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Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryu

Encyclopedia : K : KA : KAS : Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryu

Dojo at Kashima Shinden. Kashima city, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
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Dojo at Kashima Shinden. Kashima city, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan

, also known in short as Jikiˑshinˑkage-ryū (直心影流),is a koryu kenjutsu style first developed in the late Sengoku period in Japan.

It remains as one of the Japanese ancient martial arts styles that are still practiced to this day.

Loose translation of the name Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū is:

Contents

History

The Jikishinkage-ryū style decends from the kenjutsu styles developed in the late Muromachi period which overlaps the early Sengoku period, or better dated as late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, at the Kashima Shrine by the founder Matsumoto Bizen-no-Kami Naokatsu (松本備前守尚勝, 1467-1524). The direct antecessors of the Jikishinkage-ryū style are the Shinkage-ryū (新影流) and the Kage-ryū styles.

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 taught 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). 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, Kimiyoshi Suzuki. Kimiyoshi sensei is also a master of Goju-ryu Karate and Jikishin Kage-ryu Kenjutsu.

Characteristics

The Jikishinkage-ryū style has many differences when compared to modern kendō. We can readily point out the different footwork and kiai:

Jikishinkage-ryū exponents train with both odachi and kodachi (but not both at once).

Clothing

Kenjutsu was practised in a thick kimono (keikoga) in the old times. It was needed for protection, though it was still not enough sometimes. Practises are far less dangerous nowadays, the standard clothes in kenjutsu are normal budo (karate) gi and trousers. Beginners wear white belt, intermediates wear blue and brown belts, and those who successfully completed their exam for 1st dan can wear black belt with hakama. To prevent tredding on the hakama when moving in a low position, the hakama is raised a bit by folding the left and right outside front pleats up under the obi before training commences. For outisde practice Japanese working boots are worn.

Belts, ranks

"There wasn't anything like exams or ranks in the early Japan. When the master found his apprentice ready, he orderd him to show his knowledge. There were four levels in Jikishinkage-ryū. The reiken, the normal trainee level, the mokuroku and the kirkgami, the advanced level, and the highest menkyo kaiden, was the masters' level, and gave the owner the right to start teaching. The diplomas were hand-written, and contained every technique the examinee showed before the master. If the exam was successful, the new master could wear the hakama. This represented todays black belt. These thigs have changed nowadays, we use the same kyū-dan method as in most of the martial arts." (Kimiyoshi Suzuki)

The highest rank disciples of Kimiyoshi Suzuki sensei are 2nd dan black belts. The exams for belts are held once in a year, in the summer training camp. Hakama can only be worn by those, who successfully completed their 1st dan exam. A person can take only one exam in a year.

Kihon

(Basic technique and movements)

Katas

This fifth kata used to be a secret kata. It is not clear when the secrecy was lifted but the kata is, like the other five, described with text and photographs in the book of Yamada Jirokichi that was publised in the early twentiest century (1927).

Hōjō

Hojo Kata, Spring Season
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Hojo Kata, Spring Season

The hōˑjō (法上) kata (形) is the first classic kata of the Jikishinkage-ryū style. Both the shidachi and the uchidachi usually use wooden swords (bokken), although real swords (shinken) can be used as well.

The hōjō kata is composed of 4 Seasons, namely Spring (haru no tachi), Summer (natsu no tachi), Autumn (aki no tachi) and Winter (fuyu no tachi) in order of execution. Each season containing from 6-8 waza (movement). Before each season is executed the Kamiˑhanˑen, and after each season, the Shimoˑhanˑen.

The themes of the four seasons refer to universal principles which also express themselves in other manifestations. Some of these are listed in the table below.

ipponme
form number one 		nihonme
form number two 		sanhonme
form number three 		yonhonme
form number four
haru no tachi
spring 		natsu no tachi
summer 		aki no tachi
autumn 		fuyu no tachi
winter
hasso happa
eight directions 		itto ryodan
cutting your ego 		uten satan
times of change 		chotan ichimi
...
acceleration fast deceleration slow
morning afternoon evening night
warming heat cooling cold
childhood adolescence maturity old age

Each season has a respective pace, reminiscent of the perceived characteristicts of that season. Thus the waza of the Spring season are executed in a smooth and fast manner, accompained by loud kiais. Summer's movements are explosive and intense. Autumn has a varied pace, symbolizing change. Finally, Winter movements are slow, but firm. This is even more accentuated on the footwork of each season.

Both uchiˑtachi and shiˑtachi take on a stance in Spring and Autumn which is called nio dachi. This refers to the pair of guardian deities of Buddism called niˑo (仁王), which can be found as large statues at entrances of some of the ancient Japanese temples and shrines. The right statue is called Misshaku Kongo (密迹金剛) who has his mouth opened, this represents vocalization of the first character of Sanskrit which is pronounced 'a'. The left statue is called Naraen Kongo (那羅延金剛) who has his mouth closed, represents the vocalization of the last letter of Sanskrit which is pronounced 'um'. It is said that these two characters together symbolize the birth and death of all things, like we are born with 'a' and our mouth open and we die with 'um' and our mouth closed. Similar to 'alpha to omega' in Western philosophy, they signify 'everything' or 'all creation'. The contraction of both is 'Aum', which is Sanskriet for God. The stances and expressions of the statues, the sounds 'a' and 'um' and the symbolish behind this are very import in the Hōjō kata.

Tōnōkata / Fukuro Shinai

The tōˑnō (fukuro shinai) kata is the second kata of the Jikishinkage-ryū style. It is composed of 14 stages, divided in 6 groups (the first one with 4 stages, and the others with 2 each). Each stage has about 4 movements.

This kata is characterized by very fast waza. Both the uchidachi and the shidachi use bamboo swords (fukuro-shinai).

Kodachi no kata

The third set of kata in the ryu, the Kodachi no kata has six kata. Shidachi uses a large heavy wooden kodachi, and uchidachi uses a standard kendo style bokuto. Many of the kata have shidachi running into "combat" with uchidachi. Jikishinkage-ryu is unique because the kodachi is used with two hands on the tsuka.

Habiki no kata

The fouth set of kata is called Habiki no kata and it is a blend of concepts from Hojo no kata and To no kata. Both shidachi and uchidachi use shinken in this kata set. In several places both shidachi and uchidachi end up on one foot after cutting. There are four kata in Habiki no kata, and they are the ura version of Hojo no kata.

Marubashi no kata

The most advanced set of kata, it focuses on very difficult kiai and subtle movement. To the casual observer it looks as though nothing is happening in the kata at all. Shidachi uses kodachi and uchidachi uses odachi. Like the last set of kata both use shinken.

List of representatives

Below is the list of representatives or sōke:

Jirokichi - ha

Although Yamada Yoshioki sōke left no official representatives after him, the style is still practiced to this day.

Chozen-ji International Zen Dojo

Nomi - ha

Shinbukan

Present day practice

Places where groups practicing Jikishinkage-ryū Kenjutsu can be found today:

Only Hojo kata:

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
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