Matsuoka Katsunosuke
A Japanese jujutsu master who founded the Shindo Yoshin-ryu school in 1864, from whose lineage came Hironori Otsuka, the founder of Wado-ryu karate.
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Matsuoka Katsunosuke was a Japanese jujutsu master and the founder of the Shindo Yoshin-ryu school. He was born in 1836 at the Edo residence of the Kuroda clan and died in 1898 at the age of 62.
He studied under Sakakibara Kenkichi, the fourteenth head of the Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryu school. He also drew on the traditions of Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu, Totsuka-ha Yoshin Koryu, Hozoin-ryu and Hokushin Itto-ryu. In 1858 he opened his first dojo in the Asakusa district of Edo, where he taught the jujutsu of the Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu school.
In 1864 he founded the Shindo Yoshin-ryu school, combining knowledge of kenjutsu and jujutsu. After the upheaval caused by the Boshin War, he moved to the village of Ueno north of Edo. In 1895 he allowed Shigeta Ohbata to become independent and establish the Ohbata-ha branch.
He had no male heir, so Matakichi Inose became temporary head of the school. Under his leadership, Tatsusaburo Nakayama received the menkyo kaiden, and from 1903 taught Hironori Otsuka, who later founded Wado-ryu karate. The lineage of Matsuoka Katsunosuke thus leads directly to Wado-ryu.