Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu
天神真楊流Late Edo jujutsu school that Iso Mataemon Masatari formed from Yoshin-ryu and Shin no Shinto-ryu: true strikes to weak points, 124 techniques, and one of the schools judo grew out of.
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About Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu
Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu is a Japanese jujutsu school of the late Edo period. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, Nipponica and Nikkoku, it was founded by Iso Mataemon Masatari (reading per Nipponica), a retainer of the Kishu domain, also called Ryukansai, by merging two schools he had studied: Yoshin-ryu under Hitotsuyanagi Oribe Yoshimichi and Shin no Shinto-ryu under Honma Joemon Masato (reading per Nipponica). Nipponica places the merger of the two schools, the fixing of 124 techniques and the proclamation of the name by 1822, Nikkoku by around the Bunsei era (1818 to 1830), and koryu.com around 1830. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai the name consists of the word Tenjin and one character from each parent school, and the founder withdrew to pray at the Kitano Tenmangu shrine in Kyoto and attained enlightenment on seeing a willow bent by the wind.
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The founder was born in Matsusaka in Ise, but sources differ on the year of birth: Daijisen and the Kodansha biographical dictionary 1786, Nihon Kobudo Kyokai 1804 for the Kawagoe line and age 76 at death for the Niiza line, Nipponica 1804 with a question mark, while all give his death in 1863. According to Nipponica he left for Edo at fifteen, studied Yoshin-ryu for seven years and Shin no Shinto-ryu for almost six, and on his provincial travels, according to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, he fought the teachers of the domains and never lost, and when in Kusatsu he faced more than a hundred attackers with a single disciple, he recognized the effectiveness of strikes and went on seeking the true strike, a hit on physiological weak points. In 1828, according to Nipponica, he married into the Iso family of shogunal retainers and took the name by which he is known. He opened a dojo in Edo in Kanda Otamagaike, where according to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai he taught 124 variants of techniques and the secret art of killing and revival, and disciples reportedly exceeded five thousand. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai says that Kodokan founder Kano Jigoro joined the school of master Fukuda Hachinosuke in Meiji 10 and after his death continued with the third head, Iso Masatomo. Nipponica and Green name Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu and Kito-ryu as the main schools from which Kano built judo, adopting elements of other schools, and Britannica writes that Kano took from it the holding and striking techniques as a technical foundation. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, the school is marked by a correct center of the body and a supple body not opposing the opponent's effort, unbalancing the opponent and striking into the gap, putting mind and ki into techniques, and the healing arts. Britannica divides the techniques into four sections, idori, tachiai, kabezoi and yukiai (reading per Britannica), and characterizes the school by strikes and revival methods. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai the school today has two institutions in Saitama Prefecture, in Niiza and in Kawagoe, and Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai lists the Niiza line. Japanese Wikipedia says that the Iso family as head of the school died out after the fifth generation and several teaching lines exist today.
History
The founder Iso Mataemon Masatari (reading per Nipponica), also called Ryukansai, was born in Matsusaka in Ise into a family of a Kishu domain retainer, and his own name was different according to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai and Nipponica, he adopted the name above only later. Sources differ on the year of birth: Daijisen and the Kodansha biographical dictionary give 1786, Nihon Kobudo Kyokai 1804 for the Kawagoe line and age 76 at death for the Niiza line, Nipponica 1804 with a question mark, and Japanese Wikipedia 1790 based on a survey of the grave in 1901, adding that the register of the dead burned in an air raid on Tokyo, so birth years cannot be established. All sources give his death in 1863, Kodansha dated the 15th day of the 7th month and an age of 78, adding that according to another view he died at sixty. According to Nipponica he left for Edo at fifteen (Japanese Wikipedia gives Kyoto), studied Yoshin-ryu for seven years under Hitotsuyanagi Oribe Yoshimichi and Shin no Shinto-ryu for almost six under Honma Joemon Masato (reading per Nipponica), while Nihon Kobudo Kyokai for the Kawagoe line gives six to seven years and about six years. Afterwards, according to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, he traveled the provinces, fought the teachers of the domains and never lost, and in Kusatsu in Goshu he drove off over a hundred ruffians together with a single disciple and saved lives. Nipponica writes that only then he recognized the effectiveness of strikes and seek the true strike, and Nihon Kobudo Kyokai describes the true strike as a hit on physiological weak points inserted into throws, joint locks and chokes.
