Sekiguchi Yarokuemon Ujimune

Quick Facts

Country of OriginJapan

Also known asSekiguchi Jushin

Biography

Sekiguchi Yarokuemon Ujimune, also known as Sekiguchi Jushin, is the founder of the Sekiguchi Shinshin-ryu school, also given as Sekiguchi-ryu. He belonged to the Imagawa clan, a branch of the Seiwa Genji clan of the Sengoku period. According to Japanese sources he was born around 1598 in the village of Nagasawa in Mikawa Province (today Toyokawa in Aichi Prefecture) and died on 26 April 1670.

After the decline of the Imagawa clan as a result of Oda Nobunaga's campaign, he devoted himself to martial training instead of further service. He studied jujutsu with Miura Yoshitatsu, master of the Miura-ryu school, and trained intensively in the Atago mountains.

In the mid-17th century he founded the Sekiguchi Shinshin-ryu school, which includes kenjutsu, iaijutsu, jujutsu and kyusho-jutsu, techniques of striking sensitive points. A special way of falling was taught in it, which according to tradition arose from observing cats. Tokugawa Yorinobu, head of the Kishu domain, summoned him to his court after a personal meeting; according to Japanese sources he served him from 1639 as jujutsu teacher and taught permanently at Wakayama Castle.

The second head of the school was his son Sekiguchi Ujinari, called Hachirozaemon. The school spread throughout Japan and reached as far as Edo, where the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune became a certified master. The school's historical documents were destroyed by the Second World War; the tradition was revived by the 12th soke Yoshitaro with the help of Shigeru Fujimura, and the 13th soke is Sekiguchi Yoshio.

Associated Martial Arts