The Numata branch of the Naganuma house — the 正兵衛家 (別家長沼派) — lapsed during the early Meiji period. Its last head, Naganuma Shōkyō (称郷, gō Kashōjin) — the fifteenth holder in this branch’s continuation of the school’s generational count — abandoned the transmission of kenjutsu at the abolition of the domains. The Naganuma family line as Numata-han instructors thus discontinued its own headship, while the genealogical head house (四郎左衛門家; Shirōzaemon family house) continued separately in Kanō (see below), and other lines carried the practice onward.
Jikishinkage-ryū Hisho (ichi) (直心影流秘書一) lists seven kata categories for this line of practice:
- Hōjō
- Tō-no-kata
- Koryū
- Habiki
- Kodachi
- Marubashi
- Saya-no-uchi
It notes Habiki has no forms of its own but borrows the five Koryū forms. In the Odani-ha/Fujikawa-ha contemporary practice Habiki is an arrangement of four kata performed in three continuous parts (smoothly moving from summer to autumn).
The same work begins its saya-no-uchi section with “鞘ノ内三” denoting it may be a small set of three kata, or three sets of kata – the latter distinction is unclear. A Naganuma manual titled saya no uchi is found in Japanese library holdings. It contains 54 kata, according to 河崎藤之丞義追’s 『鞘之内秘伝書』 (鈴鹿家文書, AJKF), and its transmission flows through Naganuma Tadasato.
According to Karukome, the branch survives as the Tōkyō Naganuma Shōbee-ke (東京長沼正兵衛家), the present-day Tokyo branch of the family. Karukome cites the family as the holder of the school’s oldest originals (Mitsunori’s 『兵法雑記』, Takahashi’s 1686 『稽古法定序幷理歌』, the 1773 『大禾一件』). Karukome bases his analysis on Nakamura Tamio (中村民雄), “幕末関東剣術流派伝播形態の研究(2),” 福島大学教育学部論集 社会科学部門 第66号, 1999.
The dissertation of Karukome provides much information.
Kunisato (国郷), 1688–1767 — 8th generation; full style 長沼四郎左衛門 尉藤原国郷, tsūshō Shirōzaemon (四郎左衛門). Third son of Yamada Mitsunori; received the school from his father in 1708, went to Edo, refined the bōgu and shinai, and died Meiwa 4 (1767) on the 24th of the 7th month (one account says 10th), aged 80, from Shimotsuke.
Naganuma practice consists of two houses, the Shirōzaemon-ke (四郎左衛門家) blood line or head house (宗家長沼派) and the Shōbee-ke (正兵衛家) adopted line or branch house (別家長沼派).
Naganuma Shirōzaemon-ke 四郎左衛門家
The line transmitted through Kanō-han in Mino
The Shirōzaemon-ke is often called the Sōke Naganuma-ha (“head-house” Naganuma branch) and is the main line that went to Mino Kanō and culminated in the well-known early 20th century shiai competitor Wasato.
Tokusato or Norisato (徳郷; 1741–1777, d. age 36) is Kunisato’s biological son, born in his father’s late years; learned the school from Tsunasato, and through the Nagai lords’ transfer to Mino became the root of the Kanō-han Naganuma line. It can be a bit confusing: genealogically the biological son, Tokusato, heads the main sōke (宗家 / 四郎左衛門家), while the adopted Tsunasato’s descendants form the bekke (別家 / 正兵衛家). The formal dōtō, however, ran the other way — Kunisato (8th) to the adopted Tsunasato (9th) to Fujikawa (10th) — so the school’s headship succession passed through Tsunasato and bypassed Tokusato’s line entirely.
The Kanō-han (分限帳) line began when Nagai Naotsune (尚庸, 1631–1677), third son of Nagai Naomasa, was granted 20,000 koku in Kawachi in 1658; the Nagai (永井) house then moved through Shimotsuke Karasuyama, Harima Akō and Shinano Iiyama into Musashi Iwatsuki, and under the fourth lord Naonobu (直陳) settled at Mino Kanō at 32,000 koku, remaining there with no further transfer to the end of the Edo period.
