Heki-ryu (School of Foot Archery)
日置流The mainstream of Japanese archery per the Daijisen dictionary: a Muromachi-period school attributed to Heki Danjo Masatsugu, per Nipponica a school of shooting on foot with many branches.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Heki-ryu (School of Foot Archery)
According to the Daijisen dictionary, Heki-ryu is the mainstream of Japanese archery, founded in the Muromachi period by Heki Danjo Masatsugu, and Nipponica and Heibonsha call it a school of shooting on foot. The Nipponica encyclopedia, in Irie Kohei's article, calls him the reviver of Japanese archery, because during the Sengoku wars he created an innovative method of shooting on foot based on practical use, in contrast to the earlier formalized approach based on ceremonial customs, and adds that there are many theories about his origin and few reliable sources. According to Nipponica, the oldest sources Honcho bugei shoden and Bujutsu ryusoroku state that he came from Yamato, became famous for archery on his travels, took the tonsure on Mount Koya in old age and died at fifty-nine, while according to the Yamato-ryu writings he came from Iga. Nipponica gives 1502 as the year of death, Britannica places the founding of the school in the Meio years 1492 to 1501 and Heibonsha says the years of birth and death are unknown. A 2014 study by Inazawa Yuko names Yoshida Shigekata as the founder and states that the Yoshida family documents contain two different stories: according to one, Danjo initiated Shigekata into the way of shooting, according to the other, Danjo is another name of Shigekata himself.
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According to Heibonsha, Yoshida Shigekata, founder of Yoshida-ryu, took over all of Masatsugu's innovations with his son Shigemasa, and from them they spread across the country, and the Nikkoku dictionary places the beginning of Yoshida-ryu in 1507. According to Heibonsha, the Izumo, Sekka, Dosetsu, Insai and Okura branches split off from it, and the side branch Chikurin flourished in the han of Owari and Kii and excelled in toshiya contests. Nipponica describes the founders of the individual branches: Yoshida Shigekatsu, fourth son of Shigemasa, who taught Gamo Ujisato and Hosokawa Fujitaka, Ban Dosetsu, who took over the Sekka lineage in 1588, Yoshida Insai, born in 1562, who taught archery to the second and third Tokugawa shoguns, and the monk Chikurinbo Nyojo, who received a license in 1551 and began using the name Chikurin-ha. Heki-ryu belonged to the official arts of the han: a 2010 study by Sato Tamaki states that the Kodokan school in Mito adopted Heki-ryu and its Sekka and Insai branches, and according to a 1998 conference paper by Kurosu Ken, the Insai, Dosetsu and Yoshida branches were handed down in the Morioka han. The Maypedia encyclopedia states that Heki-ryu and Ogasawara-ryu have survived to this day and divide the Japanese world of kyuda into two parts, and Green writes that new schools that emerged from Heki-ryu continue to this day. However, no branch of Heki-ryu is among the members of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai.
History
Nipponica states in Irie Kohei's article that Heki-ryu arose during the Sengoku wars as an innovative method of shooting on foot based on practical use, in contrast to the earlier formalized approach based on ceremonial customs, and that Heki Danjo Masatsugu is therefore called the reviver of Japanese archery. According to Nipponica there are many theories about his origin and few reliable sources: the oldest sources Honcho bugei shoden and Bujutsu ryusoroku say that he came from Yamato, became famous for archery on his travels, took the tonsure on Mount Koya in old age and died at fifty-nine, while according to the Yamato-ryu writings he came from Iga, belonged to the northern guard and after an illness shut himself away in Yamato to study archery. Heibonsha states that he lived in the Meio era, traveled the provinces, gathered people and held shoots to spread shooting, and that, unlike the earlier shooting of the higher classes, his shooting on foot was accepted as the bow of the people. The sources differ on dating: Daijisen places the origin in the middle Muromachi, Nikkoku in the late Muromachi, Britannica in the Meio years 1492 to 1501, Nipponica gives 1502 as the year of death and Heibonsha does not know the years of birth and death. A 2014 study by Inazawa Yuko names Yoshida Shigekata as the founder and states that the documents of the Yoshida family of the Ashimori han contain two stories: according to one, Danjo initiated Shigekata into the way of shooting, according to the other, Danjo is another name of Shigekata, lord of Kawamori castle. Japanese Wikipedia also gives as probable the interpretation that he is a fictitious person.
