Life of Nakayama Hakudo

[birch]

Here are some links about nakago`s of sword with information from Hakudos tests of them. Google offers the lot of links about this (you can insert searching key Yoshichika Hakudo or Kanemichi Hakudo).

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/yoshchik.htm

http://www.isfalga.com/index.php?opt...d=25&Itemid=34

http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/n...st=0&sk=t&sd=a

[birch]

Hi again,
I found this webpage http://www.ekisuikan.com/newpage8.html

There are some notes about MJER- MSR history... Intrigued me the following:

1. Quote: "17th OE, Masamichi Shikei (expelled NAKAYAMA Hakudo. put the forms and names in order.)"
What does the "expelled" mean exactly in this situation? Hakudo studied under Oe Masamichi too or in his group? What detailed reasons_?

2. Quote: "
HOSOKAWA, Yoshimasa → NAKAYAMA, Hakudo (attempted a take-over of Tosa Iai school)
↓
YUKIMUNE, Sadayoshi → NAKAYAMA, Hakudo → DANZAKI
If you know some details about situation in Tosa in this time and the details "aren`t secret" , please give know :-) or post them here.

Below on the web page are the next detailed informations about Nakayama Hakudo, Hosokawa Yoshimasa, Oe Masamichi, but the translation from JPN -> ENG in Google Translator doesn´t help me a lot. I have to start try learn japanese :-)

Have a nice day.

[birch]

Hello,
in Kendo World magazine, volume 4.4 is wonderful article Essentials for the study of Iai (page 78). The author of the article was friend of Hakudo sensei and he studied in Yushinkan Dojo under Hakudo sensei too. In the article is one picture with some people. I think, that I identify only two men from it ( Hakudo sensei - bottom row third from the left, Danzaki Tomoaki - top row first from the left). Is it true?
Do you identify other peple on the picture?
Do you know some informations about this picture?

I gave this picture from article to this link ( I tried to upload here...):
http://www.interiernabytek.cz/other//kwimg/big.jpg

Thank you for your all responses :-)
Have a nice day

[Oroshi]

This is a picture of the Zen Nihon Iaido Renmei Committee, taken in Osaka in 1955. I've seen a version of this photo with that written across the top, but it's been cropped out of this picture. The gentleman on the left hand end of the back row is Kono Hyakuren, 20th Soke of Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu.

Some of the people in this photo of course later transferred to the iaido section of the ZNKR.

[birch]

Oroshi, many thanks for your response. The person isn't Danzaki Tomoaki sensei as I thought.


Here are two links to youtube videos (first and second part) with film about Nakayama sensei - links are from 12.4.2010 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtlpcW7nB9c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEuJ3jDBhXc

[birch]

Hello,
I found the thread in e-budo.com from Andrei Arefiev. He qutes some translated parts from book called "Muso Shinden Ryu: Chuden, Hasegawa Eishin Ryu" by Jean-Pierre Reniez (in French). They are about MSR history and below are in quote. Here is a link to e-budo thread: http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11455

"Once, after a demonstration of his [Nakayama Hakudo's] practice of the way of the sword in front of the famous Shindo Munen-ryu instructor Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919), he was confided by the latter that without study, research and intensive practice in the province of Tosa his techniques would always be incomplete and open for further perfection. Under pressing insistence by Nakayama Hakudo, who wanted to penetrate the real iaido, Itagaki Taisuke agreed to introduce him to the sensei from Tosa. In this way he got recommended to Yukimune Sadayoshi, the real "grey eminence" of Tosa iaido. Quite as expected Yukimune Sadayoshi absolutely refused to take Nakayama Hakudo as deshi, since he wasn't originally from Tosa.

"Dead in the soul", Nakayama was going to return to Tokyo "bredouille", when Oe Masamichi, the future 17-th soke of the Tanimura branch, confided to him: "starting tomorrow I will have four or five days of public demonstrations (an extremely rare event at that time) and even though our sempai refused and absolutely forbade us to you the real way of the sword, you can still come and watch my demonstrations, take notes and study by looking (kengaku)."

