Shintō Muso Ryū

Within the Bushin Kai we practice the Shintō Muso Ryū of the line of Mikawa Yoneno-ha, as transmitted by the late 27^th Headmaster Mukaida Takeshi Shihan.

The Shintō Muso Ryū (also sometimes pronounced Shindō Muso Ryū) is a Kōryū Bu-jutsu (traditional school of Japanese martial arts) which was created by Musō Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi in the early 17^th century. Already a renowned master of the sword method of Katori Shintō Ryū and Kashima Jikishinkage Ryū (two of the most prestigious schools of the time), he developed a sword and weapons system which includes techniques based on the employment of a Jō (short a staff) to control and defeat an opponent armed with one or two swords.

The legend of the school tells of a younger Musō Gonnosuke crossing swords in a friendly duel with the famed Miyamoto Musashi to prove his abilities, but in that encounter, he lost. Miyamoto Musashi used his already legendary two swords’ techniques, while Musō Gonnosuke used his single sword skills. Proven by his defeat he went to retreat at the Fuike Cave, near the Kamado Shrine on Homan-san mountain (in modern-day Fukuoka Prefecture), to meditate, train and better himself. There he had a vision which inspired him to create his Jō techniques and a way to defeat Miyamoto Musashi’s swordplay. Musō Gonnosuke had then his rematch, but this time instead of a sword he used a Jō and by using his new skills defeated the famed Miyamoto Musashi.

Although accounts of this story cannot be nowadays fully verified, it is known that Musō Gonnosuke, following the aforementioned incidents, was employed to teach his school Shintō Muso Ryū at the service of the prominent Kuroda Clan lords of the Chikuzen Domain (modern day Fukuoka Prefecture), a position that most likely would have not been invested to a samurai with a shattered reputation. Even more so considering that Miyamoto Musashi was in close relation with, and later officially employed by, the Hosokawa Clan, powerful and rival lords of the Higo Domain (modern day Kumamoto Prefecture, both domains were located not too far apart from each other in the island of Kyūshū).

The curriculum, originally composed of a small set of Ken-jutsu and Jō-jutsu forms, was later expanded by subsequent generations of headmasters and through the centuries other arts have been assimilated within the school.

Of important notice was the addition within the curriculum of the art of Ikkaku Ryū Jutte-jutsu (a metal baton) and Ittatsu Ryū Hōjō-jutsu (rope arresting techniques), by the 3^rd Headmaster Matsuzaki Kin’emon.

In the late 1800’s the Isshin Ryū Kusarigama-jutsu (a double edged and straight bladed scythe with a long chain with a weight at its extremity) as well as the Uchida Ryū Tanjō-jutsu (a walking cane) were incorporated by the 24^th Headmaster Shiraishi Hanjiro. He was also instrumental in the migration of the school from the time of the Samurai to a completely new social and political structure of the Country. He also merged the two largest surviving branches of the school into a single tradition.

Since the employment of Musō Gonnosuke at the service of the Kuroda Clan in the 17^th century, the Shintō Muso Ryū remained a relatively secretive martial art that could be taught only within the Chikuzen Domain (hangai-fushutsu or “secret, and not to leave the domain”) until well into the Meiji period (1868-1912). During this time the methods of the schools were taught to the samurai in service of the domain, but also to the police officers, lower ranks of which were not samurai, and part of the curriculum was accessible to some other people with some restrictions.

After the lifting of all teaching restrictions in the 20^th century, the school started to spread first to Tōkyō area and then to other parts of Japan. Due to this, and the necessity to teach different typologies and number of practitioners, both technique variations and political changes began to occur within different factions of the school, some of which led to a subset of modernized Jō-jutsu techniques to being assimilated within the All-Japan Kendo Federation in 1968. At the center of the popularization and modernization of the teaching of the Shintō Muso Ryū method was the 25^th Headmaster Shimizu Takaji. He moved to Tōkyō 1930 and soon began to teach to the Metropolitan Police Department (later a subset of techniques was developed specifically for the Police) and armed forces. Following the end of WW2, the practice of most martial arts and especially swordsmanship was forbidden, but the Jō-jutsu gathered more popularity and support by many Budō practitioners unable to pursue their own school. Arguably, that led to present the  Shintō Muso Ryū more as a Jōdō (way of the stick) art and a physical education system rather than a combat method of various weapons of the Samurai era, and therefore, paved the way to later enter larger federations, teaching in the school system and the sport competition environment (although our branch of the school do not participate to those activities and focuses on the traditional teachings).

Among the students of Shimizu Shihan, Hamaji Kōichi was the most senior of the advanced group who received Menkyō Kaiden (full transmission). Hamaji Shihan relocated in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, and opened his own Dōjō that operated on the yards of the local Shrine in the area where he lived.

In the mid 60’s a young Mukaida Takeshi started to practice the school under the guidance of Hamaji Shihan and followed him until his death in 1985. Before passing Hamaji Shihan requested one of his most close friends and fellow senior Shintō Muso Ryū Menkyō Kaiden holder, Yoneno Kōtaro Shihan, to complete the teaching of Mukaida Shihan. Therefore, our branch although under the lineage of the late Yoneno Shihan preserves the teachings of both methods the Yoneno-ha and the Hamaji-ha lines.