* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Henmi Sōsuke
逸見宗助
Son of the Tatsumi-ryū Head Who Built Metropolitan Police Swordsmanship, Praised by Yamaoka Tesshū as a Master of "True Swordsmanship"
- Era
- Bakumatsu to Meiji
- Lifespan
- 1843-1894
- Associated Sword Tradition
- Tatsumi-ryū
Description
Life
Henmi was born in 1843 (by another account, 1834), the son of Henmi Nobutaka, a retainer of Sakura domain in Shimōsa Province and the 17th head of the Tatsumi-ryū school. From childhood he studied the family's hereditary Tatsumi-ryū iaijutsu and swordsmanship, and was raised with high expectations because of his talent.
Swordsmanship
Through the 1850s he repeatedly fought matches against other schools and also studied the Kyōshin Meichi-ryū and Hokushin Ittō-ryū. In 1861 he went to Edo and trained at Momonoi Shunzō's Shigakukan dojo. Moving among various schools, he refined his practical skill and came to be counted among the foremost swordsmen of the late Edo period.
Establishing Metropolitan Police Martial Arts
In 1879 (Meiji 12), when the Metropolitan Police Department newly established the post of gekken sewagakari, he was among its first appointees. Together with Ueda Umanosuke and Kajikawa Yoshimasa, he worked to systematize swordsmanship, iaijutsu, and jujutsu into the 'Keishi-ryū' system. As chief instructor of the martial arts section at headquarters, he became the central instructor of Metropolitan Police martial arts.
Anecdote
In December 1884 (Meiji 17), in a match against swordsmen from the Kansai region brought by Shiga prefectural governor Kōtoda Yasusada, the Metropolitan Police side fell into a disadvantageous position. Henmi is said to have won by striking kote from his favored jōdan stance, preserving the department's reputation. Yamaoka Tesshū is said to have remarked, 'There are many swordsmen, but only Henmi wields a true sword,' and Henmi was also known as a master swimmer.
Later Evaluation
Henmi is regarded as a meritorious figure who inherited the techniques of the old Tatsumi-ryū school and, within the new framework of police martial arts after the Meiji Restoration, made swordsmanship practical and systematized it. He died in 1894 (Meiji 27).
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