Tomita Seigen

Tomita Seigen (dates of birth and death unknown) was a swordsman of Echizen Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture) who earned tremendous renown in the Sengoku period as a master of Chūjō-ryū swordsmanship. He suffered from an eye ailment and handed over the headship of the family to his younger brother, but his renown did not decline afterward, and many swordsmen are said to have visited him seeking his instruction.

Seigen was the eldest son of Tomita Kageie, a retainer of the Echizen Asakura clan, and inherited the Chūjō-ryū that had been passed down in the Tomita family since his grandfather, Tomita Nagaie. Chūjō-ryū is a swordsmanship school centered on the kodachi (short sword), said to have been founded by Chūjō Hyōgo-no-kami Nagahide in the Northern and Southern Courts period. Seigen mastered it and came to be regarded as the strongest swordsman in Echizen Province.

Seigen's distinctive swordsmanship lay in his mastery of kodachi technique and distance (maai). It is well known that while he was staying in Mino, he was challenged to a match by Umezu, a master of Shintō-ryū, and defeated him with a single blow using as his weapon a piece of firewood about 1 shaku 2 or 3 sun long, wrapped in leather. His continued pursuit of the way of the sword after he suffered from the eye ailment is also passed down to later generations as an anecdote showing that swordsmanship can reach a spiritual realm beyond visual skill.

His family produced Tomita Shigemasa, a nephew by marriage known as "Meijin Echigo." His disciples include Kanemaki Jisai (though some hold that he was a disciple of Tomita Kagemasa), who was the teacher of Itō Ittōsai, founder of Ittō-ryū, and Kawasaki Kaginosuke, founder of Tōgun-ryū. Thus Seigen's swordsmanship thought exerted great influence on later swordsmen and holds an important place in the history of Japanese swordsmanship.