Hi Folks:
If I'm lucky Guy will pick-up on this. If not, maybe someone can help me in my research. I recently tripped across Power Sensei's comments regarding the history of Toyama-Ryu on his website. Here is what I understood.
The first Officer's Academy taught sword but was predicated on French and later Prussian methods. This carried forward to the Toyama Academy when it opened. I'm left to consider that when the Japanese came to Korea it was this sword (single-hand sabre; European architecture) that they taught at the Police Acedemy and later to the Korean military.
Later there is a report that because of the poor performance of the Japanese swordsmanship during the Manchurian Incursion (1932), efforts were made to reinstate the use of the long sword (katana) which occurred in 1939. I would then imagine that all Army units as well as candidates in training in both Toyama and in Manchuria at the Singyong Academy would have trained with the long sword and that the only other folks who advocated long sword tradition would have been the BUTOKUKAI and BUTOKUKAI - CHOSON ...... and, of course the Kendo folks later on, right?
What I am having a hard time getting my head around is the nature of the sword used in Toyama training between 1900 and 1939. Was it a single hand or two-handed sabre. I seem to recall a report that Toyama-Ryu had its start under Nakamura in 1925. Help? Anyone?
Best Wishes,
Bruce