高木揚心流柔体術 TAKAGIYŌSHIN-RYŪ JŪTAIJUTSU

高木揚心流 Takagiyōshin-ryū is a jūtaijutsu (jujutsu) school. The techniques are designed to be applied in a very fast manner so the opponent cannot roll or escape.

There lived a monk called Abe Unryū at the foot of Mount Funagata in the Rikuzen (now Miyagi prefecture) around 1569-1570. It is said that he was an expert of taijutsu, bōjutsu and shurikenjutsu. He called his teachings Sesshō-hiden. He passed on his teachings to Itō Kii-no-kami Sukesada.

Ito Kii-no-kami Sukesada created his own style that he called Itō-ryū from what he learned from Unryū and his own experiences. His style consisting use of spear, naginata, hanbō, sword and short sword techniques. In the second year of Shōhō (around 1645) he gave menkyō-kaiden to his student Takagi Oriemon Shigenobu.

IMPORTANT MASTERS IN TAKAGIYŌSHIN-RYŪ

1. 高木折右衛門重俊 Takagi Oriemon Shigenobu (born 1625 or 1635) was a samurai of the Shiroishi domain in Ōshu (today Miyagi Prefecture). He was the second son of Inatō Sanzaemon who was a sword instructor and retainer of the Katakura Kojūrō. At a young age he traveled to Akita in Yamagata prefecture to study short sword techniques of the Mutō-ryū and spear techniques from Kyōchi-ryū. After this he kept the Sumō torikumi (grappling bouts) in mind and developed 12 omote techniques, 24 ura techniques and 12 sabaki techniques and called his style Takagi-ryū. In the eleventh year of the Kanbun reign (1671) he passed on his style which also included jūjutsu, bōjutsu, sōjutsu and naginatajutsu to his adopted son Takagi Umanosuke Shigesada.

2. 高木馬の輔重貞 Takagi Umanosuke Shigesada was born in 1656. He had a duel with Takenouchi Kaganosuke Hisayoshi the third sōke of Takenouchi-ryū and lost. After this he became his student and studied their Koshi-no-mawari which he included in his own style that he named Takagiyōshin-ryu. He passed on his teachings to his son Takagi Gennoshin Hideshige.

3. 高木源之進英重 Takagi Gennoshin Hideshige had a friendly match with Ōkuni Kihei Shigenobu who was the 15’th sōke of Kukishin-ryū. It turned out that Takagi-ryū had better jūjutsu and Kukishin-ryū had better weapon techniques. They decided that it was necessary for both schools to adapt their respective schools’ curricula. Some years later Gennoshin fell ill and died young.

4. 大国鬼平重信 Ōkuni Kihei Shigenobu taught both schools and passed them on to his son Ōkuni Yakuburō Nobutoshi and Ōtone Sakon Yasumasa, the 16’th Sōke in our Kukishin-ryū lineage. Both schools was transmitted together for the following generations until this day.

13. 八木幾五郎久喜 Yagi Ikugorō Hisayashi was a samurai of the Akō domain. He had three students that he passed on his teachings to. They where Fujita Fujigorō Hisayoshi, Ishitani Takeo Masatsugu, and Inoue Yūtarō (or Kumatarō).

16. 高松寿嗣翊翁 Takamatsu Toshitsugu Uō received Menkyō-kaiden from Mizuta Yoshitaro Tadafusa in 1901 when he was only 13 years old. Takamatsu also learned and inherited both lines of Takaigiyōshin-ryu where they had been split around 200 years earlier by Ōkuni Kihe from Ishitani who also was the shihanke of Kukishin-ryū.

17. 初見良昭 Hatsumi Masaaki was appointed the next sōke for the Mizuta line (see below) by Takamatsu. He was also taught the Ishitani line (see Kukishin-ryū) of Takagiyōshin-ryu from Takamatsu.

傳系 TAKAGIYŌSHIN-RYŪ DENKEI (水田伝 – Mizuta den)

– Some of the sources is from the book Classical Fighting Arts of Japan: A Complete Guide to Koryu Jujutsu (Bushido–The Way of the Warrior)
– Thanks to Eric Weil for the corrections!