Jikishin Kage-ryu Kenjutsu - Hungary & Germany [Archive]

Tsubaki Sanjuro

15th March 2007, 09:33

The Jikishin Kage-ryu Kenjutsu comes from a previous school, Kage-ryu Kenjutsu. A samurai called Aizu Iko founded Kage-ryu in 1490 (the school of shadow). He perfected, and tought his style around Japan. There are evidences from 1525, that another samurai, Kumizume Ise no Kami Nobutsuno (1508-1548) is teaching his own style, a form of Kage-ryu kenjutsu. He called it Shinkage-ryu (the school of the new shadow). The next great master in the line was Yamada Heizaemon, a talented student of a Zen school, who founded the Jikishin Kage-ryu style in the 1560-s. Jikishin Kage-ryu means 'the newest school of the ancient shadow'. He was denoting with the name, to the ancestors, and expressing respect to his former masters. Matsumoto Bizen no Kami Naukatsu was a famuos master of this school, he also founded his own school firs called Kashima Shinryu, then Kashima Shinden Jiki Shinkage-ryu. These schools can be found even today all around the world. There are more variations like Jikishin Kage-ryu, Seito Shinkage-ryu, etc.

The 14th grandmaster of Jikishin Kage-ryu Kenjutsu was a famous swordsman of his time Kenkichi Sakakabira, the personal bodyguard of the Shogun. His two most talented adepts were Yamada Jirokichi and Matsudaira Konen, who both studied the more traditional ways of Jikishin Kage-ryu. The best apprentice of Konen was Makita Shigekatsu, a young man from a samurai family from Hokkaido. His name, and Jikishin Kage-ryu became famous on the northern island in the times of the Japanese civil war in 1868. By swordfighting, he was an expert of kyudo, Japanese archery. He was the heir of the title of grandmaster of Jikishin Kage-ryu, but unfortunately he was fighting a losing battle against the Emperor in the revolution. The cast of the samurai was disbanded, and he had to run. Later, he returned to Hokkaido, and opened his own dojo, called Jikishin Kan Dojo. He was teaching various martial arts, not just kenjutsu. His dojo was popular, in spite of the prohibition of katanas in 1876.

After Shigekatsu's death, the village of Atsuta raised a black granite obelisk in his memory. This memorial can be seen today. The family tradition has been taken by his grandson, Suzuki Kimiyoshi. Kimiyoshi sensei is also a master of Goju-ryu Karate and Jikishin Kage-ryu Kenjutsu.