Yagyu Shingan-ryu Heihojutsu
柳生心眼流兵法術The Sendai branch of a samurai school from around 1600. Armoured combat with sword and staff, and hard shoulder strikes in place of punches.
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About Yagyu Shingan-ryu Heihojutsu
Yagyū Shingan-ryū Heihōjutsu is the Sendai branch of an ancient samurai school which, according to sources, was founded by Takenaga Hayato around 1600. The date is approximate, and the source itself marks it as such; no more precise date is documented. Hayato studied in Edo under Yagyū Munenori, and the Sendai line still states today that it was Munenori himself who allowed him to use the name Yagyū; the Edo branch tells the same matter differently, so the catalogue gives both accounts and does not decide between them. The school later split. The Sendai branch carries the name Heihōjutsu and is today led in its fifteenth generation; the Edo branch, known as taijutsu or araki-dō, descends from the fourth head of the school, Koyama Samon, is led in its eleventh generation, and has its own entry in the catalogue. The curriculum is far more than swordsmanship alone. Alongside yawara, unarmed combat both in and out of armour, it includes kenjutsu, battōjutsu, bōjutsu, naginatajutsu, sōjutsu, torite, and kappō, that is, resuscitation techniques. Characteristic of the school are hard strikes with the shoulder and hip, by which the opponent's balance is disrupted. This is not roughness for its own sake: in combat between men in full armour, a punch has nowhere to land, whereas making an opponent lose his balance under the weight of heavy armour is decisive.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.
