Muto-dori
無刀取り
Literally: taking without a sword
A set of Yagyu Shinkage-ryu techniques by which a swordsman without his own weapon takes the sword from his opponent.
Quick Facts
About
Muto-dori, literally taking without a sword, is a set of techniques by which a swordsman without his own weapon takes the sword from his opponent. It is associated with Yagyu Shinkage-ryu. According to tradition, the founder of Shinkage-ryu, Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, set it as a koan, a problem to be solved, for his student Yagyu Muneyoshi (Sekishusai). He began the work, and his son Yagyu Munenori brought the method to a complete form. Because it involves taking the weapon with bare hands, Japanese accounts describe muto-dori as a technique close to jujutsu; Shinkage-ryu adopted body work such as wrestling schools use. From the circle of their students also arose Kito-ryu, Yagyu Shingan-ryu and Oguri-ryu. Muto-dori is often confused with the idea that a swordsman catches the cutting blade by clapping his palms together (shinken shiraha-dori). We have not found reliable evidence of such a technique, and Japanese accounts explicitly distinguish it from muto-dori.