Oe Masamichi obviously wanted to give Nakayama Hakudo material to think about his technique and his understanding of the practice of the way of the sword. The latter, of course, accepted [this offer] without doubt but with much gratitude. After this episode [Nakayama Hakudo] has worked hard and progressed a lot [parentheticals not understood], returned to Tosa and finally managed to become deshi to the famous master Hosokawa Yoshimasa (future 15th soke of the Shimomura branch). But [Hosokawa] respected, despite all, the spirit of Tosa and only awarded him the menkyo, and [Nakayama] had to wait for a few years after the death of the 15th soke before being awarded the menkyo kaiden by Morimoto Tokumi.

Thus [Nakayama Hakudo] also studied under the direction of Morimoto Tokumi (the latter being from the Tanimura branch in parallel and between (?) Goto Magobei Seiryo and Oe Masamichi; some genealogists and historians of budo even suggest that he was the soke of a parallel line within the Tanimura branch). He also finally became a student of the prestigeous Yukimune Sadayoshi, who despite Nakayama Hakudo's not belonging to the Tosa clan gave in to his earnestness, his application (?), his tenacity and above all his (?) in the research and discovery of the real way of the sword."

[birch]

Informations about Nakayama Hakudo):
******************************************
1872 (0 years old) - He bored in Japan (in Ishikawa area, in Kanazawa city) - other sources note 11. February 1873 or year of 1869.
- His family were retain-ers for the great Maede samurai clan of that area. /* 12 */
1880 (8 years old) - Hakudo left his family to live with a merchant family in Tomiyama City. /* 12 */
1880 (8 years old) - Hakudo became an eager student of the game of Go. /* 12 */
1886 (14 years old) - Hakudo was considered to be an expert in Go. /* 12 */
1888 (16 years old) - Hakudo moved to Tokio. /* 12 */
1889 (17 years old) - Hakudo played game of Go with Negishi Shingoro, who was the headmaster of the Yushinkan Dojo of swordsmanship (kenjutsu Shindo Munen ryu - derivate of Shinkage ryu)/* 12 */
1889 (17 years old) - Hakudo became a member of dojo of Negishi Shingoro /* 3, 12 */
1895 (23 years old) - He received Mokuroku - it is first scroll in the school /* 12, 13 */
1899 (27 years old) - He received Jun-Menkyo - 2nd scroll in Shindo Munen Ryu /* 13 */
1903-4 (31/32 years old) - He recieved Menkyo in Shindo Munen Ryu from Negishi Sensei (the highest scroll of Shindo Munen Ryu) /* 13 */
* - Hakudo married Shingoro’s daughter and was adopted into the Negishi family /* 12 */
1905 (33 years old) - He recieved a Menkyo-Jyo (a kirigami type of certificate) from Negishi Sensei making him the 7th Soke of Shindo Munen Ryu /* 13 */
1905 (33 years old) - He inherited the Yushinkan dojo from Negishi Sensei. /* 13 */
1905 (33 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo moved the dojo to Korakuen (later moving it to Yutenji). /* 13, 12 */
* - Nakayama Hakudo studied Yamaguchi Itto ryu under Terai Ichitaro /* 12 */
1907 (35 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo was kendo instructor at Shimotsuma middle school beween 1907-1931 /* 8 */
1909 (37 years old) - Omura Yuji (1894-1980) started study swordmanship under Nakayama Hakudo. /* 2 */
* - Nakayama sensei learned Shinto Muso Ryu jo from Uchida Ryogoro. (In the early 1900s Uchida Ryogoro arrived in Tokyo and set up shop, teaching jōjutsu to high-rankers in the Japanese society at the time.) /* 20, 24 */
1917 (44 years old) - Additional kendo kata material added to standard by Naito, Takaji; Takano Sasaburo; Kadona, Tadashi; Nakayama, Hakudo and Minatobe, Kuniharu
1917 (44 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo get invitation to study swordsmanship to Tosa from Itagaki Taisuke(1837-1919) /* 11 */
1917 (44 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo asked the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu headmaster for permission to receive instruction, only to be refused entry simply because "he is from other prefectures." /* 22 */
1917 (44 years old) - Oe Masamichi (Tanimura ha, Shimomura ha) offered to Nakayama the watching his iai teaching during 5 days only /* 21 */
* - Nakayama studied Omori ryu, Muraku ryu, Eishin ryu in Tosa under master of Shimomura-ha Hosokawa (Gisho) Yoshimasa (Yoshiuma) /* 11 */
* - Nakayama sensei recieved only a menkyo from Hosokawa Sensei. Nakayama Sensei received Menkyo Kaiden in Omori Ryu, may be Menkyo in other school. /* */
* - Nakayama studied Shimomura-ha under Yukimune Sadayoshi too. /* 15 */
* - His next iai teacher from Tosa was Morimoto Hokushin Tokumi (Tanimura-ha). /* 11 */
* - Nakayama Hakudo received some transmition documents from Morimoto Tokumi. It could be Menkyo or Menkyo Kaiden?
* - Nakayama sensei commuted to Shikoku once a year for a 4 month stay... after which he would return to Tokyo /* 15 */
1922 (49 years old) - Hakudo become of master of Shimomura branch Eishin ryu./* 12 */
1924 (52 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo wrote the book Kendo Tekibiso.
1925 (53 years old) - During the 1930's Nakayama Hakudo was the most famous member of the committee that drew up the sword curriculum for the Toyama Military Academy. Therefore he is considered by many to also be the father of the Toyama style of swordsmanship.
1927 (55 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo was named a master of Jodo (the staff), he had to receive Menkyo Kaiden some years ago - his SMR master Uchida died in 1921/* 12, 24 */
1927 (55 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo was a member of people group, where invited the Shimizu Takaji (young master od SMR jojutsu) to Tokio
* - Nakayama Hakudo offered sharing of him dojo to Gichin Funakoshi for karate class. /* 7 */
1930 (58 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo with Takakano Sasaburo demonstrated Nihon Kendo Kata /* 14 */
1931 (59 years old) - Matsuo Kenpu (Hiroshi) sensei became of member Yushinkan dojo. /* 5 */
1932 (60 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo began using the term Iaido. /* 12 */
1933 (61 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo presented his school in Kjoto taikai at first.
* - Nakayama Hakudo taught fencing in Keio University /* 12 */
* - Nakayama Hakudo taught fencing in Keishicho police academy /* 12 */
* - Nakayama Hakudo tested a number of modern swords, made by swordsmiths Kanetoki(Kanemichi), Yoshichika /* 12,18,19 */
1940 (68 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo performed iai (Hasegawa Eishin ryu kata) in face of Emperor /* 14 */
1945 (73 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo was fencing master to the Emperor's Guard until the end of WWII /* 16 */
* - Nakayama Hakudo left martial arts for a period but returned in the mid-1950s /* 12 */
* - Nakayama Hakudo was also very involved in the International Martial Arts Federation, IMAF /* 17 */
1952 (80 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo gave 9.dan to Matsuo Kenpu (Hiroshi). /* 5 */
1955 (83 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo's iai style named as jako Muso Shinden ryu (instead of name Muso Shinden ryu Batto Jutsu").
1955 (83 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo is member of Zen Nihon Iaido Renmei Committee in Osaka /* 23 */
1958 (86 years old) - Nakayama Hakudo died 14. December 1958. /* 9 */

