Tendo-ryu Naginatajutsu
天道流薙刀術Old Japanese school of naginata, swords, kusarigama and kodachi. The Heibonsha encyclopedia ranks it with Jikishinkage-ryu among the two main naginata schools still alive today.
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About Tendo-ryu Naginatajutsu
Tendo-ryu is an old Japanese school. Its founder was Saito Hangan Denkibo, who according to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai and the Nipponica encyclopedia studied under Tsukahara Bokuden and then withdrew for a hundred days of prayer at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura. According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, on the night the prayers ended he received a scroll from heaven in a dream, founded the Ten-ryu school and later renamed it Tendo-ryu. Nipponica places the stay in Kamakura in 1581, koryu.com gives 21 November 1582 as the founding date and Ellis Amdur the sixties of the 16th century. We have therefore been unable to document the year of origin unambiguously. The school first taught several weapons. According to Nipponica, the founder's grandson taught naginata and kusarigama in Edo alongside sword and spear, and in the Meiji period the 14th representative, Mitamura Akinori, spread the school's naginatajutsu mainly in the Dai Nippon Butokukai. The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states the school is still transmitted as naginata, two swords, sword, kusarigama and kodachi. The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai and Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai both list Kimura Yasuko as the 17th soke. The Heibonsha encyclopedia ranks Tendo-ryu and Jikishinkage-ryu among the two main naginata schools practiced today. According to Amdur, teachers of both schools stood at the origin of today's modern naginata.
History
The Nipponica encyclopedia states that Saito Denkibo was born in 1550 in Ide in Hitachi province, as a child was called Kinpei, also Shume-no-suke, and that according to tradition his father served Hojo Ujiyasu. He studied Tsukahara Bokuden's Shinto-ryu, after his stay in Kamakura wandered the country and in Kyoto demonstrated his swordsmanship before the emperor, for which he received the title hangan. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai writes that according to tradition a secret sword was demonstrated before the emperor. Sources differ on his death. Nipponica writes that in 1587 he won a bout against a Shinto-ryu swordsman and that the man's followers then killed him by ambush, aged 38. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai he died shot after a duel with a student of another school. The art of cutting arrows that he demonstrated then is called ichimonji no midare and, according to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, is still the foundation of the school. His son Hogen then took over as the second. Ellis Amdur states on koryu.com that toward the end of the 19th century Mitamura Kengyo, representative of one of the lines, chose naginata for training women and girls. In 1895 his group merged with Dai Nippon Butokukai, and in 1899 the Kyoto girls' school Doshisha began employing him. According to Amdur, the most important teacher was his wife Mitamura Chiyo.
How it differs
According to Amdur, Sakakida Yaeko, a Tendo-ryu practitioner, created in cooperation with the Ministry of Education forms that the ministry adopted in 1943. They were built on naginata against naginata and on solo practice, because the forms of the old schools, with naginata against sword, were not suited to mass instruction of schoolgirls. After 1953, according to the same author, Sakakida and leading teachers of Tendo-ryu and Jikishinkage-ryu agreed to found an all-Japan naginata federation, adopted these forms with minor changes and began writing the word naginata in the syllabic script. That is how atarashii naginata came into being. Amdur quotes Meik Skoss, according to whom the more advanced forms of the all-Japan naginata forms consist mainly of techniques of Tendo-ryu and Jikishinkage-ryu.
Technique
Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states that Tendo-ryu practices forms as a duel, that is, that the form itself counts as equal to combat with live weapons, and that the school's distinctive feature is work with the hips and foot positioning. The technique ichimonji no midare, with which according to tradition the founder cut arrows, is according to Amdur the basis of many forms. Koryu.com lists as the school's disciplines naginatajutsu, kenjutsu with odachi, kodachi, two swords, tanto and kaiken, jojutsu with a broken naginata, and kusarigamajutsu. A 2013 study in a Japanese scholarly journal analyzes the text Ten-ryu Shomokuroku, regarded as a book of secrets from the early days of Ten-ryu. In it the technique is linked with mystical incantations aimed at merging with the tengu.
Training
According to Amdur, 120 paired forms survive, with naginata, sword, kusarigama, the jo staff, two swords and a short sword. The opposing side is always armed with a sword, and in most forms the practitioner holds a naginata. Techniques are practiced first alone and only later with a partner. The opposing side starts about half a step outside striking distance, and teachers remind both sides that they are to attack, not merely receive. Advanced students also practice, according to Amdur, kusarigama, a staff simulating a naginata with a broken blade, and forms with two swords. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states that the school is united by an association that holds seminars two or three times a year and a meeting once a year at which results are shown.
Today
Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists as the training venue the Shubukan dojo in Itami, Hyogo prefecture, where training is held every Tuesday and on the second Sunday of the month, and branches in Australia and the United Kingdom. Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai lists the school with soke Kimura Yasuko in Tokyo. Koryu.com gives an older statement, the 16th soke Mitamura Takeko in Kyoto. The Nihon Kobudo Kyokai data date from 2007 and 2008.
Did you know
Ellis Amdur gives a different legend of the school's origin than Nihon Kobudo Kyokai. According to it, Saito fought a mountain ascetic all night at a shrine in Kamakura, and when he asked the name of his school, the man left without a word toward the sun. Saito recognized in this the name Ten-ryu. According to some accounts he wore a kimono imitating feathers, like a tengu.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Tendo-ryu?
Saito Hangan Denkibo, a student of Tsukahara Bokuden. According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, he founded the school after a hundred days of prayer at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura and first named it Ten-ryu.
When did Tendo-ryu originate?
Nipponica places the founder's stay in Kamakura in 1581, koryu.com gives 21 November 1582 as the founding date and Ellis Amdur the sixties of the 16th century.
How is Tendo-ryu connected to atarashii naginata?
According to Ellis Amdur, the teachers of Tendo-ryu and Jikishinkage-ryu stood at the founding of the all-Japan naginata federation, and its forms derive from forms created by the Tendo-ryu practitioner Sakakida Yaeko.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.