Two tables Karukome (2013) assembles provide documentary core of his dating arguments for Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū.
They show that both the Matsumoto-as-founder attribution and the Kashima-shinden divine-origin colophon are absent from the founding-era densho and first appear with the eighth head, Naganuma Kunisato (長沼四郎左衛門国 郷), in 1764, in the document that is one of the two core artifacts examined in my less academic work:
The Truth of the Calm Spirit: Shinkage-ryū as Taoist Internal Alchemy, 2025
At the bottom of this page you can find a summary of tables in Karukome Yoshitaka, Jikishinkage-ryū ni kansuru kenkyū (直心影流に関 する研究), doctoral dissertation, University of Tsukuba, 2013, in translation with some analytical commentary.
The “Kashima-shinden ⟨nth⟩ generation” colophon — the claim that the art descends from the Kashima deity Takemikazuchi — appears in only three documents, all from Kunisato (1764) onward:
- The 1764 mokuroku kuden-sho (Naganuma Kunisato)
- The 1822 menjō uragaki (Naganuma Sukesato)
- The 1852 senshi kyojō of the Matsuoka to Kusumi Jikishin-ryū sub-line.
The colophon and its associated claim are absent from every founding-era densho, including those of Ogasawara (1670/73), Kamiya (1663), Takahashi (1679/83), Yamada (1686).
Karukome notes that the 1852 senshi kyojō, though it carries 鹿島神 伝, post-dates Kamiya’s 1663 densho by roughly two centuries and that its branch (which calls itself Jikishin-ryū but diverges after Kamiya: as Matsuoka Inota’yū, Matsuoka Shichirōbee, Matsuoka Jirōtayū, Imahori Kichinosuke, Kusumi Junzaburō) most plausibly picked up the 鹿島神伝 label through later contact with Jikishinkage-ryū — so even the apparent exception is a late borrowing, not early evidence.
The primacy of the Kashima association is a set of documentary additions made by Naganuma Kunisato in the mid-eighteenth century, contemporaneous with the doctrinal cluster of additional koto (matters) he added to the formal curriculum.1
These are absent from Yamada’s Heihō zakki and it is reasonable to assume that the proto Jikishinkage-ryū of Ogasawara, Kamiya, etc. do not likely include them as explicit teachings.2
Kata Timeline
Examining earlier densho of the art in terms of their kata catalogues, we see that in fact early generations of JSKR had much of the broader Shinkage-ryū kata curriculum in its teaching. These were modified and condensed over time. The true connection to Kashima is likely through the Shintō-ryū of Bokuden, as portions of its teachings (such as nanatachi, described below) were believed to encode gokui of Shintō-ryū.
What is often called tō-nokata (韜之形) today is listed in Naganuma-ha as jū-no-kata (ten forms). In addition to the left-right pairing of Ryūbi (龍尾), Menkage (面影; often read as omokage), Matsukaze (松風), and Hayafune (早船) there are also a set of four kata called Teppa (鉄 破) and two final practices. The first is called Kokushaku (曲尺; carpenter’s ruler, often read as kanejaku) and is a single kata, while the second called enren (圓連) is written in 1768 as having two associated practices tōzure(刀連) and sōzure (槍連). Karukome lists them together as a section of three practices.3
The Kage-ryū stratum: empi, tengushō, nanatsu-dachi
Karukome reconstructs the Shinkage forms present from Kamiizumi’s time (after Ōmori 1991, Katō 2003, Yagyū Toshinaga 1957). The strata and their named techniques are as follows:
- Enpi (燕飛) group — 6 tachi + 2 appended (附随) tachi: Enpi (燕飛), Sarumawashi (猿廻), Yamakage (山陰), Tsukikage (月影), Uranami (浦波), Ukifune (浮舟), Shishi-funjin (獅子奮迅), Yamakasumi (山霞).
- Tengushō (天狗抄) group: Kasha (花車), Akemi (明身)〔reading uncertain〕, Zentai (善待)〔uncertain〕, Tebiki (手引), Ranken (乱剣), Nigusoku (二具足), Uchimono (打物), Futari-gakari (二人懸).
- Nanatachi (七太刀) group: Kyochi-no-Shishi (踞地獅子), Tenkan (転換 / 天関), Yōhatsu (容髪), Kote-giri (籠手截 / 小手切), Chijiku (地軸), Meigetsu-no-Kaze (明月之風), Engan (燕雁).4
Attribution
Karukome, following published sources cited in his work, summarizes:
- Enpi and tengushō originate in Aisu’s Kage-ryū (陰流) — Kamiizumi is said to have perfected Aisu’s Sarutobi (猿飛) into Enpi, and tengushō was Aisu Ikō’s selection, secret-transmitted (秘伝) by Kamiizumi.
- Sangaku (三学 / 参学, 5 tachi), marobashi (転), nanatsu-dachi (七太刀, possibly based on Shintō-ryū), sappōken/katsujinken — devised by Kamiizumi.
