu.
History
The Nipponica encyclopedia describes three main lines. The first is the iai branch of Ichiden-ryu battojutsu, whose sixth representative died in the Jokyo era. The second is a school led in Edo by a family of swordsmen, known in the Kyoho to Kansei eras. According to its records, the line ran from the founder Asayama Ichidensai Shigeaki through five generations to the reviver of the school, from whom the founder of the family branch took over the teaching and began to teach in 1702. The third line is documented in the writings of the iai school of the Matsue domain. It was founded by the leading student of another man named Asayama Ichiden, who died at the age of 78. Nipponica adds that the identity of the people given under similar names remains open. A 1986 article in a Japanese journal on budo states that, according to a portrait and inscription on a gravestone, the founder spent the Keicho period in prayer at the Asayama Fudo shrine in Tamba Province. According to the same article, the reviver of the school was the seventh teacher after the founder, had a dojo in Edo and died in 1691, and a hundred years later the family of his successors held a memorial ceremony for him. The author concludes that the founder, the man who died in 1687 and the reviver are three different persons. The author belongs to one of the school's lines.
How it differs
Nipponica states that an independent school in the Kurume domain split from the Edo school at the end of the Edo period, and the Matsue line is likewise an independent iai school. The 1986 article says the founder's jujutsu survived in the Sendai domain, while his swordsmanship died out in individual domains. In the same article, the iai of the man who died in 1687 was called simply Ichiden-ryu, spread in present-day Gunma Prefecture, Matsue and Owari, and most of its branches died out.
Technique
According to Nipponica, the Edo school's writings counted 94 items for the basic forms alone. They included forms with the wooden sword, shinai, kodachi, kama, staff, iai, kogusoku and others. Koryu.com lists kenjutsu, iaijutsu, kamajutsu, bojutsu and taijutsu as its disciplines. We have not found specific techniques or form names in encyclopedias or scholarly sources.
Training
According to Nipponica, from 1736 to 1741 the Edo school let holders of the mokuroku and higher grades practice sparring in a bamboo torso protector. According to the same source, the Matsue iai founder selected the essentials of his teacher's teaching and replaced the earlier practice with blunt swords by practice with wooden swords and the shinai.
Ranks and progression
According to Nipponica, the Edo school also offered separate courses, awarding each its own mokuroku and certificate. Japanese Wikipedia states that in the taijutsu line taught in Tokyo in the Meiji period by a man from Aizu claiming the 13th generation, progress was divided into grades from fifth to first kyu, and the student received the scroll Chi no maki as a license.
Today
Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai lists the school with a 22nd holder and a dojo in Koga in Ibaraki Prefecture. Koryu.com names Ozaki Kiyoshi in Kanagawa as the representative without saying which line is meant. Japanese Wikipedia knows four living lines: one with the sword, iai and kamajutsu, two focused on jujutsu, of which one comes from the Sendai domain and the other from Meiji-period Tokyo, and one with bojutsu and hojojutsu in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Did you know
According to Japanese Wikipedia, the system of forms set by the police at the beginning of the Meiji period took over from Asayama Ichiden-ryu the sixth wooden sword form and the first standing iai form.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Asayama Ichiden-ryu?
The Nipponica encyclopedia, the dictionary Nihon Jinmei Daijiten and koryu.com all name Asayama Ichidensai. Nipponica adds that the tradition about him differs by branch, and his origin and dates are unclear.
When did Asayama Ichiden-ryu arise?
Nipponica places its origin around the Tensho era (1573 to 1591), koryu.com in the Tensho or Keicho era, and the dictionaries Kokugo daijiten and Daijisen Plus at the beginning of the Edo period.
Why do the descriptions of Asayama Ichiden-ryu differ?
According to Nipponica and the dictionary Daijisen Plus, the school split into many branches with differing traditions. Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai and koryu.com today name two different representatives.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.