Suijutsu (Martial Swimming)
水術Japanese swimming as a martial art, old name for nihon eiho. Edo schools protected by han domains, swimming in armor and with a bow, now 13 schools under the Japanese swimming federation.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Suijutsu (Martial Swimming)
Suijutsu is not a school but a collective name: according to the Nipponica encyclopedia, it is one of the martial arts and at the same time an old name for swimming and for Japanese swimming, nihon eiho. Britannica defines it as a term for swimming that was treated as a martial art from the middle Edo period, and gives other names, among them yueijutsu and shusuijutsu. Nipponica holds that the Japanese art of swimming did not arise from naval forces but from the need for fighting on land. The Heibonsha encyclopedia notes that stories of glory won by swimming and by swimming with a horse appear frequently in the military chronicles of the Kamakura period.
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According to Nipponica, swimming began to be studied in depth as a martial art from about the early seventeenth century, when the Edo bakufu came into being, and today's schools were established as schools only in the Edo period, most of them, according to Nipponica, between 1700 and the period before 1830. Teachers gradually gave the discipline settled principles, forms and methodology, the most influential person in a school became its iemoto, and schools spawned side branches. For suijutsu to qualify as a martial art, Nipponica says it also required handling weapons in the water and leading a horse. The basic stroke differs by school: aoriashi, fumiashi with the body upright and kaeruashi. Nipponica gives swimming in armor before the lord for Kobori-ryu, and the Japanese swimming federation gives shooting with weapons and a bow, carrying weapons, a banner and a flower umbrella for Yamanouchi-ryu. A 1981 study in a Japanese journal on budo found records of suijutsu at 76 domain schools and states that in thirteen of the nineteen han domains with a documented year, instruction began only after Perry arrived in 1853, when interest in coastal defense was growing. Nipponica states that twelve schools are still transmitted and recognized, most of which survived under the protection of large han domains. The Japanese swimming federation now recognizes thirteen and states that the Shinden-ryu branch from Ozu was registered in 1957 only as a branch and in 2013 was recognized as an independent school. The federation has held an annual nihon eiho competition since 1956 and awards the qualifications hanshi, kyoshi and renshi. A 2007 study shows that Kano Jigoro arranged suijutsu in 1898 for pupils of his school Zoshikai and in 1903 a style for the Tokyo Higher Normal School, which drew on several traditional schools, among them Shinden-ryu, Kankai-ryu, Kobori-ryu and Suifu-ryu, and introduced grades on the model of judo.
History
The Heibonsha encyclopedia states that swimming on the battlefield was required from ancient times and that stories of glory won by swimming and by swimming with a horse appear frequently in the military chronicles of the Kamakura period. Nipponica holds that the Japanese art of swimming did not arise from naval forces but from the need for land combat. According to Nipponica and Britannica, swimming began to be studied as the martial art suijutsu from about the early seventeenth century, when the Edo bakufu came into being, and in another article Britannica places the origin of nihon eiho around the fourteenth century, completed from the Edo period. In the early phase, according to Nipponica, there was no systematic instruction, but gradually expert teachers gave the discipline settled principles, forms and methodology, and schools headed by an iemoto emerged, with succession passing to a single child, the best pupil, or both.
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The Japanese swimming federation describes the origin of individual schools from their own sources. In the Kumamoto han domain a swimming teacher for vassals was summoned from Edo in 1633, and around 1700 the founder of Kobori-ryu was already running his own school, whose son published a book in 1756 that the federation calls the oldest published book on swimming in Japan. The lord of the Takamatsu han domain ordered in 1642 that swimming become one of the martial arts. Nojima-ryu, Iwakura-ryu and Koike-ryu, called the three schools of Kii, gained standing when the Kii han domain took them on as teachers of its naval forces in early Edo. Kankai-ryu was added in 1853 to the martial subjects of the domain school in Tsu, because the han had the task of defending the coast of Ise Bay. A 1981 study found suijutsu at 76 domain schools and states that instruction there apparently began only in the late Edo period, in thirteen of the nineteen han domains with a documented year only after Perry arrived in 1853. At the end of the bakufu, according to Heibonsha, suijutsu was widely practiced because of interest in coastal defense and was also included in the Kobusho military school, and from Meiji it was taught in schools and at the Dainippon Butokukai. A 2007 study states that Kano Jigoro arranged suijutsu in 1898 for pupils of his school Zoshikai and in 1903 for the Tokyo Higher Normal School, whose graduates spread the style as teachers across Japan. Nipponica states that twelve recognized schools are still transmitted today, most of which survived under large han domains' protection with no territorial change.
How it differs
According to Nipponica, suijutsu and nihon eiho are the same thing under an old and a new name, and Japanese Wikipedia adds that the name nihon eiho took hold from Meiji to distinguish it from Western styles. Maypedia states that the discipline includes elements entirely different from modern swimming, such as shooting a bow or using a sword or spear while swimming, and Nipponica calls formal beauty the greatest feature of nihon eiho. The Japanese swimming federation states that besides the common basic strokes each school has its own and applied swimming, and that stroke names sometimes differ between schools for the same stroke and coincide for different ones. A 2007 study states that in reorganizing suijutsu Kano Jigoro tried to unify all traditional styles, include them in the school system and introduce grades as in judo. Japanese Wikipedia holds that nihon eiho can be used in freestyle but cannot compete with the crawl in speed.
