Shojitsu Kenri Kataichi-ryu
初實剣理方一流Swordsmanship school built on drawing, the only surviving sword school of the Tsuyama domain. Trained with a wooden sword in its scabbard, one branch in armor.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Shojitsu Kenri Kataichi-ryu
Shojitsu Kenri Kataichi-ryu is a Japanese sword school which the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai describes as swordsmanship transmitted in the Tsuyama domain. According to the same source, its founder was Imaeda Sachu, born in the 3rd year of the Shoho era in Kurayoshi, Hoki province. He learned the family swordsmanship Imaeda-ryu from his father, refined it with his uncle in Edo, then wandered as a ronin studying other schools, and then arranged the family Imaeda-ryu into a new school. Koryu.com places its origin in the early Tokugawa period, c. 1680. According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, five sword schools were practiced in Tsuyama at the end of the Edo period. The domain lord named only this one the official swordsmanship and abolished the other four, so one domain swordsmanship survived. Its basis is drawing. Training uses a wooden sword in its scabbard, and the school cultivates its own cut guiding, which the Japanese Wikipedia reads as hanekiri. The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists two items, the swordsmanship with a 17th soke in Okayama prefecture and the katchu battojutsu branch, drawing in armor, also in Okayama. Koryu.com names Uetsuki Motomu as representative and lists yoroi kumitachi, katchu iaijutsu, suhada kenjutsu and jojutsu in one school's syllabus.
History
According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, Imaeda Sachu was born in the 3rd year of the Shoho era in Kurayoshi, Hoki province. He learned the family swordsmanship Imaeda-ryu from his father and, in Edo, his uncle. He first served a lord in Takatsuki, Settsu province, but left office, not progressing in training by his own account. As a ronin he wandered the country studying various schools. The page of its armored-drawing branch adds that in Edo he ran a dojo, was counted among the three Edo ronin and died in the 4th year of the Shotoku era, aged 68. The dictionary Kokugo daijiten says Imaeda-ryu was founded in the Edo period by Imaeda father and son in Miyazu, Tango province, combined various skills, used two swords, a staff and secret medicines, and was spread by the founder's grandson around the Genroku era in Edo. The dictionary Daijisen Plus writes that Rikata Ichi-ryu is another name for Imaeda-ryu, adopted when the founder's grandson deepened its theory. According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, the founder's leading disciple brought the school to Tsuyama, a man who, 7th in order, took over the line from the 4th to 6th generation of the Imaeda family.
How it differs
The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists the school under two items. The two branches' genealogies agree up to the same representative but differ by one number, as the armored branch's genealogy lists one more Imaeda family member. The swordsmanship continues with the 17th soke, the armored branch with his disciple and his successor. According to the Japanese Wikipedia, this branch uses armor in demonstrations and also performs tameshigiri. The Japanese Wikipedia adds that in Tsuyama a separate Imaeda-ryu line, from another disciple of the founder, was transmitted alongside the school and merged with it in the Meiji period.
Technique
The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai describes the school as swordsmanship based on drawing. It is trained with a wooden sword in its scabbard, a special cut guiding is learned, breath is gathered in the tanden and instant explosiveness is trained. The Japanese Wikipedia reads this guiding as hanekiri, a cut in which the swordsman crouches at the hips, draws and cuts upward. According to the same source, the first form, Shojitsuken, is both the basis and the peak of the school. The page of the armored-drawing branch states that many Imaeda-ryu drawing techniques survive in it. After a duel the defeated opponent is finished with a thrust, and when blood is shaken off the blade is wiped between thumb and forefinger before sheathing. The way of sitting is also distinctive.
Training
According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, the swordsmanship is trained twice a week, two to three hours, in a municipal dojo in Okayama prefecture. The Japanese Wikipedia states that it uses neither a Japanese sword nor an iai practice sword but a wooden sword in its scabbard, that jojutsu is also transmitted and that the oral tradition includes teaching on armored combat. Koryu.com also lists jojutsu.
Ranks and progression
In the armored-drawing branch, according to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, the representative with whom the branches' shared genealogy ends passed secret techniques in armor to his leading disciple and granted him inka. From this disciple its present representative received the menkyo kaiden license in February of Heisei year 1. Among its surviving documents the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai also lists the great mokuroku scroll of the 16th representative.
Today
The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists a 17th soke of the swordsmanship in Okayama prefecture, and koryu.com names him Uetsuki Motomu. According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, the armored-drawing branch has a dojo in Okayama city and a branch in Kurashiki, and performs at the Okayama prefecture kobudo festival and at votive demonstrations at the Achi shrine in Kurashiki. The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai data date from 2007 and 2008.
Did you know
The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states that whoever perfects the technique has, by the school's tradition, such strength that he cuts a standing tree even with a wooden sword in its scabbard. The Japanese Wikipedia mentions a 1687 manuscript attributed to the founder, kept at the university in Okayama.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Shojitsu Kenri Kataichi-ryu?
According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, Imaeda Sachu, a native of Kurayoshi in Hoki province, who arranged the family swordsmanship Imaeda-ryu. Koryu.com places its origin around 1680.
What does Shojitsu Kenri Kataichi-ryu train with?
According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, with a wooden sword in its scabbard. On it the school's own cut guiding and drawing, its basis, are learned.
Why does the school have two items at the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai?
Besides the swordsmanship, the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists the armored-drawing branch separately. The two branches share a genealogy up to one representative, from whom the armored branch was taken over by his leading disciple.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.