- Kuka (九箇, 9 tachi) — disputed (Yagyū Toshinaga: Kamiizumi’s selection; Katō: Aisu transmission); Karukome leaves it “unknown.”
Kamiizumi’s 1566 Kage-mokuroku carried four sets — enpi, nanatachi, sangaku, kuka — so the seven-sword set was foundational, not peripheral. Sorted by origin, the curriculum is a synthesis of the heihō sandai genryū plus Kamiizumi’s own work:
- Kage-ryū (陰流, Aisu) → enpi and tengushō
- Shintō-ryū (新當流, Bokuden’s Kashima line) → nanatachi (七太刀)
- Kamiizumi’s own → sangaku (参学) and marobashi (転)
- mixed / various schools → kuka (九箇)
On the Yagyū account, the source-stream sets were not kept at the front. Enpi was originally the first tachi (初太刀) in Kamiizumi’s day, but in the Yagyū house the Kage-ryū enpi and the Shintō-ryū nanatachi came to be revered as carrying gokui content and were progressively taught only after the sangaku and kuka. Tengu material went fully secret (秘中の秘) and nanatachi tended to be absorbed or repositioned rather than catalogued. That is why it is so seldom written about.
Its seven kata comprise a genuine Shintō-ryū thread in the Shinkage-ryū line descending to Jikishinkage-ryū. Bokuden’s and Izasa’s Shintō-ryū descending from the Kashima-Katori complex, and absorbed by Kamiizumi as documented synthesis.
So, Naganuma Kunisato was not inventing a Kashima association, but emophasizing that narrow thread (as compared to the bulk of the early Shinkage-ryū curriculum) over the influence of the Aisu Kage-ryū of Aisu Ikō.
Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami was Bokuden’s Shintō-ryū teacher, so placing him in the formal Jikishinkage-ryū lineage was a political act or possibly an effort to further distinguish Jikishinkage-ryū from Yagyū Shinkage-ryū in the Edo period.
Empi and Tengushō
Tracing the strata of klata forward through Karukome’s comparisons:
At Ogasawara’s Shin-shin’in-ryū (真新陰流, Shin no shin’in heihō mokuroku 1670):
- Enpi survives, but written Enpi/Enpi 圓飛 — Karukome reads this as an oral-transmission spelling drift on the sound “enpi” (the same drift that produces 猿飛 in a Kamiizumi-to-Hikita mokuroku). Whether 圓飛 denotes the full six-plus-two set or only the lead tachi is undetermined.
- Of the sangaku five, three survive — Ittō-ryōdan (一刀両断, written 一刀両段 in Shinkage), Uten-saten (右転左転, from 右旋左転), Chōtan-ichimi (長短一味).
- *Tengushō is listed in reorganized form as “Tengu-shū” (天狗集) absorbing a *kuka technique gyakufu (逆風), plus a set called Gorin-ran (五輪攔) kaboku (和卜) and yaegaki (八重垣) from kuka.
- Nanatsu-dachi and marobashi (転) names are not confirmed; shinmyōken (神妙剣) is present.
At Kamiya’s Jikishin-ryū (直心流): the densho form-names distill down to four — Hassō (八相), Ittō (一当), Jūtan-ichimi (重端一身), Uten-saten (右天左天) — which Karukome notes are shared with Ogasawara’s mokuroku. Neither enpi nor tengushō is among the named forms at this stage. Notice the kanji variants between Jūtan-ichimi and Chōtan-ichimi, and the shortened Ittō.
In the later Jikishin-shōtō-ryū and Jikishinkage-ryū: the core becomes Hōjō (4), jū-no-kata (tō-no-kata), and kodachi. The Hōjō names descend from the surviving stratum — Ittō-ryōdan, Uten-saten, Chōtan-ichimi from the sangaku three, plus Hassō-happa (八相発破) carrying forward Kamiya’s earlier Hassō. Empi and tengushō, as named forms, at this point are absent.
On the documentary record, the empi/tengushō stratum was the Kage-ryū inheritance carried (as 圓飛, and as redistributed tengu material) into Ogasawara’s Shin-no-shinkage Hyohō, then dropped from the named curriculum at the Kamiya distillation, so that mainstream Jikishinkage-ryū retains only the sangaku-derived Hōjō names.5
Karukome’s “absent” judgments are absences from specific extant catalogues (the 1670 and 1663 mokuroku), not proof of non-practice. Tengushō in particular was secret-transmitted (秘伝) at the Shinkage stage on Yagyū Toshinaga’s account, and a mokuroku is a catalogue that need not enumerate hiden (秘伝) material.
The Tengu-shū and Gorin-ran may have survived later in part as oral teachings, gokui, or later informed the koto listed in later densho.
References
The sources cited on this page are collected in the site source register.