Nakayama sensei taught lot of styles in Yushinkan dojo:
Shindo Munen ryu, Muso Sinden ryu, Shinto Muso ryu, Kendo, Techu Ryu, Keshi Ryu

Nakayama sensei had a lot students of kenjutsu, iaijutsu or other styles before his life, but only small parts of them received some transmitions.

Here are some names of his famous students:
Haga Junichi, Nakakura Kiyoishi, Nakajima Gorozo, Nakayama Zendo (Hakudo`s son), Hashimoto Toyo, Saito Isamu, Matsuo Kenpu, Danzaki Tomoaki, Kimura, Yamatsuta Jukichi, Kamimoto Eiichi /* 6 */
Morihiro Okada, Noma Hisashi(kendo)

List of controversial informations:
- year of birth? 1869, 1872, 1873
1946 (74 years old) - Hakudo was imprisoned at Yokosuga by the American forces for teaching martial arts. /* 12 */

About lineage of soke:
Soke terms started use later (maybe after year 1930). Iai senseis in Tosa were the people with Menkyo Kaiden (master with all transmition of school). One of them could be a heritor of dojo and swords ( he could be named as sokei ?). The people with Menkyo Kaiden had the permit for teaching of ryu. The people in Tosa studied both ha of Eishin ryu iai often. It was usually to II.World War. /* 26 */
Nakayama sensei teached Eishin ryu iai from three senseis with Menkyo Kaiden and it could be the reason of existing more lineage of Eishin ryu iai to Nakayama Hakudo. See http://www.iaido.fi/Articles/lineage.html

