Yōshin-ryū

Yōshin-ryū (楊心流) ("The School of the Willow Heart")^[1] is a common name for one of several different martial traditions founded in Japan during the Edo period. The most popular and well-known was the Yōshin-ryū founded by physician Akiyama Shirōbei Yoshitoki at Nagasaki in 1642.^[1] The Akiyama line of Yōshin-ryū is perhaps the most influential school of jūjutsu to have existed in Japan. By the late Edo Period, Akiyama Yōshin-ryū and its descendants had spread all over Japan. By the Meiji era, Yōshin-ryū had even spread overseas to Europe and North America.

Together with the Takenouchi-ryū (竹内流), and the Ryōi Shintō-ryū (良移心当流), the Yōshin-ryū (楊心流), was one of the three largest, most important and influential Jūjutsu schools of the Edo period (江戸時代 Edo jidai 1603 - 1868) before the rise of Judo.^[2]

Curriculum and brief history[]

Akiyama Yōshin-ryū is noted for a very broad curriculum, which originally included jujutsu (grappling methods), bukijutsu (weapons methods), hyoho (battlefield strategy), to the development of internal energy, or nairiki. It is believed several of these teachings were eventually absorbed by other jujutsu traditions, notably among them methods of kyushojutsu (the manipulation of pressure points).

Prior to his death in 1680, Akiyama Shirōbei Yoshitoki (秋山四郎兵芳年) passed the tradition to Ōe Senbei Hirotomi (大江千兵衛), the man largely responsible for codifying the 303 kata that comprise the jujutsu curriculum. Ōe (died 1696) trained and qualified scores of students who subsequently spread the art throughout Japan.

Historically, there were three predominant mainline branch houses (honke/seito) commencing with the third generation: the Miura line under Miura Sadaemon (三浦定右衛門), the Iwanaga line under Iwanaga Senno Yoshishige (岩永千之義重), and the Hano line under Hano Shinkurō (羽野真九郎). A majority of subsequent minor branch houses (bunke/baike) descend from these principal lineages.

A sub-branch of the Miura line has survived with an unbroken transmission of headmasters to the current day: the Yōshin-ryū bukijutsu/naginata school in Hiroshima, headed by Koyama Noriko (小山宜子). Koyama traces her lineage to Akiyama through a sixth generation headmaster, Hotta Magoemon (堀田孫右衛門). Hotta separated the bukijutsu and jujutsu transmissions, awarding the former to Hoshino Kakūemon (星野角右衛門), and the latter to Kumabe Sessui (隈部節水). The jujutsu transmission of the Miura mainline lineage is believed to have become extinct with the death of the 13th generation inheritor, Era Sajuro (恵良佐十郎) in 1957. Several minor branch houses of the Miura line were extinguished in the early twentieth century, for example, that established by Satō Jirō Nagamasa (佐藤���郎) in 1728, which had survived until the death of the eighth generation headmaster, Kaiga Itsuki Nomiya (海賀齊宮) in 1903.

The Iwanaga mainline eventually passed to Shiota Jindayū (塩田甚太夫), who in 1780 combined its teachings with the Suzuki-ryu (鈴木流) and Nanba Ippo-ryû (難波一甫流) to create the Kurama Yōshin-ryū (鞍馬楊心流). This tradition continues to be practised in Kagoshima city on the island of Kyushu, and is under the supervision of the twelfth generation headmaster, Shiota Tetsuya (塩田哲也).

The Hano mainline transmission survived into the early 20th century through the eighth generation headmaster, Santō Shinjūrō Kiyotake (山東新十郎清武). Santō was perhaps better known as the seventh generation Headmaster of Miyamato Musashi's (宮本武蔵) famed Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu (兵補二天一流) school of swordsmanship, and while he is known to have awarded complete transmission of Yōshin-ryū to at least five students, he did not name an inheritor to the tradition prior his death in 1909. Contemporary mainline Yōshin-ryū jujutsu dojo led by shihan who trace their legacies through Santō's fully licensed students can be found in Osaka and Nagasaki, while a dojo in Nara traces its descent through Ishii Riko Osamu (石井理子治). Ishii (died 1897) was the inheritor of the minor branch house of the Hano lineage established by Akasumi Tokuzenji Ikine (赤住徳禪寺伯嶺) in 1753.

In common with other koryū, the curriculum is contained in a series of mokuroku (目録) or 'catalog' scrolls, presented once the practitioner achieves an appropriate level of technical and moral proficiency. For example, the Hano lineage provides four levels of technical transmission: Shoden (初伝), chuden (中伝), joden (上伝) and kaiden (皆伝), which are distributed across six licenses. While several of the transmission scrolls and documents are common to all lineages, others are unique to specific lines of transmission. Using the Hano lineage as an exemplar, the first license to be awarded is the kirigami menjo (切り紙免除), and the last is the menkyo kaiden-no-maki (免許皆伝之巻). Bukijutsu and hyoho methods are addressed in the betsuden mokuroku (別伝目録).

A defining characteristic of Yōshin-ryū makimono is the finely detailed artwork they incorporate, marking them as excellent examples of the Japanese emakimono (絵巻物) or "picture scroll" tradition.

Descendants[]

Schools with varying degrees of descent from Akiyama Yōshin-ryū jūjutsu include:

Danzan ryu, Shin Yōshin-ryū, Shinshin-ryū, Sakkatsu Yōshin-ryū, Shin-no-Shindō ryū, Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū, Shindō Yōshin-ryū, Wadō-ryū karatedo, Ryushin Katchu-ryū, Ito-ha Shin'yō-ryū, Kurama Yōshin-ryū, Kodokan Judo, and Fudoshin-ryu.^[3]

Hontai Yōshin ryū – Takagi ryū Lineage[]

The schools of Hontai Yōshin-ryū – Takagi-ryū are not a part of the Akiyama Yōshin-ryū lineage, but are instead descended from Takenouchi-ryū.^[4]

See also[]

• Ryōi Shintō-ryū

Notes[]