Takamura Shindo Yoshin-ryu
高村派新道楊心流A Shindo Yoshin-ryu line through Ohbata Shigeta and Takamura Yukiyoshi. According to koryu.com, Toby Threadgill heads it.
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About Takamura Shindo Yoshin-ryu
Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin-ryu is a line of Shindo Yoshin-ryu led by Takamura Yukiyoshi (1928 to 2000). Koryu.com holds it under a Ryu Guide listing with the year 1864 and the founder Matsuoka Katsunosuke, Threadgill and Ohgami call it a line of the same Shindo Yoshin-ryu, and English Wikipedia calls it a branch. We have not found an independent source that would describe it as a separate school or branch, and it is described mainly by people from the line. According to Threadgill and Ohgami, the line ran from Ohbata Shigeta, who separated from the main line, through his grandson Takamura. After the occupation of Japan, Takamura took his mother's surname, went to Sweden, and moved to California in the early sixties. In an Aikido Journal interview he himself states that he began teaching publicly in 1966 in San Jose. According to Threadgill, he renamed the art in 1968 and founded the organization Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin Kai, while Takamura himself gives the official renaming as 1972. Teaching is divided into the levels shoden, chuden and joden gokui, and above them stands menkyo kaiden. There is no kyu and dan system. The organization under Threadgill is based in Evergreen, Colorado.
History
According to Threadgill and Ohgami, Ohbata Shigeta, director of the Asakusa branch office, asked to separate from the headquarters of the main line of Shindo Yoshin-ryu and led his own independent branch, which in time became Ohbata-ha. He worked as a newspaper editor, which allowed him to support his family and keep teaching classical budo. His son Hideyoshi, born in 1899, fell in the Pacific in the spring of 1944. Shigeta then named his grandson Yukiyoshi as successor and sent him away from Tokyo. According to Threadgill, Shigeta was killed and the Ohbata Eibukan dojo destroyed in the bombing of Tokyo in 1945.
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Yukiyoshi was born in 1928 and died in March 2000. According to Threadgill, his training was completed by Namishiro Matsuhiro, through whom the original weapons syllabus of Ohbata-ha survived. After the occupation of Japan, Yukiyoshi took his mother's surname Takamura and went to Sweden, where he taught a small group of judo practitioners and wrestlers in Stockholm. In an Aikido Journal interview he himself states that after the war he first got to Argentina with his mother and then to Sweden. According to Threadgill, in the early sixties he married a Japanese American woman and moved to Hayward, California. Takamura states that he met his wife on a business trip in San Francisco around 1958 and that he began teaching publicly in 1966 in San Jose under the name Ohbata-ryu judo-jujutsu. The branch's website gives Stockholm in 1954 and Hayward in 1964. In 1968, according to Threadgill, after a minor revision of the curriculum he renamed the art Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin-ryu and founded the organization Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin Kai. Takamura himself states that around 1968 he began revising the curriculum toward more realistic self-defense and that he officially changed the name in 1972.
How it differs
Koryu.com lists Takamura-ha in the Ryu Guide separately, with the year 1864 and the founder Matsuoka Katsunosuke, and the main line has no listing. Threadgill and Ohgami call Ohbata-ha and Takamura-ha lines of the same school. English Wikipedia lists Takamura-ha among derived schools, and Japanese Wikipedia calls it a derived school. According to Threadgill and Ohgami, Takamura-ha includes the influence of Matsuzaki Shinkage-ryu, and thanks to Namishiro Matsuhiro the original weapons syllabus of Ohbata-ha survived. Takamura states in the interview that when renaming he changed the first character of the word Shindo from the meaning sacred to the meaning new, to acknowledge curriculum changes. Threadgill describes the change in Matsuoka's writing the opposite way, from new to divine. According to Threadgill and Ohgami, the main line under Inose moved to an approach closer to Kodokan judo, while Ohbata-ha stayed with classical roots.
Technique
The Takamura-ha Ryu Guide listing on koryu.com gives jujutsu, kogusoku, katchu, kenjutsu, tantojutsu, tetsubo, kogai and torinawa. According to Threadgill and Ohgami, the level of shoden is divided into two scrolls, Shoden Taijutsu no Mokuroku and Shoden Buki no Mokuroku, and contains 84 kata. The taijutsu kata stress correct distance, evasive movement, disruptive strikes and body control. The buki kata include battojutsu, kenjutsu, tantojutsu and armed combat. The level of chuden contains, according to the same text, 135 kata in the taijutsu scroll and 66 kata in the weapons scroll, among them daito, shoto, tanto, tetsubo, kogai and torinawa. A small part of the kata is labeled kogusoku and katchu, that is, fighting in armor. The level of joden contains the scrolls Jin no Maki and Ten no Maki, and the oral secrets oku-kuden are passed only to holders of menkyo kaiden.
Training
In an Aikido Journal interview, Takamura states that in striking practice people strike hard and that they train unconventional attacks at high speed. According to him, the school has no rank and no prescribed uniform, students line up in the dojo by experience, and licenses are issued. When choosing students, he prefers those who have martial arts experience but have stayed open. He usually does not accept a student who skips the basics while studying a technique.
Ranks and progression
Threadgill and Ohgami state that learning is divided into three levels marked by the issuing of a license, namely shoden, chuden and joden gokui. Above them stands the administrative license menkyo kaiden. According to them, the school has no technical kyu and dan system.
Today
According to Threadgill and Ohgami from 2008, Takagi Iso, David Maynard and Toby Threadgill received menkyo kaiden in the last decade before Takamura's death. In 2003 Takagi and Maynard ended active teaching and Threadgill was asked to oversee the organization. It continues under his leadership with its central dojo in Evergreen, Colorado. The Ryu Guide listing on koryu.com gives the United States, Japan and Europe as the main places of activity. English Wikipedia lists dojo in the United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia. We have not found Takamura-ha in the lists of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai or the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai as of 30 October 2026.
Did you know
Takamura tells in the interview that Namishiro lost his left eye in an accident during kenjutsu practice and occasionally put a wooden eye with a painted cut into the eye socket. According to Takamura, his grandfather Ohbata Shigeta knew Yoshida Kotaro, a student of Takeda Sokaku, and some forms taken over from Yoshida are still practiced in the school today. According to Threadgill and Ohgami, the 1999 interview brought Takamura-ha out of relative obscurity.
Frequently asked questions
Is Takamura-ha a separate school, or a branch of Shindo Yoshin-ryu?
Koryu.com lists it under the year 1864 and the founder Matsuoka Katsunosuke, while Threadgill and Ohgami call it a line of the same Shindo Yoshin-ryu. We have not found an independent description, and it is described mainly by people from the line.
When did the name Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin-ryu appear?
Threadgill and Ohgami give the year 1968, when Takamura renamed the art and founded the organization. In the Aikido Journal interview, Takamura states that he began revising the curriculum around 1968 and officially changed the name in 1972.
Where is Takamura-ha taught today?
Koryu.com gives the United States, Japan and Europe as the main places of activity, and according to Threadgill the organization is based in Evergreen, Colorado. We have not found it in the lists of the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai and the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai.
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