Yamada Mitsunori had been an Edo-duty retainer of the Nagai at Musashi Iwatsuki, so the sword house was a Nagai retainer family from the start. When the Nagai went to Kanō, Tokusato went with them as the domain’s hereditary Jikishinkage-ryū instructors, while Tsunasato’s branch instead took service at Numata.
Tokusato’s tsūshō is Shirōzaemon (四郎左衛門), the hereditary by-name of this head house — the dissertation styles him 四郎左衛門徳郷. As with any such house name, it was re-used across generations, with individual teachers disambiguated by their imina when available. (The Shōbee tsūshō — 正兵衛, with the Issei-kai variant 庄兵衛 — belongs instead to Tsunasato’s branch house, discussed below.)
- Kunisato (1688–1767)
- Tokusato (徳郷, 1741–1777)
- Sadasato (貞郷, d. 1781; great-grandson of Yamada Mitsunori)
- Sukesato (亮郷)
- Kazusato (万郷)
- Yasusato (楽郷, eldest son, died young)
- Wasato (和郷, hanshi 1925, second son)
- Akisato (昭郷)
The early 20th-century Wasato (和郷) was named hanshi by the Butokukai in 1925 and continued this branch to Akisato, who is the last recorded master.
Naganuma Shōbee-ke 正兵衛家
The line transmitted through Edo and the Numata-han.
Shōbee-ke (the Shōbee house) also labeled Bekke Naganuma-ha (別家長沼派; “branch-house” Naganuma branch). This is the cadet line that is Numata-affiliated and is the line the 1800 densho I studied comes from.
Tsunasato (綱郷), dates not found — 9th generation; full style 長沼 庄兵衛尉活然斎藤原綱郷 — tsūshō Shōbee-no-jō (庄兵衛尉), gō Katsuzensai (活然斎).
Adopted son of Kunisato (original name Saitō Yūgorō); his fuller biography appears in the branch-line list below.
It is in this line we see the tsūshō Shōbee (正兵衛) being used.
The adopted man (Tsunasato) actually carried the school first, as a stand-in while Kunisato was old and childless — but once the blood son (Tokusato) was born and grew up, the blood son took the head house (Shirōzaemon-ke) and the adopted man’s descendants became the branch (Shōbee-ke), even though the adopted line had seniority in time of training.
Numata-han Jikishinkage-ryū
The Naganuma family were Numata-han instructors, beginning with Naganuma Tsunasato, adopted heir of Naganuma Kunisato, who took service with Numata-han. The Numata-han taught Jikishinkage-ryū for several generations thereafter.
Karukome’s analysis of the 正兵衛家 branch line runs:
- Tsunasato (綱郷) — orig. Saitō Yūgorō; Kunisato’s daihiko; served Toki Yoritoshi (of Numata) from 1723; stayed Edo-resident when the Toki moved to Numata in 1742; after Kunisato died in 1767 he went independent, opened the Shiba Atago-shita dōjō, ~3,000 students.
- Tadasato (忠郷) — succeeded Tsunasato; already the 正兵衛 by 1773 (the dissertation names him as the Shōbee in the 1773 Ōga/Momoi match), issuing licenses through the Kansei era.
- Naosato (直郷, adopted) — shihan until 1819, then retired to Numata.
- Takasato (孝郷) — d. 1827, no heir.
- Terusato (輝郷) — d. 1831, age 26.
- Junsato (恂郷) — the Numata-han instructor whose dōjō Tokuno Sekishirō entered.
- Shōkyō (称郷, gō 可笑 Kashōjin) — closed the dōjō at the abolition of the domains and 1876 haitōrei.
Tadasato is the author of the 1800 densho I previously studied.
The 正兵衛家 line dōjō was located at Edo Mizaka (江戸見坂), inside the Numata domain’s Edo residence. Tadasato held the 正兵衛 name across the entire Kansei era (license to Kawasaki in 1789, students through ~1801), the 寛政十二 (1800) Hōjō transmitted at Edo Mizaka by 長沼正兵衛 is 忠郷 (Tadasato).