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According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai the founder withdrew to the Kitano Tenmangu shrine in Kyoto, attained enlightenment on seeing a willow bent by the wind, merged the two schools and newly founded Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu, whose name consists of the word Tenjin and one character from each parent school. Nipponica places the merger of the schools, the addition of new methods, the proclamation of the name and the opening of the dojo in Kanda Otamagaike in Edo by 1822, Nikkoku by around the Bunsei era, koryu.com gives around 1830, Britannica the time of shogun Tokugawa Ienari, and Japanese Wikipedia gives his arrival in Edo in 1824 and a dojo with its own name. In 1828, according to Nipponica, he married into the Iso family of shogunal retainers with an income of twenty bales of rice and one portion, called himself Iso Mataemon Masatari and chose the name Ryukansai, having briefly gone by another name before. Besides the main dojo he set up, according to Nipponica, several training halls in Edo and disciples reportedly reached five thousand, while Nihon Kobudo Kyokai writes that at the end of the shogunate the school spread to many domains with more than five thousand disciples. Nikkoku adds that at the end of Edo it was popular in Edo and was also called Shin'yo-ryu, and English Wikipedia, citing Green and Svinth, gives instruction at the shogunal military academy between 1856 and 1866. According to Nipponica the second head was the founder's second son Iso Masamitsu and the third his adopted son Iso Mataemon Masatomo, and among other disciples Nipponica names Fukuda Hachinosuke (1828 to 1879), later teacher of Kano Jigoro. Japanese Wikipedia states that the founder handed leadership to his son in 1857, the son died in 1867 at 37 and the third head in 1881. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states that Kano Jigoro joined the school of master Fukuda Hachinosuke in Meiji 10, after his death in Meiji 12 continued with the third head, and in Meiji 15 founded Kodokan judo. Japanese Wikipedia writes that the Iso family as head of the school died out after the fifth generation and that important Kodokan judoka also emerged from the dojo of a disciple of the second head. CiNii lists as the school's earliest writings an illustrated exposition of secret techniques published in 1893 by the fifth head with a co-author, and a study by Oimatsu from 1965 on three schools. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai states that in 1994 all the school's techniques were documented for the future at the request of the Kodokan.
How it differs
According to Nipponica, the founder added new methods to the merger of Yoshin-ryu and Shin no Shinto-ryu, and according to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai the feature of the school is the true strike inserted into throws, joint locks and chokes. Sources describe the relation to judo as follows: Britannica writes that Kodokan judo made its holding and striking techniques its technical basis, Nipponica and Green list it beside Kito-ryu as the main schools from which judo emerged, adopting elements of other schools, while Britannica attributes throws to Kito-ryu. We have not found the English Wikipedia claim about the origin of specific judo throws or the influence on judo kata elsewhere. Japanese Wikipedia states, according to the Iso dojo's account, that fighters from many jujutsu schools met there at the end of Edo, and CiNii lists a 2017 study by Nakajima on bouts with other schools per this account. Both present Nihon Kobudo Kyokai institutions, in Niiza and in Kawagoe, describe the school each in its own words, the Niiza line the features of body and mind, the Kawagoe line four kinds of techniques.
Technique
Nihon Kobudo Kyokai for the Niiza line lists the features of the school: a correct center of the body and a supple body responding to change without opposing the opponent's effort, unbalancing the opponent and striking into the gap, putting mind and ki into techniques, experience with the true strike, the healing arts and laying the foundation for Kodokan judo. The Kawagoe line describes the style as handling the opponent according to his movement without violence and rationally by throwing, choking, locking and striking techniques. Britannica divides the techniques into four sections, idori, tachiai, kabezoi and yukiai (reading per Britannica), and characterizes the school by strikes and revival methods, and Nipponica describes the founder's curriculum: it began with the tehodoki section (reading per Nipponica) of twelve forms, seven of which come from Shin no Shinto-ryu, followed by a first stage with ten idori forms and ten tachiai, a middle stage with fourteen and fourteen forms and twenty throwing forms, and a top stage with ten and ten forms and the teaching of keiraku (reading per Nipponica), vital points and revival.
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Japanese Wikipedia states that the founder compiled 124 techniques on the basis of three areas, strikes and kicks, chokes and joint locks, and that the license of full transmission required the recipient to combine two of the 124 techniques into one and create twenty variants. English Wikipedia summarizes the syllabus as techniques of strikes, throws, immobilization and chokes and claims that the school features more supple and fluid movement than in older schools imitating combat in armor. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai does not confirm the English Wikipedia claim that strikes serve to break balance, according to it they are a hit on physiological weak points.