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According to Nipponica, around 1494 to 1500 Masatsugu passed the school to Yoshida Shigekata and his son Shigemasa (according to Nikkoku, of the Sasaki clan in Omi), Heibonsha writes that Yoshida-ryu took over all his innovations and that from it they spread across the country, and Nikkoku places the beginning of Yoshida-ryu in 1507. According to Heibonsha, the Izumo, Sekka, Dosetsu, Insai and Okura branches split off from it, and the side branch Chikurin, strongly influenced by Yoshida-ryu, flourished in the han of Owari and Kii and excelled in toshiya contests. Nipponica describes the founders of the branches: the Sekka branch was founded by Yoshida Shigekatsu, fourth son of Shigemasa, born in 1512, who served no lord, lived in Kyoto and taught Gamo Ujisato, Ukita Hideie and Hosokawa Fujitaka, the Dosetsu branch split off from Sekka when Ban Dosetsu took over its lineage in 1588, the Insai branch was founded by Yoshida Insai, born in 1562 in Omi, who taught archery to the second and third Tokugawa shoguns, and the Chikurin branch by the monk Chikurinbo Nyojo of Omi, who received a Heki-ryu license in 1551 and served the lord of Kiyosu. According to another tradition cited by Nipponica, the archer Heki Sadatsugu lived in the Oei period with two sons, the elder Danjo Masatsugu in Yamato and the younger Yazaemon Noritsugu in Iga, from whose lineage the Chikurin branch came. Heki-ryu belonged to the official arts of the han. A 2010 study by Sato Tamaki states that the Kodokan school in Mito, opened in 1841, adopted four archery schools, Yamato-ryu, Heki-ryu and its Sekka and Insai branches, and a 1998 conference paper by Kurosu Ken states that the Insai, Dosetsu and Yoshida branches were handed down in the Morioka han. Nipponica states that the Insai branch spread to Echizen, Okayama, Hiroshima, Mito, Aizu, Satsuma and Morioka and that the technique of the Chikurin branch was passed to the Kii han, where a famous contest for the highest results arose between Owari and Kii.
How it differs
The Maypedia encyclopedia states that Heki-ryu was accepted by lower warriors and the people and that, together with Ogasawara-ryu, it divides the Japanese world of kyuda into two parts. Heibonsha contrasts the shooting on foot of Heki-ryu with the earlier shooting of the higher classes and states in an older edition that the Ogasawara family taught the ceremonial side of archery and horse riding in the Muromachi period. Japanese Wikipedia divides the schools into those of ceremonial customs and mounted shooting, such as Ogasawara-ryu and Takeda-ryu, and those focused on how to shoot, such as Heki-ryu and Yamato-ryu. Britannica calls Heki-ryu a representative archery school and names the Sekka, Dosetsu, Insai and Chikurin branches beside Yoshida, while Heibonsha and Nikkoku treat Yoshida-ryu as a separate whole that the branches split from.
Technique
According to Nipponica, Heki-ryu is an innovative method of shooting on foot, hosha, based on practical use. Green sums up Heki Danjo's approach with the words hi, kan, chu, that is fly, pierce and hit the center, and states that this approach was quickly accepted, and Heibonsha writes that after leaving service Masatsugu attained understanding of these three principles. Japanese Wikipedia states that Heki-ryu raises the bow diagonally at the front left, unlike Ogasawara-ryu and yabusame, which raise the bow in front of the body, with the exception of Honda-ryu, and that it places special emphasis on gripping the bow and tenouchi work. According to Japanese Wikipedia, the original Insai shooting was standing on one knee, suited to hiding from enemy arrows, today it is usually shot standing, the target called Heki kasumi was set low to the ground and in group shooting all shot at one target. Nipponica states that the Chikurin branch distinguished itself in dosha, the contest at Sanjusangendo.