Table A — founder named in each densho (Karukome tbl. 1–5)
| Line / school | Densho (伝書) | Date | Author | Founder as stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shin-shin’in-ryū (真心陰流) | Shin no shin’in heihō mokuroku (真之心陰兵法目録) | Kanbun 10 / 1670 | Ogasawara Genshinsai | none stated |
| Shin-shin’in-ryū | Shin no shin’in heihō menjō (真之心陰兵法免状) | Kanbun 13 / 1673 | Ogasawara Genshinsai | self (“found the art himself”; the text cites a crossing to a foreign court — 異朝渡 — i.e. the China-study motif) |
| Jikishin-ryū (直心流) | Gunpō hikiri-sho narabini nittō mokuroku (軍法非切書幷入唐目録) | Kanbun 3 / 1663 (copy 1835) | Kamiya Denshinsai Naomitsu | self (studied fifteen schools, founded Jikishin-ryū) |
| Jikishin-shōtō-ryū (直心正統流) | Jikishin-shōtō-ryū menjō (直心正統流免状) | Tenna 3 / 1683 | Takahashi Danjōzaemon Shigeharu | Kamiya Denshinsai |
| Jikishin-shōtō-ryū | Jikishin-shōtō-ryū heihō mokuroku (直心正統流兵法目録) | Enpō 7 / 1679 | Takahashi Shigeharu | Kamiya Denshinsai (colophon: 元祖神谷氏伝信) |
| Jikishin-shōtō-ryū | Heihō zakki (兵法雑記) | Jōkyō 3 / 1686 | Yamada Mitsunori | Kamiya Denshinsai (called 直心元祖 / 一流ノ祖) |
| Jikishinkage-ryū (直心影流) | Jikishinkage-ryū mokuroku kuden-sho (直心影流目録口伝書) | Hōreki 14 / 1764 | Naganuma Kunisato | Sugimoto/Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami (杉本備前守紀政之), styled 鹿島神伝元祖 — with Kamiya still listed as 元祖神谷氏伝心 |
Reading. Ogasawara and Kamiya name no predecessor (each presents himself as originator). Takahashi (sixth) and Yamada (seventh) both name Kamiya Denshinsai as the founder — “the Jikishin progenitor.” The Sengoku figure Sugimoto/Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami enters as ryūso only with Kunisato’s 1764 mokuroku kuden-sho, with “six persons omitted” (六人略) bridging Sugimoto to Kunisato. So Matsumoto-as-founder begins, on the documentary record, with the eighth head.
Table B — presence of the 奥書「鹿島神伝」 colophon (Karukome tbl. 1–6)
| Line / school | Densho | Date | Author/issuer | 鹿島神伝 colophon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shin-shin’in-ryū | 真之心陰兵法目録 | 1670 | Ogasawara Genshinsai | — |
| Shin-shin’in-ryū | 真之心陰兵法免状 | 1673 | Ogasawara Genshinsai | — |
| Jikishin-ryū | 軍法非切書幷入唐目録 | 1663 (copy 1835) | Kamiya Denshinsai | — |
| Jikishin-ryū | Jikishin-ryū densho senshi kyojō (直心流伝書剪紙許状) | Kaei 4 / 1852 | Kusumi Junzaburō | 「鹿島神伝」 (no generation number) |
| Jikishin-shōtō-ryū | 直心正統流免状 | 1683 | Takahashi Shigeharu | — |
| Jikishin-shōtō-ryū | menjō uragaki (直心正統流免状裏書) | Bunsei 5 / 1822 | Naganuma Sukesato (亮郷) | 「鹿島神伝十代」 |
| Jikishin-shōtō-ryū | 直心正統流兵法目録 | 1679 | Takahashi Shigeharu | — |
| Jikishinkage-ryū | 兵法雑記 | 1686 | Yamada Mitsunori | — |
| Jikishinkage-ryū | 直心影流目録口伝書 | 1764 | Naganuma Kunisato | 「鹿島神伝」 (and 鹿島神伝元祖 杉本備前守紀政之) |
End Notes
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These include 相尺・留三段・切落・吟味; see my 2025 book for discussions. ↩
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Kashima Shin-ryū, based on Kunii’s early practice of Jikishinkage-ryū and Nen-ryū, includes these Naganuma koto in its writings, and goes much further to reify the Kashima influence through Matsumoto Bizen no Kami and beyong, much further back in time. ↩
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Yamada Jirōkichi’s Kashima-shinden Jikishinkage-ryū (1927) as the most photographically detailed source available depicting these kata. Prior research cited by Karukome holds that the Jikishin-shōtō-ryū densho already listed ryūbi through kanejaku as thirteen of the fourteen tō (韜). ↩
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Karukome does not list the individual nanatachi, the individual kata names are drawn from modern-day kata lists. ↩
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The single place the enpi name resurfaces is outside the mainstream in Kashima Shin-ryū’s ura-dachi tenth form, enpi-ken (燕飛剣). This is consistent with KSR being a synthesis from multiple sources rather than a continuous JSKR transmission. ↩
