Mugai Ryu Iaido
Mugai Shinden Kenpo is a school of swordmanship founded in 1695 by Tsuji Gettan Sukeshigi.
The boy was born into a samurai family in 1649. At the age of 13, he began training in kenjutsu at the Yamaguchi Ryu dojo in Kyoto under the guidance of Master Yamaguchi Bokushinsai. At the age of 26, Tsuji Gettan received his menkyo kaiden and, having become a master, opened a fencing school in Edo (now Tokyo).
Today, the Yamaguchi-ryu school no longer exists, but elements of this style are passed down in the Mugai-ryu.
At first there were few students, and the founder of the school lived in extreme poverty. However, he had a lot of free time for personal practice. He spent most of his time at the Buddhist temple Kyuko ji. There he practiced Zen and studied classical Chinese and Japanese literature under the guidance of his teacher Sekitan Ryōzen. Gettan was fascinated by the expression “Ken Zen Ichi Nyo” - the sword and Zen are one.
At the age of 32, Gettan attained enlightenment and received a poem from his Zen teacher, taken from Buddhist scriptures, as confirmation and proof of his achievement. The master used the term “Mugai” as his own Buddhist name. Subsequently, his school came to be called Mugai-ryu.
The technique of his school was directly related to Zen philosophy and practice. Gradually, the number of students in the Mugai-ryu dojo increased, and as the master's fame grew, he gained high-ranking students. In addition to some daimyo and other high-ranking samurai, it is believed that Mugai-ryu had about a thousand students. In 1709, with the assistance of Sakai, the owner of Himeji, Gettan was given the opportunity to demonstrate his artistry before Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.
However, the event was canceled due to the unexpected death of the shogun. For the modest samurai Gettan, such an invitation was a great honor and served as proof of recognition of the highest level of mastery. He described his understanding of the combination of sword technique and Zen philosophy in his work Mugai Shinden Kenpo Katsu.
Tsuji Gettan Sukeshige died at the age of 77. Throughout his life, Gettan had neither wife nor children. His heir was his nephew Tsuji Uheita, after whom the founder's adopted son, who took the name Tsuji Kimata, became the leader.
Initially, Mugai-ryu was a kenjutsu school. The program consisted of only 10 techniques with a long sword and 3 techniques with a short sword, but a little later, “shiai-guchi,” special techniques for sports combat, were added. Today, however, Mugai-ryu is known as a style of iaijutsu. This is because, in addition to fencing, the school's students studied Jikyo-ryu iaido, a school founded by Taga Jikyo-ken Morimasa, based on his practice of Shin Tamiya-ryu. It is believed that while in Edo, Taga Jikyo-ken taught the art of iaido to either the founder of Mugai-ryu himself or his followers. The Jikyo-ryu school still exists in Japan today.
GENEALOGY OF MUGAI RYU
Edo Line
- Tsuji Gettan Sukeshige
- Tsuji Uheita
- Tsuji Kimata Sukehide
- Tsuji Bunzaemon Suketaka
- Tsuji Kimata Sukeyuki
- Tsuji Bunzaemon Sukenobu
- Tsuji Kinichiro Yoshishige
- Tsuji Kimata Shibaoka
- Tsuji Kamegoro Sadatoku
Himeji Line
- Takahashi Hachisuke Mitsusuke
- Takahashi Tatsuzo Mitsuharu
- Takahashi Hachisuke Shigeyuki
- Takahashi Tetsuo Takeshige
- Takahashi Kyutaro Koun
- Nakagawa Shiryo Shinichi
Mugai Sinden Moto-ha
Fudoshin Ryu Iai
The art of iaido was passed on to Master Yasumoto Akiyoshi by his direct teacher, the 11th Soke of the Mugai-ryu, Nakagawa Shinryu Shinichi, under whom he trained for 16 years. Yasumoto Sensei received the title of “Renshi” and the transmission of “Men no Maki” in Mugai-ryu Iaido, as well as the 6th dan and the title of “Renshi” from Nippon Iaido Renmei (the Japanese Iaido Federation), one of whose founders was Soke Nakagawa.
Also Soke Yasumoto hold 5th dan Shihan grade in Toyama ryu iaido under Soke Yamaguchi.
There is some misunderstanding associated with the name of the school, since, in essence, Mugai-ryu is a kenjutsu school, and iaido is actually a parallel school of Jikyo-ryu, as Soke Nakagawa himself has repeatedly stated. However, since he studied iaido under the 10th Soke Takahashi Kyutaro (considered one of the best sword masters of the Meiji era) within the Mugai-ryu school, he decided to keep this name. Soke Kyutaro highly valued his student's skill and even moved to live near Nakagawa Shinichi in order to teach him more thoroughly and appoint him as the heir to the school.
The school passed down to Master Yasumoto consisted of 20 basic kata, 3 naiden kata, 5 kata with kodachi, and 5 kata kumitachi. Some of these forms were apparently created by Soke Nakagawa, as the original Jikyo-ryu iaido program, which was originally studied in Mugai-ryu, consisted of 41 techniques, 15 of which were paired kumiai techniques and 14 were naiden kata. Soke Nakagawa also interpreted a number of technical actions differently. He changed the sequence of training; for example, he transferred some forms (7 kata naiden) of Jikyo-ryu to the basic program of his school, and he made some paired kumiai techniques into solo forms. A number of techniques taught by Soke Nakagawa are completely original, and it is unknown whether he developed them himself or received them from his teacher. However, there are no analogues to them in Jikyo-ryu iaido.
At one point, Soke Nakagawa planned to pass the school on to his student Ishii Gogetsu, but after a conflict between them, Ishii was officially expelled from the school. As a result, Soke Nakagawa did not appoint an official successor, so all existing Muga-ryu organizations were created by his students without the official transfer of the title of “soke.” Basically, the existing lines of the school come from the expelled Ishii Gogetsu, from another student of Soke Nakagawa named Shiozawa Hosho, and from later students of the master who studied with him in the Mugai-kai organization, which had two menkyo kaiden holders, Nakataro Yoshitaro and Mori Kimio.
Nakai Norisato Sensei, 6 Dan, Renshi.
In the late 1990s, Soke Yasumoto developed eight additional kata (four tachi-ai and four suwari-waza) for beginner students. These forms are simple preparatory exercises that develop the correct and characteristic movement culture of this school.
Since this direction is developing within the Motoha Yoshin-ryu organization, and because additional training forms were created, the name was changed to Mugai Shinden Motoha Fudoshin Ryu Iai. This can be translated as follows: “the true transmission of the Mugai version of Yasumoto, developing an unshakable spirit through the iai method.”
The program consists of 8 preparatory forms “Kihon Kata,” 20 basic kata of the ‘Honryu’ school, 3 kata “Naiden,” 5 kata “Kodachi,” and 5 kata “Daito.” In addition, there are some additional exercises. The school has the following certification system:
6 initial kyu grades and 5 dan grades, as well as two instructor grades, shidoin and shihan.
Nakai Norisato sensei teaching Mugai ryu kumitachi
Uke: Sergei Barishev