HISTORY OF SHINTO MUSO RYU JO-DO

The Shinto Muso Ryu Jodo was founded nearly 400 years ago in about 1605. The founder Muso Gonnosuke Katsukichi was a warrior who first trained in the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu founded by Lizasa Choisai Lenao. In his, Muso Gonnosuke received the rank of Menkyo, a teaching license. He also trained in Kashima Jikishin Kage Ryu founded by Matsumoto Bizen no Kami. There it is said that he received the secrets or principles of Ichi no Tachi (first sword), a maintay of that tradition.

According to legend, Muso Go nnosu,e had gone to Edo, present-day Tokyo, early in the Keicho period (1596-1614). There he matched his sword against many famous sworwmen but was never defeated. One day, however, he fought Miyamoto Musashi, perhaps the best known warrior in Japanese History. Gonnosuke knew he had met his match when he found he could not escape from Musashi´s Jujidome technique. This movement was the secret of Musashi´s Niten Ichi Ryu and involves locking the opponent´s weapon in a S-shaped block using the Samurai´s long and short swords in combination (Dai-sho, long and short)

Because of this defeat, Gonnosuke travelled around the country and studied many diferent styles of martial arts, determined to become strong enough to overcome Musashi´s Jujidome. This practice was known as Mushashugyo (warrior austerities). After several years, he arrived in the province of Chikuzen, and stopped at a town which is now called Dazaifu City, in Fukuoka Prefecture, on the Island of Kyushu. There he confined himself for 37 days in the Kamado Shrine on MOunt Homan. One night he had a dream in which a divine messenger appeared in the form of a child and told him to "know the solar plexus with a round stick". Keeping his heaven-sent message in mind, Gonnosuke devised a new weapon. It was a simple stick approximately 30 cm longer than the average Japanese sword. Muso´s stick was 128 cm long (4 shaku, 2 Sun, 1 Bun) and 26 mm in diameter (8 Bu). Today we call it the Jo (or Tsue)

Gonnosuke went on to develop techniques for his stick based on his previous experience with a variety of older weapons. He incorporated the thrusting movements of spear (yari), the sweeping movements of the halberd (Naginata), and the striking movemeents of the stall (Bo) and the sword (Tachi). With this new weapon and its techniques, the art of Jojutsu was born. The leend says that Gonnosuke went back to confront Musashi again and emerged victorious, overcoming Jujidome and inflicting the only defeat said to have been suffered by the legendary Musashi. Muso Gonnosuke´s growing reputation brought him to the attention of the Kuroda Clan* in Fukuoka, and he was retained to instruct Jojutsu to the warriors under its control.

(* Kuroda Clan. Closely associated with military events in their region since the beginning of the 16th century, the Kuroda family at Fukuoka, in the North of the island of Kyushu, seems to have been an inexhaustible source of valorous warriors. The family broke up at the beginning of the 17th century. The principal branch, which remained in Fukuoka, geve the region a series of Daimyo of traditional spirit. These feudal lords encouraged their warriors to maintain considerable martial vigour, even during the long years of relative peace under the Tokugawa Government. This attitude was one of the characteristics of the Samurai of the Kyushu region, and it was in this spirit that the tradition and the associated arts of Shindo Muso Ryu Jojutsu were developed),

Over the course of his life Gonnosuke eventually awarded teaching licenses to more than ten of these warriors. They and their successors carried on the tradition within the lands of the Kuroda family, who jealously garded the art as secret clan tradition.

By the end of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), it is said that there were two dojo in the Kuroda area. One was run by the Hirano family,under the 15th Headmaster; the other was operated by Hamachi family under a man usually regarde as the 18th Headmaster.

After the Meiji Restoration, permission was given to teach Jojutsu outside the domain of the Clan in 1872. By the early 1900s. Uchida Ryogoro, and perhaps one other person from Fukuoka, were teaching this art in Tokyo. Among thir students were Uchida Ryohei (Ryogoro´s second son), Nakayama Hakudo (a famous Kendo and Iaido Master and an admiral of the Japanese Imperial Navy), and a Kabuki actor named Morita Kanya.

Back at the headquarters in Fukuoka, Shiraishi Hanjiro Shigeaki, called the 24th generation Headmaster of the art, continued to teach Jojutsu until his deth on March 1, 1927. After that, Jojutsu was taught by his high-ranking students Takayama Kiroku, Shimizu Takaji and Otofuji Ichizo.

Shimizu came to Tokyo in 1927 and began to teach Jojutsu under the sponsorship of two influential men, Toyama Mitsuru and Suenaga Setsu. He made the Toyama Dojo his base and travelled widely, teaching such groups as the Metropolitan Police Department, the Kobudo Research Group run at the Kodokan Judo Headquarters under the encouragemnet of Kano Jigoro, and other groups in various local areal nationwide, including the Sea Scouts. He also instructed in Manchuria after the area came under Japanese control in the early 1930s. Some time after the death of Teacher Shiraishi, Shimizu became head of the Dai Nihon Jodo Kai (Greater Japan Jodo Association) which officially altered the Ryumei (Name of the Ryu) from Jojutsu to Jodo in 1940.

When defeat in the Second World War brought a ban on all martial activities, Jojutsu followed the route of other arts, disappearing for a time, to be gradually revivied later. Public demonstrations began again around 1955. The All Japan Jodo Federation was established in 1955 by Toyama Izumi, whose father had been Shimizu´s sponsor before the war. By this time, Shimizu seems to have been recognized as the Headmaster of the Shindo Muso Ryu, being called the 25th Headmaster in that line. In the 1960s Jodo was recognized by the All Japan Kendo Federation which set up an expert committee composed of Shimizu Sensei and Otofuji Sensei. The goal was to devise ways of spreading Jodo around Japan. Specifically, the giant organization was looking for a form of stick art suitable as a cognate study for Kendo trainees. Finally, in 1968, the All Japan Kendo Federation Jodo introduced their "Seitei gata" forms. The twelve Kata in the Kendo system of stick are taken from the first three levels of the Sindo Muso Ryu and are considered to be representative of the techniques of this tradition. Small, yet significant, changes were made, however, and they are generally taught in a manner designed to complement Kendo training. For example, the trailing foot is used with the heel raised and the weight on the ball of the foot, rather than keeping the full sole of the foot in contact with the floor or ground as in the classical system. The body is turned rather more forward than in the Hanmi (half body) stance used in Shindo Muso Ryu.

Shimizu Sensei died in 1978 withoutnaming a successor. Many of his students around the Tokyo district carried on the art as he had taught them. Meanwhile, at hte old centre in Kyushu, other senior students were also teaching. Eventually, Otofuji Ichizo took over the role of Headmaster on the strength of his position as the senior surviving disciple of Shiraishi Hanjiro.

From The way of the stick by Pascal Krieger. Geneve 1989. More about this book here

In 1978 before his dead, Shimizu Sensei gaves to Nishioka Tsuneo Sensei one of the kanji of his name and in 1981 Otofuji Sensi gaves him the same honour. From there his name is Nishioka Tsuneo Yasunori, the last name is the combination of the both kanji received from his masters. We do not know other person who has received same honour, so in any way legitimizes him as a sucessor.

 

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