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1601 (Keicho 6): instructor to Hidetada; 21st day of the 3rd month, 1621 (Genna 7): instructor to Iemitsu
Edo and Yagyu, Yamato Province
About 10 min read
Yagyu Munenori (1571-1646), born in Yagyu-no-sho in Yamato Province, is remembered as the sword instructor (heiho shinan-yaku) to the Tokugawa shoguns. According to his chronology, he became instructor to the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, in 1601 (Keicho 6), and on the 21st day of the 3rd month of 1621 (Genna 7) he became instructor to the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, transmitting the Shinkage-ryu to him. Through these two appointments the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu secured a firm place as the sword style serving the Tokugawa house, and Munenori himself rose from hatamoto to daimyo. This entry summarizes the course of events as far as the chronology can be confirmed.
The Shinkage-ryu originated with Kamiizumi Nobutsuna. Munenori's father, Yagyu Muneyoshi, studied that school and handed it down in the Yagyu district; Munenori inherited his father's swordsmanship.
In the warrior society of the Sengoku and early Edo periods, swordsmanship was both a martial art and one of the abilities by which a samurai served his lord. Munenori entered Tokugawa service in the 5th month of 1594 (Bunroku 3), recommended by his father, and was taken on by Tokugawa Ieyasu with a stipend of 200 koku. At that point he was merely a new retainer; no position as shogunal instructor had yet been promised.
In 1600 Munenori accompanied Ieyasu on the Aizu campaign. Learning at Oyama that the western forces had risen, he returned to Yagyu and is said to have harassed the western army's rear. On the 13th day of the 9th month he rejoined Ieyasu and took part in the headquarters at Sekigahara. After the war he recovered 2,000 koku in Yagyu. This service laid the groundwork for his later appointment to Hidetada.
In 1601 (Keicho 6) Munenori became sword instructor to Tokugawa Hidetada. On the 11th day of the 9th month of that year he received an increase of 1,000 koku, bringing him to 3,000 koku as a hatamoto. Teaching the man destined to hold the shogunate gave Munenori a direct foothold in the service of the shogun's line.
At the Siege of Osaka in 1615 (Keicho 20) he served under Hidetada and acted as guide for the Tokugawa army. In 1616 (Genna 2) he took part in negotiating and handling the attempted revolt of Sakazaki Naomori. Such records show that Munenori was more than a teacher of swordsmanship: he was involved in the political and military affairs of the shogun's entourage.
On the 21st day of the 3rd month of 1621 (Genna 7), Munenori became sword instructor to Tokugawa Iemitsu and transmitted the Shinkage-ryu to him. The Yagyu Shinkage-ryu thus served the shogunal house across two generations, Hidetada and Iemitsu.
Munenori's art was a sword art. The Yagyu swordsmanship of the Shinkage lineage concerns how the katana is actually used and the mental discipline that accompanies it. Munenori authored the Heiho Kadensho, which the Nihon Daihyakka Zensho describes as a work in three volumes setting out the theory of the sword together with ideas applicable to government and conduct. The date of its composition could not be confirmed from the sources consulted, so it is not stated here.
Munenori is often associated with "muto-dori", the art of subduing an armed opponent without a sword. This is transmitted as a technique of the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu, but details of the anecdotes likely include later embellishment, so they should not be asserted as established history. What is secure is that Munenori shaped sword-based martial theory into the teaching of the shogunal house.
From the standpoint of sword culture, the official appointment of a sword master by the shogunate illustrates the Edo-period view of the sword as the emblem of the samurai. In an age of peace the sword was less a tool of battle than an expression of status and bearing, and Munenori's teaching is closely tied to that position of the sword.
The trust placed in him showed in his rising status. In the 3rd month of 1629 (Kan'ei 6) he was granted the junior fifth rank, lower grade, and appointed Tajima-no-kami. On the 3rd day of the 10th month of 1632 (Kan'ei 9) he received an additional 3,000 koku, and on the 27th day of the 12th month of that year he became the first soometsuke (later ometsuke). On the 14th day of the 8th month of 1636 (Kan'ei 13) a further 4,000 koku brought him to 10,000 koku, ranking him as a daimyo and establishing the Yagyu domain of Yamato. In 1640 he received 500 koku more, and with the 2,000 koku of his second son Tomonori, who died the previous year, his holdings reached 12,500 koku.
His stipend thus grew from 3,000 koku as a hatamoto to a 12,500-koku domain in roughly forty years. Few swordsmen attained such standing, which shows how heavily the position of shogunal sword master was weighed.
Munenori died on the 26th day of the 3rd month of 1646 (Shoho 3) at the age of 76. The Yagyu domain was located in Yamato, and its successive lords are said to have continued as a house serving as sword instructors to the shoguns. The Yagyu Shinkage-ryu came to be called the shogunal house style, known as Edo Yagyu.
Munenori's appointments are the story of one swordsman's advancement, but also a symbol of how swordsmanship was folded into the institutions of shogunal rule. The concrete duties of the post and the extent of the Yagyu family's influence on the shogunate, however, require cautious assessment based on documents, and should be distinguished from the images presented in later novels and screen works.