Maniwa Nen-ryu
馬庭念流A Japanese school of 1591 kept alive by a single village for generations; it trained in protective gear long before kendo.
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About Maniwa Nen-ryu
Maniwa Nen-ryu is one of the oldest surviving Japanese battlefield traditions. It was founded in 1591 by Higuchi Matashichiro Sadatsugu in the village of Maniwa in Kozuke province, in what is now Gunma prefecture. It follows on from the older Nen-ryu, which traces itself to the monk Nen Ami Jion; confusing the two schools is a common error, since Nen Ami Jion lived two centuries earlier and has no direct connection with the founding of the Maniwa line. What makes the school unusual is the way it survived: it was carried on not by a lord's retainers or by a city dojo but by a village community that has held it in one place for generations. The curriculum covers the long sword, the naginata, the spear and yadomejutsu, the deflection of incoming arrows. The training matters for the history of fencing itself: from an early period Maniwa practised in protective equipment, with quilted gloves and headgear and with the soft bamboo sword fukuro shinai, which made safe free bouting possible. That practice belongs to the line out of which the armour and bamboo sword of modern kendo later grew. The school is still led by the Higuchi family, now in the twenty-fifth generation of headmasters, and its annual public demonstration is among the oldest of its kind in Japan.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.