Yōshin-ryū
Yōshin-ryū 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 Kyushu in 1642. 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 had spread from its primary base in Fukuoka Prefecture Kyushu throughout Japan. By the Meiji era, Yōshin-ryū had spread overseas to Europe and North America, and to Australia and South Africa by the late Shōwa era.
Together with the Takenouchi-ryū, and the Ryōi Shintō-ryū, the Yōshin-ryū, was one of the three largest, most important and influential jūjutsu schools of the Edo period before the rise of judo.
Curriculum and brief history
Akiyama Yōshin-ryū is noted for a very broad curriculum, which originally included jūjutsu and torite, bukijutsu, hyōhō, to the development of internal energy, or nairiki. It is believed several of these teachings were eventually absorbed by other jūjutsu traditions, notable among them being methods of kyusho atemi.Prior to his death in 1680, Akiyama Shirōbei Yoshitoki passed the tradition to Ōe Senbei Hirotomi, who was largely responsible for codifying the 303 kata that comprise the jūjutsu curriculum. Ōe trained and qualified scores of students, who subsequently spread the art throughout Japan.
Historically, there were three predominant mainline branch houses commencing with the third generation: the Miura line under Miura Sadaemon, the Iwanaga line under Iwanaga Sennojō Yoshishige, and the Hano line under Hano Shinkurō. A majority of subsequent minor branch houses 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. Koyama traces her lineage from Akiyama through a sixth generation headmaster, Hotta Magoemon. Hotta separated the bukijutsu and jūjutsu transmissions, awarding the former to Hoshino Kakūemon, and the latter to Kumabe Sessui. A parallel lineage that passed through nine generations of the Hoshino family continues in Kumamoto City Kyushu, and is headed by 13th generation inheritor Masuda Kōichi. This line of Yōshin-ryū specialises in the use of the hanbo or 'half staff'. Masuda is also a seventh generation shihan in Negishi-ryū shurikenjutsu. The jūjutsu transmission of the Miura mainline lineage is believed to have become extinct with the death of the 13th generation inheritor, Era Sajuro. Notably, several minor houses of the Miura line were extinguished in the early twentieth century, among them the branch established by Satō Jirō Nagamasa in 1728. It survived until the death of the eighth generation headmaster, Kaiga Itsuki Nomiya in 1903.
The Iwanaga mainline eventually passed to Shiota Jindayū, who in 1780 combined its teachings with the Suzuki-ryu and Nanba Ippo-ryû to create the Kurama Yōshin-ryū. This tradition continues to be practised in Kagoshima city Kyushu, and is under the supervision of the twelfth generation headmaster, Shiota Tetsuya. An alternate lineage is active on Kamikoshiki Island, under the supervision of thirteenth generation headmaster, Shiota Jinhide.
Hano line
The Hano mainline transmission survived into the early 20th century through the eighth generation headmaster, Santō Shinjūrō Kiyotake of Kumamoto Kyushu. Santō was perhaps better known as the seventh generation Headmaster of Miyamato Musashi's famed Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu school of swordsmanship, and while he is known to have awarded complete transmission of Yōshin-ryū to at least five students, he did not appoint an inheritor to the tradition prior his death in 1909. Contemporary Yōshin-ryū jūjutsu dōjō led by shihan tracing their legacies through Santō's fully licensed students can be found in Osaka and Nagasaki, while a dōjō in Nara traces its descent through Ishii Riko Osamu. Ishii was the inheritor of a minor branch house of the Hano lineage established by Akasumi Tokuzenji Hakumine in 1753. These dōjō practice the received jūjutsu and bukijutsu curricula.In common with other koryū, the curriculum is contained in a series of mokuroku or 'catalog' scrolls, presented when the practitioner achieves an appropriate level of technical and moral proficiency. The Hano lineage provides four levels of technical transmission: Shoden, chuden, joden and kaiden, 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. In the Hano lineage the first license to be awarded is the kirigami menjo, and the last is the menkyo kaiden-no-maki. Fuzoku bukijutsu methods are addressed in the betsuden mokuroku, while a range of esoteric knowledge inclusive of religious teachings or shinpi, and hyōhō, are recorded in manuals known collectively as densho.
A defining characteristic of historic Yōshin-ryū makimono is the finely detailed artwork they incorporate, marking them as excellent examples of the Japanese emakimono 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, Sogo Ryu Ju Jitsu, Kodokan Judo, and Fudoshin-ryu.