******************************************
My sources:
1 - http://www.kensei.org/Iaido/MSR
2 - http://www.kensei.org/KenseiKensanKai/History
3 - http://www.kampaibudokai.org/Iaido.htm
4 - http://www.guard7.cz/mjer/strom_mjer.htm
5 - http://www.iaido.fi/Msr/matsuo.html
6 - http://kotisivu.dnainternet.fi/markohav/yoshinkai/musoshindenryu.html
7 - http://www.doshikai.org/bushido/articles/Karate-do_An_Art_and_a_Way.pdf
8 - www.conradjoneskarate.com/Biographies/HironoriOtsuka.htm
9 - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakayama_Hakudo
10 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLCAeFOpHUY
11 - book: Japanese swordmanship:Technique and practise, Gordon Warner and Donn F. Draeger, ISBN:978-80-86977-14-0
12 - http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/articled2.htm
13 - post of Jeff Karinja in http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17855
14 - book: Looking at a Far Mountain: A Study of Kendo Kata, Paul Budden
15 - genealogy from book from Iwata Norikazu www.iaido.fi/Articles/iwata-keito.pdf
16 - http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/articled2.htm
17 - post of user Yonshakujo in http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17855 and http://www.imaf.com/meijin.html
18 - http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/yoshchik.htm
19 - http://www.militaria.co.za/nihontomessageboard/viewtopic.php?t=740&view=previous&sid=b5726408cbeb 1dd8c4e6fd52181bea3d
20 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchida_Ryogoro
21 - book from Jean Pierre Reniez http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11455
22 - http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/articled2.htm
23 - posts from this thread from different people - thank you
24 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Shint%C5%8D_Mus%C5%8D-ry%C5%AB
25 - http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~ballisti/iaido/interview-Haruna.html
26 - http://ejmas.com/tin/tinart_hellsten_1002.htm

[birch]

Small corrections - I'm working on my english :
Nakayama sensei had a lot students of kenjutsu, iaijutsu or other styles during his life, but only small parts of them received some transmitions.

Here are some names of his famous students:
Haga Junichi, Nakakura Kiyoishi, Nakajima Gorozo, Nakayama Zendo (Hakudo`s son), Hashimoto Toyo, Saito Isamu, Matsuo Kenpu, Danzaki Tomoaki, Kimura, Yamatsuta Jukichi, Kamimoto Eiichi /* 6 */
Morihiro Okada, Noma Hisashi (kendo)

[dgilliespie]

There is no evidence whatsoever he was Menkyo Kaiden in Shindo Muso Ryu.

[birch]

dgilliespie
There is no evidence whatsoever he was Menkyo Kaiden in Shindo Muso Ryu.

If you have some details about it, please post it here or send me private message. Thank you a lot.



My friend send me the link to the interview with Takaji Shimizu sensei.
Here is a link: http://www.robertg.com/martialarts_articles.htm

Here are more informations about Nakayama Hakudo and jodo and judo too.

Morikawa: How long did you spend to get the license?

Shimizu: All together 7 years. And the next year, I received a full mastership. I was very quick to get there. I believe that no one has ever done it this quick.

Morikawa: In order to become a great fighter, it requires not only practice but also talent and mental training like enlightenment.

Shimizu: Right. But this is how I started going to so many different places as a representative of Jojutsu Masters. When I went to Butokukai, I met Hakudou Nakayama-sensei from Judo. That time was Nakayama style’s gold time. Nakayama-sensei was even better known than Sasaburou Takano-sensei. Nakayama-sensei was also a very enthusiastic to learn Jojutsu so he learned it from the famous assassin Ryougorou Uchida-sensei. He saw my performance and gave a compliment, “Muso Ryu is the best among Jojutsu. It is certainly well done. I am glad to see the real Budo now.”

Morikawa: Ryougorou Uchida is the father of Ryouhei Uchida-sensei who created Kokuryuukai. I wrote a book about ryouhei Uchida-sensei, so I researched a lot about him! I remember that in their next Samurai house, Jiroukuniomi Hirano was there too, right?

