Description

Yagyū Sekishūsai (1527–1606) was the lord of Yagyū Village in Yamato Province (present-day Nara Prefecture) and a sword saint who inscribed an immortal name in the history of Japanese swordsmanship as the de facto founder of "Yagyū Shinkage-ryū." After receiving the inner teachings of Shinkage-ryū from Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, he added his own innovations to perfect Yagyū Shinkage-ryū and completed the "muto-dori" technique—taking an opponent's sword with bare hands.

Sekishūsai held the position of local lord as head of the Yagyū family, but devoted himself to swordsmanship training past age 40, mastering the way of the sword upon meeting Kamiizumi Nobutsuna. Around 1564, when Nobutsuna visited Yamato, Sekishūsai challenged him to a match and suffered a complete defeat, but then became Nobutsuna's student and studied Shinkage-ryū. Nobutsuna recognized Sekishūsai's talent and attainment, reportedly granting certificates of mastery (inkajō) to only two students: Hikita Kagekane and Sekishūsai.

Sekishūsai's greatest achievement was the completion of "muto-dori." This technique—controlling and taking an opponent's sword with bare hands or a fan when they draw and strike—embodies the sword principle that the essence of swordsmanship transcends the presence or absence of a sword. In the third year of Bunroku (1594), Sekishūsai demonstrated muto-dori before Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was so impressed by the technique that he presented him with an oath of entry and granted 200 koku.

In his later years, Sekishūsai decided to transmit Shinkage-ryū not to his eldest son Yoshikatsu but to his fifth son Yagyū Munenori. Munenori, trained under Sekishūsai's guidance, served Tokugawa Ieyasu and later laid the foundation for making Yagyū Shinkage-ryū the official swordsmanship of the shogunate as sword instructor to the shogun. Sekishūsai's sword philosophy was transmitted to posterity as the concept of "katsujinken" (the life-giving sword), words still spoken today as an expression of the spiritual heights of martial arts.