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Takenouchi-ryu Jujutsu

竹内流

The oldest documented Japanese jujutsu school, founded in 1532; the source of kogusoku koshi no mawari and torite.

Quick Facts

FounderTakenouchi Hisamori
Country of OriginJapan
Founded1532
RegionAsia
Primary FocusHybrid
Belt SystemCertificates

Character & Origin

StatusLiving, organized
LineageTraditional
Era of OriginEarly modern

Training

Role of WeaponsWeapons at the core
Role of FormsNo forms

Organisation & Competition

Grading SystemCertificates
Competition FormatNo competitions
Olympic StatusNot Olympic
Estimated PractitionersUnder 10k

What the style is built from

Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.

Hand strikesMarginal
KicksMarginal
Throws & takedownsCore
Ground fightingSignificant
Locks & holdsCore
WeaponsSignificant

About Takenouchi-ryu Jujutsu

Takenouchi-ryu is the oldest Japanese school of jujutsu whose founding is fixed by a date: it was established by Takenouchi Hisamori on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth lunar month of the first year of the Tenbun era, that is in 1532, in Mimasaka province, in what is now Okayama prefecture. According to the school's own tradition Hisamori was training near the Sannomiya shrine when a mountain ascetic, a yamabushi, appeared, defeated him, broke his wooden sword into two short blades and taught him fighting at the closest range and binding with rope. That is the origin of kogusoku koshi no mawari, grappling with a short weapon against an armed and armoured opponent, and of torite, the techniques of seizing and restraining. This pair is the historical core of what later came to be called jujutsu. The school is a sogo bujutsu, a comprehensive martial art: besides unarmed work and the short blade it teaches the staff, the sword, drawing, the naginata, the iron fan tessen, the chain sickle kusarigama, binding with hojojutsu and methods of resuscitation. It is still transmitted in three lines based in Okayama: the main sodenke, the soke, and, separate since the early seventeenth century, the Bitchu-den branch. The school belongs to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai. A number of later traditions came out of Takenouchi-ryu, among them Fusen-ryu, Takagi-ryu and Hontai Yoshin-ryu, and through them it influenced judo and aikido as well.

Similar styles

Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.

Yoseikan AikidoSambo Samooborona (Self-Defense Sambo)AikibudoAsayama Ichiden-ryuKapu Kuialua (Lua)Kadochnikov Systema