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天眞兵法九鬼神流 Tenshin Hyōhō Kukishin-ryū

薬師丸蔵人隆眞 Yakushimaru Kurando Takama1, a 37th-generation descendant of Fujiwara no Kamatari, was granted the surname Kuki by Emperor Go-Daigo. He transmitted the family martial traditions as Kukishin Den Tenjin Heihō (also known as Tenjin Heihō Kukishin Ryū or Tenjin Heihō Kukishin Den Bujutsu).

Tenjin Heihō Kukishin Den Bujutsu belongs to the Amatsu Tatara lineage. It is a comprehensive martial system encompassing swordsmanship, staff techniques, naginata, spear, mounted archery, castle fortification, military strategy, astronomy, geography, and many other fields. Important scrolls include the Kuki Sōden no Maki (Kuki Hi Sō no Maki), Shiten no Maki, Kukishin Ryū Kaiden no Maki (Ryū no Maki, Tora no Maki, Shin no Maki), and the 36 scrolls plus 9 supplementary scrolls of the Amatsu Tatara Hibumi.

After Kuki Yagoro Sumitaka, the Kukishin-ryū tradition split into two primary branches. One remained with the Kuki clan, who continued to preserve the hereditary family transmission. The other branch was carried forward by the Ōkuni family, which itself later divided into multiple parallel lines. Several of these Ōkuni-descended lines eventually converged back to Takamatsu Toshitsugu.

During the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods, Takamatsu Toshitsugu restored, systematized, and greatly revived the nearly lost Kukishin Den Bujutsu. The current form of Kukishin Ryū owes much to his achievements.

Kukishin Ryū Jūjutsu skillfully combines the strengths of taijutsu and striking techniques (daken). This style is recorded in the Amatsu Tatara Kukishin Ryū Jūtaijutsu Kappō Hen no Maki Volume 34. During the time of Ishitani Matsutarō it was also called Mushin Musō Ryū, but Takamatsu Toshitsugu supplemented and organized it as Kukishin Ryū Jūjutsu. He transmitted the complete system to his senior student Kimura Masaharu, who in turn passed the full transmission to Tanemura Shōtō (Tsunehisa).

傳系 DENKEI (KUKI-CLAN)

  1. 薬師丸蔵人高真 — Yakushimaru Kurando Takazane (c. 1318 – c. 1390s)
  2. 九鬼弥五郎澄隆 — Kuki Yagoro Sumitaka (late 14th – early 15th century)
  3. 九鬼義隆 — Kuki Yoshitaka (15th century)
  4. 九鬼隆良 — Kuki Takayoshi (mid-15th century)
  5. 九鬼隆政 — Kuki Takamasa (late 15th – early 16th century)
  6. 九鬼忠政 — Kuki Tadamasa (c. 1540 – 1600)
  7. 九鬼隆頼 — Kuki Takayori (late 16th century)
  8. 九鬼隆久 — Kuki Takahisa (late 16th – early 17th century)
  9. 九鬼隆則 — Kuki Takanori (early 17th century)
  10. 九鬼隆安 — Kuki Takayasu (mid-17th century)
  11. 九鬼隆広 — Kuki Takahiro (mid-17th century)
  12. 九鬼隆常 — Kuki Takatsune (late 17th – early 18th century)
  13. 九鬼隆之 — Kuki Takayuki (18th century)
  14. 九鬼隆道 — Kuki Takamichi (mid-18th century)
  15. 九鬼隆義 — Kuki Takayoshi (late 18th – early 19th century)
  16. 九鬼隆治 — Kuki Takaharu (19th century – c. 1960s)
  17. 九鬼隆久 — Kuki Takahisa (mid-20th century)
  18. 九鬼家隆 — Kuki Ietaka (late 20th century – present)

傳系 DENKEI (TAKAMATSU-DEN)

  1. 薬師丸蔵人隆眞 Yakushimaru Kurando Takama
  2. 九鬼弥五郎澄隆 Kuki Yagorō Sumitaka
  3. 大國鬼平源久良 Ōkuni Kihei Genkura
  4. 有馬大助忠明 Arima Daisuke Tadaaki
  5. 有馬河内介正義 Arima Kōchinosuke Masayoshi
  6. 栗山右近源長房 Kuriyama Ukongen Nagafusa
  7. 細谷新八郎幸久 Hosoya Shinpachirō Yukihisa
  8. 木村一刀斎兼介 Kimura Ittōsai Kanesuke
  9. 木村夢想軒忠助 Kimura Musōken Chūsuke
  10. 大隅志摩守之行 Ōsumi Shimanosuke Yukiyuki
  11. 伊庭登太郎 Iba Tōtarō
  12. 藤木八右衛門錦石 Fujiki Hachiemon Kinseki
  13. 戸田源八郎信正 Toda Genpachirō Nobumasa
  14. 荒木多門介正澄 Araki Tamonnosuke Masasumi
  15. 小笠原丹後守直久 Ogasawara Tango no Kami Naohisa
  16. 竹内五郎兵衛助定 Takeuchi Gorōbei Sukesada
  17. 喜多三郎兵衛正虎 Kita Saburōbei Masatora
  18. 加納虎太郎源義広 Kanō Kotarō Minamoto no Yoshihiro
  19. 一柳数馬 Ichiyanagi Kazuma
  20. 一柳織部 Ichiyanagi Orie
  21. 今川久太郎 Imagawa Hisatarō
  22. 石谷松太郎隆景 Ishitani Matsutarō Takakage
  23. 高松壽嗣翊翁 Takamatsu Toshitsugu Uō
  24. 木村正治源正勝 Kimura Masaharu Minamoto no Masakatsu
  25. 種村恒久源匠刀 Tanemura Tsunehisa Minamoto no Shōtō

Note: This is not the same lineage as the Bujinkan Kukishin-ryu.

名師 MEISHI

22’nd Sōke, Ishitani Matsutarō Takakage
– 26’th Sōke in Kukishin-ryū Happō Bikenjutsu.
– 34’th Sōke in Kijin Chōsui-ryū.

型 KATA

  • Kihon 9 techniques
  • Shoden 13 techniques
  • Chūden 8 techniques
    -締技 8 techniques
  • Taijutsu 13 techniques
  • Okuden (Mutō Dori 16 techniques + Musō Dori 9 techniques)
  • Menkyo (Kyūkatsu no Hō, Shōshin no Hō, Jiga Nenriki Hisshō Hō, Sensu Dori 18 techniques, Fudō Shinmyō Roku, Chōkei 12 techniques)
  • Kaiden (Senkei 20 techniques, Kaiden Hihō – Hajutsu no Hō, Tōate no Jutsu, Kiai Kishi no Hō, etc.)
  • Separate volume: Ryū no Maki, etc.

Foot Notes

  1. The two kanji variants — 薬師丸蔵人高真 and 薬師丸蔵人隆眞 — refer to the same historical/legendary founder of Kukishin-ryū, Yakushimaru Kurando. Both are read as Takazane (or close variants) and are used interchangeably in different densho and family records. The difference is a minor orthographic variation common in pre-modern Japanese names, where 高真 (Takazane) is the more widely accepted and standard spelling in modern Bujinkan and Genbukan lineages, while 隆眞 appears in some older Kuki clan documents. They represent the same person who received the Kuki name from Emperor Go-Daigo in the 14th century. ↩︎