{"id":276,"date":"2026-07-23T07:58:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enshinryu.com\/?p=276"},"modified":"2026-07-23T07:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:58:50","slug":"enshin-ryu-hyoho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enshinryu.com\/?p=276","title":{"rendered":"Enshin-ry\u016b Hy\u014dh\u014d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An abridged translation from the late S\u014dke Tanaka Fumon\u2019s book, Enshin-ry\u016b Hy\u014dh\u014d: The True Transmission of Third-Generation Nichikan.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enshin-ry\u016b Origins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The origins of Enshin-ry\u016b lie in the Sengoku period, when Oda Nobunaga was pursuing the unification of \u201call under heaven\u201d during the time of Emperor \u014cgimachi, in the 1580s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally from Hikone in \u014cmi province, Inugami Sakon Sh\u014dgen Nagakatsu, a warrior of the northern guard of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, received his family\u2019s sword tradition from his father, Hy\u014dgo Nagatsugu. He gathered together the martial teachings orally transmitted by his ancestors and also learned the methods of kumiuchi<\/em> from Hayami Nagato-no-kami Enshin, another warrior of the palace guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resulting system was called Hy\u014dh\u014d Kumiuchi Kenden, and from it the tradition of Enshin-ry\u016b arose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, because these events took place so long ago, little is known beyond the claim that the Inugami family descended from court nobles of the Fujiwara line of the Nakatomi clan, and that Nagakatsu\u2019s son Nagatomo was an extraordinary master who founded Ky\u016bshin-ry\u016b Taijutsu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Revival of the Tradition by Kobashi Sh\u014dbei<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Bunsei era of the Edo period\u2014the 1820s\u2014Kobashi Sh\u014dbei Masahira of Enza in Sanuki Province, who originally came from the Yoshida family, lamented that the lineage of Enshin-ry\u016b transmitted in the Yoshida family had become uncertain after Inugami Gunbei. By incorporating Shint\u014d Munen-ry\u016b into the existing Enshin-ry\u016b, he became the reviving founder of modern Enshin-ry\u016b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to devoting himself to martial training, Sh\u014dbei possessed particularly strong imperial loyalist convictions. He trained and raised disciples and, as the country moved toward the closing years of the Tokugawa shogunate, it was discovered that he had sheltered numerous imperial loyalist activists. During the Ansei Purge, he was held responsible for this and imprisoned in an underground cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was eventually pardoned, his legs had become disabled from the prolonged cold inside the prison, and it appears that his disciples carried him out in a mokko<\/em> carrying basket. In Sh\u014dbei\u2019s later years, Emperor Meiji awarded him the Senior Fifth Rank in recognition of his service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He died on May 1, 1906.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fujimoto Ringor\u014d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second generation of modern Enshin-ry\u016b was Fujimoto Ringor\u014d. Ringor\u014d was born in 1862 and was the husband of Sh\u014dbei\u2019s daughter Ume. He studied under Sh\u014dbei from childhood and became highly skilled in taijutsu, iai, and suemono-giri<\/em>. He was particularly accomplished in the secret sword technique known as Mizu-giri<\/em>. Around 1877, he also incorporated Takamatsu Gory\u016bgi into Enshin-ry\u016b and reorganized its taijutsu as Yawara no jutsu<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He died on August 25, 1914, at the age of fifty-three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kobashi Nichikan<\/strong> Masanori<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third generation was Kobashi Nichikan Masanori, the son of Fujimoto Ringor\u014d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From childhood, Nichikan received instruction in j\u016bjutsu and swordsmanship from his grandfather Sh\u014dbei. From his father, he learned the traditional Kumiuchi Kenden, Yawara no Jutsu, iai, and suemono-giri<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he entered the Buddhist priesthood at thirteen, he could not abandon his aspiration toward martial arts. He studied Takeuchi-ry\u016b, learned iai under Kimura Ch\u014dzabur\u014d and Ogasawara Yoshinobu, and later while in Tokyo studied at the K\u014dd\u014dkan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While serving as a Buddhist priest, Nichikan sought out and studied the martial traditions found wherever he was appointed. From the Taish\u014d period into the Sh\u014dwa period, he gathered the secret methods of six schools regarded at the time as principal traditions of iai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this research he established Kobashi-ry\u016b Kenp\u014d<\/strong> and Enshin-ry\u016b Iai Kenp\u014d<\/strong>. Having divined January 13, 1931, as an auspicious day, he formally succeeded as the third-generation reviving head of Enshin-ry\u016b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the efforts of the Venerable Master Nichikan, Enshin-ry\u016b spread widely and began the development that continues today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Forty-Two Iai Forms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nichikan organised and integrated the iai forms he had studied and established a curriculum of forty-two forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n