Murakumo Dojo

Guest Blog: From Taking Heads to Taking Hands: Torite in Early Modern Japan: by Chris Leblanc - 古現武道 “If a person is cut down with a sword in front of the compound, chase the assailant down. If he will not hand over his sword you may kill him. Should he surrender his sword, however, hand him over to the magistrates office.” -1620s Shogunal notice to Tosa domain on duties during incidents in fro...

“The Sword and the Chrysanthemum” by Paul Martin Part10 : Beyond the Myth: Masamune and Muramasa | BUDO JAPAN - Japanese martial-arts Text by Paul Martin Paul Martin and his Kamon(Photo/Steve Morin)Each installment of this series is available for a limited time only—don’t miss it!(Publication period: August 14, 2026 – September 13, 2026) There is a lot of hyperbole surrounding both of……

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/196dJDwgf4/

Go to the Paul's original post and comment "yes" if you want this to happen and you should want this to happen. 👺

So I have had a National Treasure Swords of Japan book ready to go for 10+ years. The stumbling block is the cost of the using all the existing photography for all the blades, plus koshirae, plus National Treasure Koshirae. Crowding funding incurs more expense via return gifts and 20% to the crowdfunding company, so we are thinking of basing it on pre-orders. The book is not going to be cheap as it is a large volume of the very best swords and koshirae in Japan.

At this stage, we are estimating the cost of the book to be approximately 100~120 USD. Please leave a 'Yes' in the comments, if you would be willing to pre-order. Please don't just click 'like', as it won't be counted.

Pre-orders will also have the option to be signed by me. *I probably need about 1000 yes's for a chance for this to become a reality.* If you share this post, please ask your followers to put their 'yes' directly on this thread.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18tB8fEf1K/

Shinkage-ryū

KenjutsuWorld Original Series

School 3 OF 10 - The Lineages that Shaped the Sword.

Every kendo practitioner alive today trains with a tool whose lineage traces back to one man's workshop in the 1540s.

His name was Kamiizumi Ise-no-Kami Nobutsuna. He didn't accumulate a legendary duel record like Tsukahara Bokuden. He did something harder: he looked at the martial arts of his era and asked a question no one else had thought to ask — what if we could train at full speed without killing each other?

The answer he invented was the fukuro-shinai — a bamboo stave split at one end and covered in a lacquered leather sleeve. For the first time, students could practice sword techniques at full speed against a resisting partner without holding back. Before this, swordsmen trained with bokken or dulled blades and had to pull every strike. The realism of genuine sword combat had never been accessible in a training hall — until Kamiizumi.

⸻ ✦ ⸻
Born around 1508 in Kōzuke Province, Kamiizumi studied Kage-ryū, Nen-ryū, Shintō-ryū and other traditions before synthesizing them into something new. He was a younger contemporary of Tsukahara Bokuden — the sword saint we covered last week — and the two represent the twin peaks of Sengoku-period swordsmanship. He named his school Shinkage-ryū — "the new shadow school" — and in his own writings marked its transmission as beginning from himself, suggesting he understood that what he had created was genuinely new.

He also adapted his technical system as fi****ms rendered heavy armor obsolete — replaced by lighter, mobile armor sets, and eventually unarmored dueling altogether. Recognizing this shift, he raised stances, modified grips, and shortened blade lengths to match the speed and mobility the new era demanded.

⸻
Shinkage-ryū introduced one of the most enduring philosophical concepts in all of Japanese martial arts: katsujin-ken — the "life-giving sword." The idea that the highest expression of sword mastery is not killing but subduing — neutralizing a threat without taking life. In an era of the "sword of one cut," this was a radical reorientation.

Shinkage-ryū also formalized the transmission of knowledge through structured licensed scrolls (densho) and technique catalogs (mokuroku), culminating in the Menkyo Kaiden — the license of complete transmission. This model of documented lineage preservation became deeply influential across classical martial arts.

⸻
In late 1563, traveling to Kyoto, Kamiizumi stopped in Yagyū Village and met a samurai lord named Yagyū Munetoshi. In 1565 he awarded him complete transmission of the school. Munetoshi added his family name — creating Yagyū Shinkage-ryū. His son Yagyū Munenori became sword instructor to the Tokugawa shogunate. The school that began in Kamiizumi's workshop became the official sword system of the government that would rule Japan for 250 years.

The fukuro-shinai. The ranking system. The katsujin-ken philosophy. The transmission to Yagyū. Every one of these is still with us today — not as historical artifacts but as living practice. Kamiizumi Nobutsuna may be the most consequential figure in the history of Japanese swordsmanship that most people have never heard of.

⸻ ✦ ⸻
This is School #3 of 10 in our series: The Lineages That Shaped the Sword.

Next week: Yagyū Shinkage-ryū — the school that became the sword of the Tokugawa shogunate. Follow the page so you don't miss it.

Full article at KenjutsuWorld.com 🔗