Training
Britannica states that kata were practiced in sequence with many repetitions and free training was then added to practice the techniques. Japanese Wikipedia describes that the dojo taught strikes, chokes and joint locks in kata and their use in free training, chokes were practiced until submission and hardened the receiver's throat, and kicks to the ribs and flank were delivered at full force many times, and it gives board-breaking with the fist (board 1.2 cm thick) and a rule on training dress, white thread for lower ranks and black thread from the mokuroku grade, with the school lending its own dress for bouts with other schools. English Wikipedia lists over 124 kata, seated, standing, defenses against weapons and revival, and adds that some kata are secret because of their deadly effects. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai the Niiza line regularly takes part in exhibitions organized by Nippon Budokan, in Asakusa and in offering exhibitions at the Meiji Shrine, and the Kawagoe line trains in the judo hall of the prefectural budokan in Kawagoe.
Ranks and progression
Nipponica lists the stages tehodoki, the first stage, the middle stage and the highest stage of the secret teaching. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai for the Kawagoe line lists the school's surviving scrolls, the scrolls of earth, man and heaven, the yang scroll as the license and the yin scroll as full transmission, and quotes the license poem about a body that, like wood on water, entrusts itself to waves and wind. Japanese Wikipedia states that the earth scroll was granted with the first mokuroku plus treatment of bruises and sprains, the heaven scroll with the main mokuroku plus procedures for dislocation and fracture, the yang scroll at licensing with a diagram of the five organs and six viscera and an overview of vital points of the body, and the yin scroll at full transmission, and describes four stages of revival methods granted after mastering each stage, with revival practiced by drawing lots for who would be choked. English Wikipedia adds that the school, like most koryu, uses the menkyo system of licenses, not kyu and dan.
Today
Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists two institutions of Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu in Saitama Prefecture: the line in Niiza (no. 005), where after the death of the previous teacher his son took over leadership, koryu.com names Kubota Toshihiro as representative, and the adviser is the last direct disciple of Sakamoto Fusataro, and the line in Kawagoe (no. 006) with a representative who trains in the prefectural budokan. Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai lists only the Niiza line. Koryu.com and English Wikipedia still list Kubota Toshihiro as representative, and English Wikipedia adds that he founded the dojo and the organization Tenyokai in 1978 and received his license in 1973 from Sakamoto Fusataro. Japanese Wikipedia lists several present-day teaching lines, among them the line from the dojo of Sakamoto Fusataro, from which Kubota Toshihiro emerged, and two others. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, in 1994 all the school's techniques were documented at the request of the Kodokan.
Did you know
Japanese Wikipedia says that the founder had a rope tied around his neck while seated, two disciples pulled it hard, but he did not topple, and that when a new gallows was tested in the first years of Meiji, Iso Mataemon underwent the attempt and was revived by a disciple, though Wikipedia itself adds that the founder was already dead then and it was the third head. The same Wikipedia says that in the Tatsunokuchi incident in 1861 a disciple of the school caught an attacker with a sword in front of the carriage of roju Matsudaira Nobuyoshi by seizing his arm and throwing him down, and that a Kodokan judoka of eighth dan practiced board-breaking with the fist daily for two months, but the board did not break and he repeatedly injured his fist. English Wikipedia, citing Hill, says that Edward William Barton-Wright studied Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu in Yokohama and introduced jujutsu to Europe in 1899. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai for the Kawagoe line quotes the license poem: whoever is caught, let him entrust himself to waves and wind like wood floating on water.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu, and when?
Iso Mataemon Masatari, a retainer of the Kishu domain, by merging Yoshin-ryu and Shin no Shinto-ryu (Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, Nipponica, Nikkoku, Britannica). Nipponica places the school's proclamation by 1822, Nikkoku around the Bunsei era, koryu.com around 1830. The founder's year of birth is given as 1786, 1790 and 1804, and he died in 1863.
How does Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu relate to judo?
According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, Kano Jigoro studied in it from Meiji 10 under Fukuda Hachinosuke and then under the third head, Iso Masatomo. Nipponica and Green list it with Kito-ryu as the main schools from which judo emerged, and Britannica writes that Kano took its holding and striking techniques as the technical basis of the Kodokan.
Does Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu still exist?
Yes. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists two institutions in Saitama Prefecture, in Niiza and in Kawagoe, and Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai the Niiza line. Japanese Wikipedia says that the Iso family heading the school died out after the fifth generation and that several teaching lines exist today.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.