Jikishin-ryu Jujutsu
A jujutsu school of Matsue domain that took the name Jikishin-ryu judo in 1724, using the word judo about 170 years before the Kodokan, per Fujioka 1996. Its founder is disputed.
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About Jikishin-ryu Jujutsu
Jikishin-ryu is a Japanese jujutsu school transmitted in the Edo period in Matsue domain in Izumo province. Nipponica, Todo and Murata 1990, and Kuboyama 2016, in peer-reviewed journals, trace it to Terada Kan'emon Mitsuhide (reading per Nipponica, 1616 or 1618 to 1674), son of the founder of the armored grappling school Teishin-ryu from Wakasa province, who studied with his father and in Kyoto with his uncle Terada Yorishige and began calling his school Jikishin-ryu yawara. Nakajima 2010, however, in the same journal and based on a text from 1670, judges that Mitsuhide was not regarded as the founder and that his uncle named the school, and the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states under Kito-ryu that Terada Kan'emon Masashige, according to Nipponica the same person, renamed the Fukuno-ryu school Kito-ryu and called his own school Jikishin-ryu judo. The founder is therefore left blank and the sources do not give a year of origin: Todo and Murata give a text from 1670 as the oldest evidence of the name, Fujioka 1996 an oath document from 1685.
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The school's name changed in 1724, when, according to Todo and Murata, Nipponica and Fujioka, the fourth teacher Inoue Jibudayu Masayori took over (reading per Nipponica, which gives 1674 to 1759, while Japanese Wikipedia gives his death as 1780 at 86) and replaced the name Jikishin-ryu jujutsu with Jikishin-ryu judo, written with a different character for shin. Todo and Murata give a document from 1724 as the first evidence and judge that the school first used the term judo in its name. Fujioka 1996 writes that it did so about 170 years before Kodokan judo, and the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai adds that Terada himself claimed the priority. According to Todo and Murata, Masayori taught in his text that grappling and the sword should be practiced like two wings of a bird, and by judo he understood, in the authors' interpretation, developing the natural property of softness. Kuboyama 2016 quotes that the school was called not jujutsu but judo because it dealt not mainly with randori but with mental training, and that the domain distinguished it from capture schools used in arrests. Nipponica calls Masayori the best master since the time of Mitsuhide. In the jujutsu period the school had, according to Todo and Murata, thirty techniques, half of them sword techniques. The list of techniques from 1856 has 97 techniques in three groups, and throws such as uchimata, ushirogoshi and seoinage resembled, in the authors' view, Kodokan judo techniques. Kuboyama 2016 documents that under the seventh lord of the domain Jikishin-ryu judo was placed among the domain's five schools and that the Inoue family created the domain's central judo organization. Todo and Murata count fourteen teachers, Japanese Wikipedia thirteen and three more without a number. Without a source, it states that in 2008 Matsushita, listed at the end of its genealogy, founded a study society of the school with students. The school is not in the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai, and a leaflet of the Matsue museum from 2024 presents it as a historical school of the domain.
History
According to Nipponica, the Terada family served the Kyogoku lords in Obama, Wakasa province, and after their move to Matsue and the loss of their fief stayed in Matsue serving the new lord Matsudaira Naomasa. The founder's father, Terada Heizaemon, founded the armored grappling school Teishin-ryu, and Kuboyama 2016, from a retainer list of c. 1624, shows him with 250 koku in the mounted retinue, so by his reading roughly a guard of the lord. His son Terada Kan'emon, called later Mitsuhide according to Nipponica and Masashige in Nihon Jinmei Daijiten Plus, studied with his father, in Kyoto with his uncle Terada Yorishige, according to Nipponica and Todo with Murata also with the Zen monk Takuan, and according to Todo with Murata with the Confucian Hayashi Razan. Nipponica calls his school Jikishin-ryu yawara, and according to Kuboyama he became the domain's jujutsu teacher around 1660 and died in 1674.
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Scholars dispute who founded the school. Todo and Murata 1990 and Kuboyama 2016 list Mitsuhide as the founder, but Nakajima 2010 reads in a text of 1670 and a preface of 1721 that the school was named by his uncle Yorishige and that Mitsuhide remained the source of the teaching on the immovable mind and timing, and dates only after 1724 the gravestones in a Buddhist temple that call Mitsuhide the founder. The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states under Kito-ryu that Terada Kan'emon Masashige renamed the Fukuno-ryu school Kito-ryu and called his own school Jikishin-ryu judo, and Nakajima recalls a dispute of 1935 over whether he or Ibaraki Sensai founded Kito-ryu. After Mitsuhide, according to Todo and Murata, the school was led by his younger brother, but according to Kuboyama the brother had died as early as 1645 to 1648 and the Terada family died out, and from 1675 the pupil Inoue Kuroemon passed on the teaching. Inoue Jibudayu Masayori, according to Japanese Wikipedia his son, took over the post of domain teacher in 1724 and changed the name to Jikishin-ryu judo, according to a pupil's preface dated 1734 in Fujioka and 1729 in Todo with Murata, because the teaching had grown confused and morals declined. Kuboyama documents that under the seventh lord Matsudaira Harusato the school was one of the domain's five schools alongside iai, strategy and spear schools, and that its practitioners rose in rank. Todo and Murata count fourteen teachers, and Japanese Wikipedia says that the thirteenth teacher from the Matsushita family received the title hanshi from the Butokukai in 1922.