Shimizu: Exactly, The Jirou Hirano’s father was the greatest Jojutsu fighter. Everyone followed by the father and learned Jojutsu. Therefore, Nakayama-sensei was also very interested in Jojutsu. He was astonished by my performance, and then he introduced me to Harugorou Kanou-sensei.

Morikawa: What is the connection between Jojutsu and Judo?

Page 216

Shimizu: I thought there is no connection between Jojutsu and Judo. However, Nakayama-sensei saw me performing and he said he wants to take some Jojutsu elements into Judo. Judo is in a way useless unless you don’t touch the opponents’ body. If the opponent has a knives or swords, you need to make them drop the weapon first in order to make Judo work. So Nakayama-sensei thought if he combined Judo and Jojutsu it would be a greatest self-defense technique. I was very impressed by this idea.

Morikawa: That sounds make sense. If you consider the real situation for the self protection, there is a necessity to combine two of them. So what did you say to him?

Shimizu: I felt honored and promised him that I will help him as much as I can. However, Nakamura-sensei was already very old at that time, and he could not join our work. Instead, he told everyone all over Fukuoka who has Yodan or above in Judo to enter Jojutsu dojo.

Morikawa: When did you come to Tokyo?

Shimizu: In 1926, there was a March festival in Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. This festival was a memorial day for those who died in their duties. This memorial event included a Martial Art conference, and 7 Budo people from all over Japan were invited to perform. One of my students from my dojo and myself were chosen among 7 people and performed in a stadium. Then, the next morning, many newspapers talked about Jojutsu. One of the newspaper said, “I have seen Jojutsu from Nakayama-sensei, but this is the first time to see such a powerful one. The stick could be sharper than sword! This must be known all over Japan.” Nakayama-sensei was very happy about this success too, and he brought me to many different places to introduce me to different Budo people. For example, I met Misao Suenaga-sensei who was an intellectual leader for Sun Yat-sen group (Chinese revolutionary group), people from military or police. Mr. Suenaga told me, “Jojutsu will be one of the most successful Bujutsu in this country. I want to teach this to Boy-Scouts! Do you want to come to Tokyo to work on letting people know about Jojutsu?” He insisted. Mr-Suenaga was such a great man. He even took Jojutsu lessons from me in order to know more about this, and then he said, “Now I can talk little about Jojutsu to other people to explain how great this is!” Around this time, the safety of Tokyo area was becoming a big problem. Therefore, the police academy sent one of the top-class policeman to my dojo. The Tokyo commissioner of police of metropolis said, “We should hire him.”

In this site is one motto of Nakayama sensei:http://judoinfo.com/quotes4.htm

Always present on the battlefield of life, ready to meet any challenge.

[birch]

Some next informations about Nakayama Hakudo sensei:
5.12.1916 – Nakayama sensei introduced to Hosokawa Yoshimasa
May 1920 - ????
August 1922 - ????

Source:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Athlete-A...236/Oomori.htm

Here are some informations about Nakayamas teachers of iai from Tosa:

Hosokawa Yoshimasa 細川義昌

10.11.1849 – 24.2.1923, Christian,

He learned Shimomura ha iai from Shimomura Mōichi Sadamasa, when was young ( 1856 - ??? 1868 ).

His pupils: Ueda Heitaro (he lerned iai from Oe Masamichi too - his name is noted in some lists of Oe pupils), Nakayama Hakudo

Photo:
http://1.2.3.11/bmi/ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/.../hosokawa1.jpg
http://1.2.3.10/bmi/ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/.../img/ueda2.jpg (right)

More informations in links:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Athlete-A...6/Hosokawa.htm
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~kanou-kan/muso/hstry/index.html


Morimoto Tokumi 森本兎久身
He learned Tanimura ha from Gotō Magobei Masasuke ( 16.Tanimura ha head ).

His pupils: Takemura Shizuo, Nakayama Hakudo

Sources:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Athlete-Athene/8236/Tosa.htm


Yukimune Sadayoshi 行宗貞義
(1850-1914)
Note: The date of death is older than the date of first contact of Nakayama sensei and Tosa iai. Something must be else...

He learned Shimomuru ha from Shimomura Mōichi Sadamasa.

