Araki Muninsai
荒木夢仁斎源秀縄
Founder of the Araki-ryu school from around 1573, renowned for his torite technique; even the chronicle Honcho Bugei Shoden has no information on his origins or deeds.
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Araki Muninsai is the founder of the Araki-ryu school, which he established in the Tensho period, around 1573, in the Sengoku era, on the basis of torite and kogusoku. According to the chronicle Honcho Bugei Shoden (1711–1715), his full name was Araki Muninsai Minamoto no Hidetsuna; Japanese sources also write the name as Munisai, Munin or Mujinsai. The same chronicle states that it is not known where he came from, nor much about his deeds, but that his torite technique was renowned.
According to one theory, he studied under a man named Fujiwara (藤原勝真) and reportedly also studied Takeuchi-ryu. The text Araki-ryu torite saitan no jo relates that Fujiwara received a secret teaching in a dream on Mount Atago.
Araki-ryu specializes in the spear, naginata, long and short sword, staff, rope, chain and sickle, and in torite-kogusoku, grappling in light armor with weapons. Early students included Mori Kasuminosuke, Yamamoto Kasuke and Takeuchi Kuroemon. Records of more than forty lineages show that almost all of them lead back to Mori Kasuminosuke. Three main lineages remain today; the Isesaki Araki-ryu kenpo has been a cultural property of the city of Isesaki since 1967.
According to tradition, he fought in the Korean campaign and won praise from Toyotomi Hideyoshi, which reportedly earned him the epithet Nihon Kaizan; sources do not confirm this. The Isesaki school states a possible kinship with the warlord Araki Murashige; other sources regard this as speculation without evidence.