Kyushin-ryu Jujutsu

Quick Facts

Founder

Inugami Nagakatsu

Country of OriginJapan

RegionAsia

Primary FocusGrappling

Belt SystemCertificates

Character & Origin

Training

Who It Suits

Organisation & Competition

What the style is built from

Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.

Catalogs & Databases for Kyushin-ryu Jujutsu

About Kyushin-ryu Jujutsu

Kyushin-ryu is a jujutsu school whose founder the sources disagree on. Nipponica lists Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu (1701 to 1771) as a middle founder, Digital Daijisen and Seisen Nihon Kokugo Daijiten list him as the founder, and Japanese Wikipedia as the true founder. His dates differ. Digital Nihon Jinmei Daijiten+Plus gives 1706 with a question mark to 1772, another Nipponica article gives 1705 to 1780. Nagayasu came from Hikone in Omi province. He learned the family taijutsu from his uncle Tanahashi Gohei and then studied Kito-ryu in Kyoto under the master Takino Yuken. In 1735 he went to Edo with his teacher and later parted ways with him. In 1749 he opened a dojo in Azabu Mamiana and proclaimed Kyushin-ryu. In 1753 he entered the service of the Arima clan in Kurume, and another Nipponica article gives 1752. According to a tradition that Nipponica itself calls unclear, the family taijutsu derives from the ancestor Inugami Nagakatsu of the end of the Muromachi period. Only English Wikipedia, citing the school's own text, gives the year around 1558 and Hikone as the place of founding. According to Nipponica the school was widely practised in the Kyushu domains in the late Edo period, including Yanagawa and Fukuoka. We have not found it in the lists of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai.

History

Nipponica states that Nagayasu was originally named Ito Zenpachi. He changed his name to Inugami Guntazaemon intending to revive the Inugami clan. Nagayasu's adopted son Nagamasa and students from the Ishino clan made the school famous by their bravery. Digital Nihon Jinmei Daijiten+Plus states that Nagayasu worked as a jujutsu teacher at the Edo residence of the Kurume domain. Japanese Wikipedia states that the genealogy counts Inugami Nagakatsu as the first head and that the true founder Nagayasu is, according to it, the sixth head. English Wikipedia calls Nagayasu a grandson of Nagakatsu, but Nipponica names his uncle Tanahashi Gohei, and the article itself does not resolve the conflict with this genealogy. Japanese Wikipedia further states that in Higo the Eguchi dojo was one of the three main jujutsu dojo and that a teacher from the Eguchi clan taught in Edo and became a jujutsu teacher at the bakufu school Kobusho. According to the same Wikipedia, the police style Keishi-ryu jujutsu took one of the sacrifice techniques from Kyushin-ryu. The school is written in several ways. Japanese Wikipedia also states the names Kyushin-ryu taijutsu and Inugami-ryu.

How it differs

Nipponica lists Kyushin-ryu in its article on judo among the main jujutsu schools, alongside Takenouchi-ryu, Kito-ryu, Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu and others. On the origin of the Kodokan it writes that Kano took katame-waza and atemi-waza from Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu and nage-waza from Kito-ryu, without naming Kyushin-ryu among the sources. English Wikipedia states that in 1906 Kano selected techniques from influential jujutsu schools, and Kyushin-ryu is one of the eleven schools in its list. According to the same Wikipedia, Edward William Barton-Wright, the founder of Bartitsu, trained with Eguchi, but to what extent is not known. English Wikipedia also points out that other schools of the same name exist worldwide that are not the original school.

Technique

Japanese Wikipedia gives the school's content in three groups of twelve, three and seven items, and the source gives no readings of their names. According to it the school's technique is known for being very similar to Kito-ryu, and English Wikipedia says this led to the view that Kyushin-ryu at least partly derives from Kito-ryu. English Wikipedia, citing the school's text, adds that the school specialised in atemi waza strikes and in resuscitation and first aid. We have not found this emphasis in independent sources.

Today

The text on the Fukuoka city monument states that in the time of the Fukuoka domain there existed, besides Sosuishi-ryu, also Kyushin-ryu, but most of these schools are lost today. We have not found it in the lists of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai, and CiNii returns no result for it. English Wikipedia, citing the school's text, states that the Kyushin Ryu School of Jujitsu based in Brisbane in Australia is the only continuator of the original style. According to it, the line was brought by Ray Stevens, who studied in Iwakuni under Nakano Minehiko. Jim Stackpoole studied under Nakano in Japan. These claims come only from the school's own text.

Did you know

English Wikipedia relates a story from the London magazine The Idler of October 1892. According to it, Inugami Gunbei, a teacher of the Kyushin school, twice threw the wrestler Onogawa Kisaburo in a teahouse, and he became his student. The historicity of the story cannot be verified. Nipponica states that Nagamasa is regarded as the model for the hero of a folk story about killing a cat in the Arima clan affair.

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