His pupils: Soda Torahiko, Hirota Hiroshi, Nakayama Hakudo

Sources:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Athlete-Athene/8236/Tosa.htm


Oe Masamichi 大江正路
(1852-1927)

He learned Shimomuru ha from Shimomura Mōichi Sadamasa and Tanimura ha from Gotō Magobei Masasuke

His pupils: a lot

Sources:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Athlete-Athene/8236/Tosa.htm


Other sources:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Athlete-A...36/sitemap.htm
http://www.iaido.fi/Articles/iwata-keito.pdf


More info will be added / corrected :-} later.
I know, these informations from me should be read something out of context or incompletly. It needs the better research or studying.... Im sorry.

Lot of some informations are in ekisukan webpages, but I don´t able translate them. May be in future.... or google translator will be better than today :-)
http://www.ekisuikan.com/newpage8.html
http://www.ekisuikan.com/newpage15.html
http://www.ekisuikan.com/newpage22.html

[birch]

Jeffrey Karinja posted excellent and comprehensive article about Nakayama Hakudo in kenshi247 web . It repaired many my mistakes in my research...



http://kenshi247.net/blog/2011/02/14/a-lineage-all-but-forgotten-the-yushinkan-nakayama-hakudo/

There are next interesting links related with Nakayama Hakudo:

http://kenshi247.net/blog/2011/01/28...ous-swordsmen/

http://kenshi247.net/blog/2011/01/06...ushinkan-dojo/

http://kenshi247.net/blog/2010/02/18...-of-yushinkan/

[HOPLOblog]

It is said that Nakayama helped karate master Funakoshi Gichin around 1924 and offered him dojo capacity for giving karate lessons.

[birch]

It is said that Nakayama helped karate master Funakoshi Gichin around 1924 and offered him dojo capacity for giving karate lessons.

Yes, this information is from book: " Karate-Do - My Way of Life " by Gichin Funakoshi. Thank you for year specification. Will be added to new update of research.

Next information:
His son Gigo Funakoshi (Funakoshi Yoshitaka) studied later the kendo under Nakayama Hakudo sensei - this information is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig%C5%8D_Funakoshi

[birch]

Quote from interview with Kenji Hamaji (page 21) / link http://www.misogi.org/Jo%20No%20Hink...ver1.02%20.pdf

Toff: Please tell me about Hakudō Nakayama.
Hamaji: Nakayama Sensei learned Jōdō from my mother’s father. I learned Jōdō from my father. There are two pupil-teacher lineages in the same line of
Shinto-muso-ryu Jōdō. One is my father’s line and the other is my mother’s. I have some photographs. One of them shows my sister using the kusarigama (sickle
with a chain) with her grandfather. Coincidentally, my father’s father and my mother’s father learned Jōdō from the same teacher.
Nakayama Sensei came to my house in Kyobashi, Tokyo, and learned Jōdō from my mother’s father. Every student came to my house in Kyobashi, which was
situated in the central part of Tokyo. My house had two large rooms on the second floor, so they probably got rid of the sliding screen between the rooms to make one
large one.
Nakayama Sensei’s Jo is different from the true Shinto-muso-ryu Jōdō because he seems to have mixed the techniques with kendo. So, his Jo is different from my
father’s Shinto-muso-ryu Jo techniques. Nakayama Sensei often visited my father to study calligraphy. Nakayama Sensei brought his writings to him and had him
comment on them.
When I was a seventh or eighth grader, my father told me to go to Nakayama Sensei and learn iai from him. So I went to his dojo for one or two months, but my
father didn’t tell me to learn Jo from him. Nakayama Sensei taught Jo too, but my father said that I must learn iai from him because his iai was excellent.
Ten years later, Shimizu Sensei came to Tokyo and was introduced to my father by a close friend, Mr. Setsu Suenaga. Mr. Suenaga found the name Hachiro
Hamaji in his densho, and thought, “This must be the Mr. Hamaji who lives in Ofuna.” So Mr. Suenaga took Shimizu Sensei to my father’s house. Both of them
performed Jo in front of my father. After their performance, my father said to me, “This is the martial art which has been handed down generation after generation in
the Hamaji family. So you must learn Jōdō.”
In my opinion, Shimizu Sensei’s Jōdō is orthodox, while Nakayama Sensei’s Jōdō is not, because he learned Jōdō only halfway and changed the techniques. Only
a few people know such a background story.