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Tsutsumi Hozan

A Japanese master of the jitte weapon and founder of the Tsutsumi Hozan-ryu school, who according to the sources taught Hirata Shokan, the grandfather of Miyamoto Musashi.

Quick Facts

Country of OriginJapanJapan
Also known asTsutsumi Yamashiro no kami Hozan

Biography

Tsutsumi Hozan, in full Tsutsumi Yamashiro no kami Hozan, was a Japanese martial arts master and founder of the Hozan-ryu school, also known as Tsutsumi Hozan-ryu. The sources disagree on the period he was active: some place him in the Sengoku period (16th century), while others date the founding of his school to the late 14th or early 15th century.

He was the twelfth disciple of the monk Jion and studied Nen-ryu. His teacher died before he could finish teaching the basic techniques. Tsutsumi Hozan excelled in the use of the jitte, and it was through this weapon that he reached advanced mastery.

Hozan-ryu included the unarmed grappling yoroi kumi, kenjutsu and iaijutsu derived from Nen-ryu, as well as the bo, spear, naginata, iron fan and the binding techniques of hojojutsu. According to one source, he taught jitte techniques to Hirata Shokan, the grandfather of Miyamoto Musashi, and the Miyamoto family then kept up jitte training for generations. According to the same source, his teaching may have influenced Musashi's one-handed swordsmanship and the later Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu.

The school survives today mainly in Australia, in the line of Jan de Jong (Hans de Jong Self Defence School), where it is practised as modern self-defence rather than as classical koryu.

Associated Martial Arts

Koryu BujutsuMaster→

An umbrella term for the Japanese combat schools founded before 1868. It is not a style but the dividing line between the old schools and modern ways such as judo or kendo.