Ono Tadaaki
Japanese swordsman (died 1628), successor of Ito Ittosai and founder of the Ono-ha Itto-ryu school, sword instructor to the second and third Tokugawa shoguns.
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Ono Tadaaki was a Japanese swordsman and the founder of the Ono-ha Itto-ryu school, which he led as the direct successor of Ito Ittosai. English sources give 1565 as his birth year, Japanese ones 1569; they agree on his death in 1628. He was originally named Mikogami Tenzen and came from Awa Province, today's Minamibuso in Chiba Prefecture.
Ittosai chose him as his successor after Ono won a duel against another student named Zenki; according to Japanese sources the duel took place at Kogane-ga-hara, and Ittosai then handed him the sword called Kamewari-to. He first served the Satomi clan. According to Japanese sources, in 1593 Tokugawa Ieyasu noticed him when he overcame another swordsman, and in 1600 he became famous at the siege of Ueda Castle as one of the so-called Seven Spears of Ueda.
He served as sword instructor to the second and third Tokugawa shoguns, alongside Yagyu Munenori. To reduce training injuries he developed the fukuro-shinai, a practice sword of split bamboo. The style includes over 150 techniques for the long and short sword, and its defining technique is kiri-otoshi, a downward cut. According to one source he fenced better than Yagyu Munenori, but his strict character earned him less popularity and recognition.
According to Japanese sources he did not himself use the name Ono-ha Itto-ryu, and it was adopted only by his son Tadatsune. The lineage continued through the Tsugaru and Ono families: when the Ono family temporarily abandoned it, lord Tsugaru Nobumasa maintained it, and the second Tsugaru master then passed it to Ono Tadakato.