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.

THE MASTERS OF TAKAGIYŌSHIN-RYŪ

1. 高木折右衛門重俊 Takagi Oriemon Shigenobu (born 1625 or 1635) was a samurai of the Shiraishi 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. He travelled around Japan for 7 years on his Musha Shugyō, before returning back home to Shiraishi. 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 (born in 1656) was an extraordinarily large man by Japanese standards, standing 206 cm tall—roughly 6 shaku 8 sun—and possessing legendary strength said to equal that of five ordinary men. His favored weapon was a massive bō staff measuring 3.6 m long (2 ken) and 24 cm thick (8 sun). He famously dueled 竹内久吉 Takeuchi Hisayoshi, the third sōke of Takeuchi-ryū (born circa 1602, died 1671 at age 69), in a dramatic mismatch reminiscent of David versus Goliath: the towering youth (no older than 14 or 15 years old at the time, given the roughly 54-year age gap between them) faced a diminutive opponent who stood less than 145 cm tall (4 shaku 8 sun) and was described as having only the strength of an average man. Despite his overwhelming physical advantages, Takagi Umanosuke was defeated and subsequently became a student of Takeuchi Hisayoshi, immersing himself in the Takeuchi-ryū Koshi-no-mawari techniques. He later integrated these teachings into his own martial system, which he named Takagiyōshin-ryū, and passed the lineage on to his son, Takagi Gennoshin Hideshige.[¹]

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

[kanji?] Abe Unryū (Yeiroku era 1568-1579) [kanji?] Itō Kii-no-kami (Morisada or Sukesada) 1. 高木折右衛門重俊 Takagi Oriemon Shigenobu (b. 1625 or 1635 – d.1711-10-07) 2. 高木馬の輔重貞 Takagi Umanosuke Shigesada (b. 1655 – d. 1746) 3. 高木源之進英重 Takagi Gennoshin Hideshige (d. 1702) 4. 大国鬼平重信 Ōkuni Kihei Shigenobu (Genroku era 1688-1704)

5. 大国八九郎伸俊 Ōkuni Yakuburō Nobutoshi 6. 大国太郎太夫忠信 Ōkuni Tarodayu Tadanobu 7. 大国鬼兵衛良貞 Ōkuni Kihei (Kihyō) Yoshisada 8. 大国与左衛門良貞 Ōkuni Yozaemon Yoshisada 9. 中山甚内定秀 Nakayama Jinnai Sadahide 10. 大国武左衛門英信 Ōkuni Takezaemon Hidenobu 11. 中山嘉衛門定賢 Nakayama Kaemon Sadasaka 12. 大国鎌治英俊 Ōkuni Kamaharu Hidetoshi 13. 八木幾五郎久喜 Yagi Ikugorō Hisayashi (Tempo era 1830-1844) 14. 藤田藤五郎久吉 Fujita Fujigorō Hisayoshi 15. 水田芳太郎忠房 Mizuta Yoshitarō Tadafusa

大戸根左近康正 Otone Sakon Yasumasa (~1600s) 大戸根源八康秀 Ōtone Genpachi Yoshihide (~1630s–1660s) 大戸根源五郎康平 Ōtone Gengoro Yasuhira (~1660s–1690s) 淡路入道近康 Awaji Nyudo Chikayasu (~1700s) 鞍馬小太郎玄進 Kurama Kotaro Genshin (~1730s–1760s) 大国出雲守重広 Ōkuni Izumo Mori Shigehiro (~1760s–1790s) 杉野重平太兼光 Sugino Juheita Kanemitsu (~1800s) 久原源十郎義種 Hisahara Genjuro Yoshitane (~1830s–1860s) 久原小太郎信義 Hisahara Kotaro Nobuyoshi (~1860s–1890s) 石谷武甥正次 Ishitani Takeoi Masatsugu (~1860s–1905) 石谷松太郎隆景 Ishitani Matsutaro Takekage (~1870s–1911)

16. 高松寿嗣翊翁 Takamatsu Toshitsugu Uō (b. 1887 – 1972) 17. 初見良昭 Hatsumi Masaaki (b. 1931 – present) 18. 逆井則男 Sakasai Norio (2020 – present)

– 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)
– Some sources from the book 秘伝日本柔術 Hiden Nihon Jūjutsu by 松田隆智編 Matsuda Ryūchi)
– Some sources is from Budō Shiraishi Ei books originally written by Mamiya Hyoemon as Takagi Oriemon telling his stories to Lord Katakura returning from his Musaha Shugyō.

1. We can speculate how a boy no older than 15 years old would behave against a 56 year older experienced warrior in a duel. Most of these facts is verified by the Takeuchi-ryū documents (Page 37-38 of the book 秘伝日本柔術 Hiden Nihon Jūjutsu by 松田隆智編 Matsuda Ryūchi). ↩︎