The Hontai Takagi Yoshin Ryu and its Founder
What is the History of the Hontai Takagi Yoshin Ryu?
The roots of the Takagi Yoshin Ryu trace back to the thirteenth year of the Eiroku Period (1570) at the foot of Mount Futagata in the ancient province of Rikuzen (now Miyagi Prefecture) where a monk named Unryu lived. He devised methods for shurikenjutsu, bojutsu and taijutsu, which he referred to as “Sessho Hiden”. Among his disciples was a samurai named Ito Kii no Kami Sukesada, who combined the Sessho Hiden with his own knowledge of bojutsu to create methods of sojutsu, naginatajutsu, san shaku bojutsu, kenjutsu and kodachijutsu and founded his own bujutsu lineage, the Ito Ryu. In the second year of Shoho (1645), Takagi Oriemon Shigetoshi received menkyo kaiden in this lineage and incorporated techniques influenced by sumo to create his own Jujutsu lineage, the Takagi Ryu, containing 12 techniques Omote, 24 techniques Ura and 12 techniques Sabaki. During the Tenpo Era, at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, three top students of the thirteenth soke of the Takagi Yoshin Ryu (Yagi Ikugoro Hisayoshi) branched off to create their own lines of Takagi Ryu. The resulting lineages were the Seito-ha Fujita Takagi Yoshin Ryu, Ishibashi Takagi Ryu and Ishitani Takagi Yoshin Ryu. The Fujita and Ishitiani Takagi Yoshin Ryu are taught within the curriculum of the Jinenkan.
Takagi Oriemon Shigetoshi, Founder of the Takagi Ryu
Takagi Oriemon Shigetoshi was born on April 2nd, 1625 as the second son of Inato Sanzaemon, a kenjutsu instructor and samurai retainer of Katakura Kojuro. According to the records of the Hontai Yoshin Ryu, he traveled at a young age to the city of Dewa (in modern day Akita and Yamagata prefectures) where he studied the Muto Ryu Kodachijutsu as well as Kyochi Ryu Sojutsu. One night during his absence, his father was murdered by an assailant. Upon hearing the news of his fathers death, Oriemon swiftly returned to his home town for vengeance and changed his name to Yoshin Ryu Takagi Oriemon Shigenobu, a decision that was influenced by his father’s words, “yoboku wa tsuyoku, takagi wa oreruzoyo” roughly meaning “a willow is flexible, but a tall tree will break”. He died on October 7th, 1711.
Brain Tricks From My First Use of Traditional Budo
The first time I ever used the martial arts skills I had learned from the initial approach to kobudo that I started studying in high school, an interesting thing happened.
Of course, over the years there are details I don’t remember – this was high school. And, now that I’ve learned enough about the likely results of what must have included some adrenaline in my blood at the time, I recognize that it’s entirely likely that most of the “actual” details that I might remember would be at least partially wrong.
With that in mind, I’m not so interested in recounting what skills got used or what worked and what didn’t work – I only remember a very little bit. What would be useful, though, is to discuss an odd thing that happened, that I actually DO remember … one that I have recently learned happens a lot to people doing something stressful and “new”.
Read MoreSummer Camp Helped in Real Life
The last day of summer camp was one of the best days of summer camp. Our young folks lived up to every expectation I had, and they outperformed beyond that, too. This week included sleight of hand, swords, hiding in public spaces, and today: rescuing a damsel (or two) in distress.
We had just had lunch and were walking to the park, when across the street we saw two women looking at their car, holding up the hood, with an empty bottle of coolant next to them. We all looked at each other and realized this was a great time to put into practice some of the skills and attitudes that we practice every day. We’ve used some of our “Urban” summer camp weeks to do a little basic car maintenance, and this was perfect timing!
Read MoreTwo Way Radios for Summer Camp: Which One is Best?
Want to be a real professional “operator” at Summer Camp this year? We talk a LOT in Summer Camp, and we have a great time … and some of that talking is done over the radio. We learn to use modern phonetic alphabet, “ten-codes” and we’ve even built simple receivers from scratch.
While there’s NO requirement to buy your own radio, it’s a super handy part of emergency preparedness, and it’s a ton of fun, you will hopefully use it plenty outside your camp time, and it’s actually quite affordable.
We will discuss plenty of alternative (and traditional, ninja-style) communication methods, too. But let’s also remember that even cool, old-time ninja were contemporary at their time, and used the coolest gadgets they could get their hands on, too.
Read MoreLittle Known Ninjutsu History: Toda Shinryuken Masamitsu
Little is known about Ninjutsu – since it’s been open to the West in only the past 30 years. Where does it come from? What inspired masters to keep with their training? How did they begin? Where here is a little background that goes past what is considered ‘common knowledge’ that is really not so common.