How it differs
The sources mainly describe the school's name and its interpretation. Todo and Murata 1990 write that the teaching uses the expressions way of softness, judo and the way, understands softness as a natural human property, a virtue of generosity and gentleness, and by judo means mastery of grappling and the sword as two techniques usable from afar and from close. Kuboyama 2016 quotes the biography of lord Fumai, per which the school was called judo and not jujutsu because it dealt not mainly with randori but with mental training, and the domain distinguished it from capture schools used for arrests. Fujioka 1996 writes that the school used the word judo about 170 years before Kodokan judo. The relation to Kito-ryu is disputed: Kuboyama 2016 writes that both schools derive from the same founder, the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists Terada Masashige as the third representative of Kito-ryu after Fukuno Masakatsu, and Nakajima 2010 recalls that per Oimatsu 1963 the theory of Terada as founder of Kito-ryu was rejected in favor of Ibaraki Sensai. On technique, Todo and Murata state that Jikishin-ryu seoinage was thrown from a frontal grip, the similar Kito-ryu form from an embrace from behind.
Technique
Todo and Murata 1990 describe two phases. When the school was called Jikishin-ryu jujutsu, it had, per the martial arts history of the domain (Fukuda 1965), thirty techniques: ten basic forms, five more and three groups of five sword forms, so half were sword. The large 1856 list of techniques already has 97 techniques in three groups of 35, 30 and 32, and the authors write that after the renaming kogusoku forms for fighting in light dress with grips on the hand or chest were added, along with iai forms, while the ten basic forms stayed identical to the jujutsu-period armor techniques.
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Among throws the authors name side sacrifice techniques, uchimata, ushirogoshi and seoinage, and write that they resembled Kodokan judo techniques. By their account seoinage was thrown from a position where both opponents hold each other face to face, unlike other schools, for example the Kito-ryu form done in an embrace from behind. Japanese Wikipedia adds that atemi strikes and throws prevailed in the school, that a strike was meant to fell the opponent at once, and that kicks to vital points of an armored opponent and pinning to the ground for taking the head counted as peculiarities. It attributes the prevalence of atemi to Chinese fist art, which Fukuno Shichiroemon took over from Chen Yuanbin, and the emphasis on mental training reportedly to the influence of the monk Takuan and Chen Yuanbin.
Training
The school was practiced by the vassals of Matsue domain. Nipponica writes that Mitsuhide became the domain's first jujutsu teacher, Japanese Wikipedia says the third teacher Inoue Kuroemon held the post from 1706 to 1724, and Kuboyama 2016 shows that in 1724 Masayori held the rank of judo teacher with 20 koku and five rations, and under the seventh lord a rank with 100 koku and a 180-bale rice allowance. According to Kuboyama, the school's practitioners under Harusato received more official duties and the Inoue family created the domain's central judo organization. Per Todo and Murata, Masayori in his text required practicing grappling and the sword together and wrote that whoever masters them withstands all change. Japanese Wikipedia says that from the Showa period the school was influenced by Kodokan judo and its free practice, randori. We have not found a description of today's training, schedule, clothing or practice venue in scholarly sources, and Japanese Wikipedia, without a source, mentions a prefectural budokan in Shimane.
Ranks and progression
Progress is documented by scrolls. Todo and Murata 1990 give a document of 1724 in which Inoue Masayori confirmed to the pupil Horie that the school has secret principles, a scroll of 1753 signed by Masayori with two items for passing on the school's inner meaning, and the large list of techniques of 1856. The sources mention neither belts nor dan grades.
Today
The school is not a member of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai. Japanese Wikipedia, without a source, says that in 2008 Matsushita, listed last in its genealogy after another Matsushita who died in 1970, founded with students a study society of the school, which practices at the prefectural budokan in Shimane. A 2024 Matsue museum leaflet presents the school as one of the domain's five official schools and an exhibition on sport in Matsue as showing the first use of the name judo in Japan. We have not found confirmation of current activity in a scholarly source or on the society's website.
Did you know
Nakajima 2010 states that a gravestone from 1860 in a Buddhist temple and an undated stone calling Terada the founder both use the word judo, and judges both arose only after the 1724 renaming. Kuboyama 2016 quotes a note of the domain per which Mitsuhide did not inherit the family headship because he reportedly wanted to be the foremost warrior under heaven, and judges that he was not a regular vassal and received rewards irregularly. Japanese Wikipedia gives a legend that a hermit reportedly passed the method of long life to him. The relation of the name judo in Kito-ryu to Jikishin-ryu is examined in a 2021 article by Nakajima in the bulletin of a Kodokan research society, whose text we have not read, and have not verified that its author is the Nakajima of 2010.
Frequently asked questions
Did Jikishin-ryu use the word judo before Kano Jigoro?
Yes, as far as the name goes. Todo and Murata 1990 give a document of 1724 as the first evidence, when Inoue Masayori renamed the school Jikishin-ryu judo, and Fujioka 1996 writes that this was about 170 years before Kodokan judo.
Who founded Jikishin-ryu?
Nipponica, Todo and Murata 1990 and Kuboyama 2016 give Terada Kan'emon Mitsuhide of Matsue, who died in 1674. Nakajima 2010, however, reads in a text of 1670 that the school was named by his uncle Terada Yorishige, so we leave the founder blank.
Is Jikishin-ryu practiced today?
We are not sure. The school is in neither the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai nor the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai, Japanese Wikipedia mentions without a source a study society founded in 2008, and a 2024 Matsue museum leaflet presents it as a historical school of the domain.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.