Training
Heki-ryu was taught in han schools in the Edo period. A 2010 study by Sato Tamaki states that in Mito each archery school was led by one teacher with several assistants, that archery was practiced in winter and spring and shooting with firearms in summer and autumn, that Heki-ryu and its Sekka and Insai branches are shooting on foot, and that in 1842 seventy of the 222 pupils of nine archery dojo took part in the great autumn examination before the ruler. Kurosu Ken states that in the Morioka han archery was taught in the han school from the Horeki years to the end of the bakufu, mainly the Insai branch, but that in his view its technique showed no clear marks of a school and the writings were rather a general manual of shooting. A 1982 conference paper by Kurosu Ken and Sato Akira deals with newly found licenses and mokuroku scrolls of the Sekka branch in the Sendai han. CiNii lists printed writings of the Chikurin, Sekka, Dosetsu and Insai branches from 1921 to 2006, and alongside them manuscripts from the Edo period, for example from 1745, 1825 and 1848.
Ranks and progression
Nipponica states of the Dosetsu branch that in 1588 Ban Dosetsu took over the Sekka lineage, passed to a single person, and refused the succession after Sekka, citing the importance of passing it to one son. Japanese Wikipedia states of the Insai branch a distinction between transmission to a single person among blood relatives and the menkyo kaiden license among unrelated pupils. We have not found dan and kyu grades for Heki-ryu in the sources, and Japanese Wikipedia names three modern hanshi title holders in the Insai branch.
Today
Green says new schools that emerged from Heki-ryu continue today, and Maypedia that Heki-ryu has survived along with Ogasawara-ryu. No branch of Heki-ryu is among the members of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai. According to Japanese Wikipedia, the Insai lines are handed down today in Satsuma, Bizen, Enshu and Settsu, the Okura and Dosetsu branches in Kumamoto, Sekka in Tokai and Mie, Chikurin in Aichi and Kumamoto, and Honda-ryu, founded by Honda Toshizan as a Chikurin offshoot, operates as Honda-ryu Seikyukai. According to Japanese Wikipedia, university kyuda clubs of Heki-ryu and Honda-ryu are, among others, at the University of Tokyo, Waseda, Hosei, Tsukuba and Doshisha. An Insai text from 2006 was published by an association of pupils of the Settsu line.
Did you know
Nipponica gives a legend from Honcho bugei shoden and Bujutsu ryusoroku: when Heki Danjo Masatsugu ran out of arrows on the battlefield and hid behind a low wall, the enemies attacked, he jumped out, struck with the bowstring, shouted Ei and the enemies scattered in fright. The Jinmei Plus dictionary says Masatsugu reformed the old archery, which by its account had turned into a game, and studied the old Henmi-ryu school. According to English Wikipedia, the founder of the Insai branch wrote of Heki Danjo as a manifestation of the god Hachiman. Japanese Wikipedia says the Yoshida-ryu branches were collectively called kuryu jippa.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Heki-ryu?
Nipponica, Daijisen, Nikkoku and Britannica name Heki Danjo Masatsugu, the reviver of Japanese archery from the Muromachi period. A 2014 study by Inazawa Yuko names Yoshida Shigekata and states that according to one family story Danjo is another name of Shigekata.
What branches does Heki-ryu have?
According to Heibonsha, Yoshida-ryu took over the school and branched into Izumo, Sekka, Dosetsu, Insai and Okura, and the side branch Chikurin flourished in the han of Owari and Kii. Nipponica describes the founders of Sekka, Dosetsu, Insai and Chikurin.
How does Heki-ryu differ from Ogasawara-ryu?
According to Nipponica, Heki-ryu is shooting on foot based on practical use, accepted per Maypedia by lower warriors and the people, while Ogasawara-ryu taught, per Heibonsha, the ceremonial side of archery and horse riding. Maypedia says the two divide today's world of kyuda into two parts.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.