shinden fudo-ryu - NinZine 3.0

From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumafr

While cleaning my papers I found a notebook relating my japan trip of April 2007.
A lot of time has passed and my students of 2007 are all 15th dan now and live their own lives.

During the year 2006 we had been studying the Shinden fudô ryû, and even though we were now studying the concepts and techniques of the kukishin ryû the concept of Ikken Hassô 一剣八双 (one weapon, all weapons/directions) was totally in harmony with the feeling sensei was teaching.

Ikken Hassô can have different interpretations but what sensei said that night of Friday 13th, April 2007 is interesting.

Here are my notes from what he said during that class:

You have to train all the weapons but not only in the use they were designed for. This is the essence of Ikken Hassô 一剣八双.
Train slowly even if Uke is fast, use small (light) controls.
When uke is down be like a cat playing with a mouse.
You have to train the feeling hidden within the form of the waza and only then you can play, this is the way you should train.
Shingitai Ichi 心技体一 is very important in budô”.
Train the 9 schools but with the principles of the Bujinkan, because the evolution of the bujinkan follows the Bufu Ikkan 武夫一環”.

What is amazing is that Sensei is still saying the same today. The Bujinkan has been created through the study of the nine schools but has become today a path on its own. This is why for example even if we have sword techniques only in the Kukishin ryû and the Togakure ryû*, we can train sword techniques with the feeling of any other ryûha.

Later during the same trip, I went for lunch with him and Nagato sensei and he said: “The fake Shihan like xxx and xxx go by themselves. Anyway I had this statue of Daikokujin made to smash those who are in the way”. He laughed and added “it weighs 6 tons!”.**

Did you know that Daikokujin 大国主神 when written Daikokujin 大扱く塵 could mean “big stripping of impurities”. Maybe the statue is there to clean the bujinkan from those fake practitioners.

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* only these two ryûha have biken densho (private discussion with Sôke in 2013).
**the huge statue outside of sensei’s house in Noda was made in memory of Takamatsu sensei for the 50th anniversary of their encounter in Kobe (1957).

From Wanderings in Budo by bujinshugyo

神伝不動流打拳体術
出雲冠者義照の伝えた骨指術の流れを汲み、源八郎為義が12世紀の中頃に創始。構え自然体ひとつしかないのか特長。ただし、実際わ心の中で映像を作って構えている。

Shinden Fudō ryū dakentaijutsu
Legend has it that Izumo Kanja Yoshiteru was the first to understand the flow of koppojutsu, Minamoto Hachirō Tameyoshi was the founder in the 12th century. The principal feature is the natural body posture. However, in actual fact I have an image (of a posture) pictured in my mind.

神伝不動流打拳体術 Shinden Fudō ryū dakentaijutsu – Divine transmission of immovability style striking body-technique or art. Often referred to simply as Fudō ryū by teachers in Japan.

出雲冠者義照 Izumo Kanja Yoshiteru – Izumo (province), young man (coming of age), shining justice – A young man from Izumo.

In mythology the entrance to Yomi黄泉, the land of the dead, is to be found in Izumo province. An interesting link to the ‘natural hell methods’ of the Shizen Shigoku no Kata in Shinden Fudō ryū…

源八郎為義 Minamoto Hachirō Tameyoshi – Minamoto (clan), eighth son, source of justice. An eighth son of someone in the Minamoto clan, of which there were many…

In the 12th Century 3 major families/clans vying for supremacy were the Fujiwara 藤原, Minamoto (aka Genji 源氏 Gen clan) and Taira (aka Heike 平家 Hei family).

The genealogy for Shinden Fudō ryū is fairly straightforward – from Ikai to Izumo Kanja Yoshiteru, Minamoto Hachirō Tameyoshi founded the style that was passed down to Toda Shinryūken Masamitsu to be passed on to Takamatsu Toshitsugu and then Hatsumi Masaaki.

There is a historical Minamoto Tameyoshi 源為義 – also known as Mutsu Shirō 陸奥四郎 sixth (rank) of the interior, fourth-son, with the position of Rokujō (Hangan) 六条判官 sixth-rank judge (under the Ritsuryō system mentioned in a previous post).

Minamoto Tameyoshi became the head of the Minamoto clan and supported Fujiwara Yorinaga in trying to place Sutoku on the throne in 1156, opposing Go-Shirakawa who was supported by Fujiwara Tadamichi, Taira Kiyomori, Minamoto Yoshitomo (the son of Minamoto Tameyoshi) – a mix of both Minamoto and Taira. This became known as the Hōgen war or rebellion (保元の乱 Hōgen no ran). Go-Shirakawa’s faction was the victor, with Minamoto Tameyoshi becoming a monk and consequently executed by his son. This begins the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira (源平 Gempei), with the Taira initially gaining dominance to then be defeated by the Minamoto at the battle of Dan no ura no tataki 壇ノ浦の戦. Minamoto Yoritomo was to became the first Shōgun of Japan.

(This is just here for interest – in no way to indicate that this person is the same as the founder of Shinden Fudō ryū!)