Futagami Masaaki
A samurai from the Bungo-Taketa region who founded the Sosuishi-ryu jujutsu school in 1650; its lineage continues through the Shitama family to this day.
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JapanBiography
Futagami Masaaki was a samurai living in the Bungo-Taketa region in the domain of the Kuroda clan. In 1650, in the early Edo period, he founded the Sosuishi-ryu jujutsu school. His birth and death dates we could not verify. English sources also give the name Masanori, a misreading of Masaaki.
He practiced the family art Futagami-ryu and was an advanced student of Takenouchi-ryu. Dissatisfied with Futagami-ryu's techniques, he set out on a martial pilgrimage (musha shugyo) across Japan.
According to tradition, he trained and sought enlightenment for 37 days in a valley of Mount Yoshino. Watching the Yoshino River, he is said to have attained enlightenment (satori) and renamed the school Sosuishi-ryu.
His main student was the samurai Shitama Matashichi, who invited him to the Chikuzen region. The school's lineage continues through the Shitama family to this day.