Technique
According to Nipponica, suijutsu was required as a martial art to include handling weapons in the water and leading a horse, and Britannica repeats this. Nipponica says the styles arose from practical need: swimming across a current, swimming long distances, and swimming with an object in hand or while working on the water surface, over time a display dimension was added, and formal beauty is, according to Nipponica, the greatest feature of nihon eiho. According to Nipponica, nihon eiho is divided by body position into three groups, and the basic stroke differs by school: aoriashi, fumiashi and kaeruashi. Maypedia encyclopedia states that the discipline includes elements entirely different from modern swimming, such as shooting a bow or using a sword or spear while swimming.
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The Japanese swimming federation says that besides each school's basic swimming there is long-distance swimming, swimming to protect the body, swimming for fighting in the water, and showy swimming to demonstrate skill. For Yamanouchi-ryu it gives as a special feature carrying weapons, a banner and a flower umbrella, plus shooting with weapons and a bow and taking off and putting on clothes, and for Iwakura-ryu its own special techniques. For Kobori-ryu Nipponica names swimming before the lord and swimming in armor before the lord. The Nikkoku dictionary adds that for Kobori-ryu tachioyogi swimming with the makiashi stroke is advantageous in water fighting.
Training
A 1981 study describes instruction in domain schools: suijutsu was typically practiced from May to the end of October, for thirty to sixty days in the greatest heat and roughly from noon to four o'clock, on a training ground at 24 han domains, in a river at 13, in the sea at 5 and in a lake or reservoir at 4. The starting age was ten years and over at 33 han domains and under ten years at 19. Heibonsha states that suijutsu schools passed on, like other martial arts, the iemoto, techniques and dignity of the school, and that instruction joined technique with a spiritual component. The Japanese swimming federation states that the second iemoto of Kankai-ryu was entrusted in 1912 with teaching swimming at the naval academy and the navy adopted one stroke of his school, and a 2007 study states that all first-year students of the Tokyo Higher Normal School had to complete two weeks of swimming practice. According to Japanese Wikipedia, nihon eiho today is mostly practiced in ordinary pools in ordinary swimsuits, and some schools teach it at summer camps by the sea.
Ranks and progression
Grades and technique lists kept by each school are, according to Nipponica, absolute within the school and cannot be compared with other schools. The Japanese swimming federation awards seven nihon eiho qualifications: hanshi, kyoshi, renshi, yushi and, since 2014, three more. According to the federation, for the first twenty years after 1956 there was only one qualification, split on the model of kendo from the 22nd edition into hanshi, kyoshi and renshi. Hanshi requires ten years after kyoshi and age 45, kyoshi five years after renshi and age 30, and yushi has been, since 1995, an introductory qualification from age 25.
Competition
The Japanese swimming federation has held an annual nihon eiho competition since 1956, the first on 19 August 1956 in Tenri in Nara Prefecture and the seventieth in August 2025 in Chiba Prefecture. According to the federation, it has six kinds: the main competition in styles for swimmers aged 15 to 24, scored by seven judges out of ten points, a junior class, a team competition of five swimmers from one school, a senior team class, a one hundred meter race in swimming on the side, and a competition in lifting a weight upright in the water. Nipponica states that qualification examinations of individual schools are also held during it.
Today
The Japanese swimming federation states that nihon eiho is transmitted today in thirteen schools, most of which arose in the Edo period and one in early Meiji. Nipponica and Britannica give twelve schools, and Heibonsha lists them with the han domains that protected them: Suifu-ryu from Mito, Mukai-ryu from Edo, Kankai-ryu from Tsu, Nojima-ryu, Iwakura-ryu and Koike-ryu from Kii, Shinden-ryu, Yamanouchi-ryu from Usuki, Kobori-ryu from the Hosokawa han domain and a school from Satsuma. The federation states that the Shinden-ryu branch from Ozu was registered in 1957 only as a branch and in 2013 recognized as an independent school. According to the federation, several schools are registered as intangible cultural heritage: Iwakura-ryu of Wakayama Prefecture since 1965, Kankai-ryu of Tsu city since 1957, Mukai-ryu of Otaru city since 1991 and Suifu-ryu of Mito city. No swimming school is a member of Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai. According to Japanese Wikipedia, the Tokyo fire department trains nihon eiho techniques for water rescue.
Did you know
The Japanese swimming federation states that a member of the Kobori-ryu school published in 1756 a book that it calls the oldest published book on swimming in Japan. Japanese Wikipedia recalls that, according to the chronicle of Nobunaga, Oda Nobunaga swam in a river from March to September and became a skilled swimmer. The Heibonsha encyclopedia states that the number of eighteen martial arts, which include suijutsu, is not fixed and that the name itself came from China only in the middle Edo period.
Frequently asked questions
What is suijutsu?
An old name for Japanese swimming as a martial art, today called nihon eiho. According to Nipponica, it began to be studied from the early seventeenth century and also required handling weapons in the water.
How many nihon eiho schools exist today?
The Japanese swimming federation recognizes thirteen schools, Nipponica gives twelve. The federation states that the Shinden-ryu branch from Ozu was registered in 1957 only as a branch and in 2013 recognized as an independent school.
Did people really swim in armor?
For Kobori-ryu Nipponica gives swimming in armor before the lord, and the Nikkoku dictionary gives swimming in armor for the same school. For Yamanouchi-ryu the Japanese swimming federation names shooting with weapons and a bow while swimming.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.