History

Iizasa 'Choisai' Ienaoko

The ryuso (founder) of the school was born in 1387, in the village of Iizasa. Although his family belonged to the landed gentry, it had played an important role in the province of Kanto (now the Chiba prefecture) for a considerable period. Ienaoko belonged to the Chiba clan and had fought in several battles. After his master’s clan had been defeated by the Ashikaga-shogun, Ienaoko went into seclusion near the Katori temple.

According to tradition, the story continues as follows: One day, as one of the disciples was washing the horse of the master in a nearby well, the animal began convulsing, collapsed and died. Ienaoko saw this as a sign from the god of war, which he interpreted to mean that he no longer had to travel. He then took possession of a primitive hut near the gate of the temple. Each morning he rose early and exercised his martial art until dusk. In spite of the heavy physical training, he studied religious and philosophical writings deep into the night.

One night, after another day of harsh physical and psychological strain, he had a vision. The god of war, Futsunushi no Mikoto, appeared to him in the appearance of a young man. Seated on a branch, the vision waved him near and handed him the Mokuroku Heiho Shinshô-role while speaking these words: "Choisa, thou shalt become the master of all the swordsmen under the sun." After these words were spoken, the ghost leaped out of the tree and disappeared."

Ienaoko changed his name into "Choisa" and founded a fencing school, which he named "Katori", after the temple. To honour Futsunushi no Mikoto, he added ‘Tenshin Shoden’ (given by the gods) and ‘Shin To’ (the pure sword). The founder died in 1488, he reached the age of 102.

The archives of the KSR mention several famous swordsmen including Kami Izuma Ise no Kami Nobutsana, the founder of the Kage Ryu (later renamed as Yagyu Shinkage Ryu), Tsukuhara Bokuden, founder of the Kashimu Shinto Ryu, Toyotomi Hideoshi (a warlord), and General Takenaka Hanbei Shigeharu

These are only a few names from the illustrious past of the school.

The school

The school’s followers exclusively offered their services to the Emperor, the shôgun, or when the country was threatened. Under no circumstances could power-mad warlords hire them, no matter what the amount of recompense offered. Because of this independence, the headmasters of the KSR could maintain the policy that everybody, regardless of their rank, origin or social position, could study at the school. Although no one is excluded, we do not actively seek large numbers of pupils. We think that having many students makes it impossible to give each pupil personal attention. To date, we believe in maintaining a small, loyal group of students to keep the values of our school alive.

The proverb (and play on words) "Heiho wa heiho nari" opens the mokuroku of our school. The first 'heiho' is written in kanji that can also be read as 'hyoho', meaning 'martial way'; the second 'heiho' is written in kanji that read 'peaceful way'. We believe that the real study of the martial arts involves human conduct and the development of high moral values. It is not the pursuit of physical prowess; rather, psychological and spiritual triumph should be pursued (arawazu ni katsu, winning without fighting). However, one should not confuse this with pacifist inactivity. The doctrine of the school, which was inspired by Buddhism, dictates that one should kill only if there exists no other options, hence, well-meaning pacifism can be as lethal as the most violent action.

Do not take umbrage with the explicit use of the term "killing". Please consider that the school was founded in a very violent era, where wars between the different clans were the rule rather than the exception.

Written oath and pledge to the supreme deity

1. When I become a member of the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, which was handed down by the Great Deity of the Katori shrine, I therewith affirm my pledge to absolute secrecy about matters of the ryu.

2. I will not have the impertinence to discuss or demonstrate my martial technique to non-members.

3. I will never engage in any kind of gambling nor frequent disreputable places.

4. I will never croos swords with any followers of other martial traditions without a certificate of full proficienty in my art.

I now pledge to firmly keep each of the above articles. Should I break any of these aricles I will submit to the punishment of the Buddhist deity Marishiten. Herewith I solemnly swear and affix my blood seal to this oath to the Great Deity.

Katori Shinto Ryu in the 20th Century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the school was faced with a rough time. The 18th soke had died without leaving a successor. There were some teachers with a high grade, but there were only a few new pupils. In fact, Jigoro Kano Sensei deserves the greatest thanks for consolidating the foundations of KSR.

It was the founder of Kodokan Judo who pointed out to his pupils that they would not be complete martial artists without the study of the sword. He came to this conclusion after an incident with a student. This made him think about the psychological aspect of training. His conclusion was that those who simply exercised with Judo were too preoccupied with the aspect of “sports”, therefore, were neglecting the mental and moral aspect of training. In 1927 he founded the "Kobudo Kenkyukai" (The Organisation that Studies the Ancient Martial Arts). It was under these circumstances that his interest in KSR was aroused.

For 500 years the fencing tradition of the KSR had been passed down from generation to generation in the prefecture of Chiba. Kano’s request to teach KSR in Tokyo, and thus outside Chiba, originally caused some commotion in the dojo. However, the school was in danger of being forgotten so it was decided to spread our martial tradition in the capital in an active way.

Four shihan were asked to take this task upon them. These shihan included Narimichi (Kisaburo) Tamai (70 years), Sozaemon Kuboki (50 years), Tanekichi Ito (45 years) and Ichizo Shiina (38 year). They left for the Kodokan to teach KSR in 1928. Each one of these teachers was an authority in the field of sword fighting. They all had received the same training, but depending on their age and physiology, the differences in the execution of the techniques turned out to be quite substantial. Thus, one can surmise that if great differences existed in the execution of kata back then, one should not be surprised that these differences still exist among the present-day shihan.



Texst: Hugo 'Shock' Chauveau

(Info: “Budo Kyo Han”, Y.Sugino & K. Ito, “The deity and the sword”, R. Otake, Interviews with masters Mochizuki and Sugino in: Karate no. 139- September 1987, Arts and Combats no. 11-September 1994, Aikido Journal vol. 24-no. 1-1997, and the lessons by Hatakeyama sensei, Sugino sensei and Erik Louw sensei.)