Chiba Sadakichi

Chiba Sadakichi (c.1797 – December 5, 1879) was a late Edo to early Meiji-period swordsman, the younger brother of Chiba Shūsaku, founder of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū school. He established his own dojo in the Okechō district of Kyōbashi, Edo, distinguishing it from his brother's great Genbukan dojo, and it became known as "Okechō Chiba" or "Ko-Chiba" (Little Chiba). Born the third son of the swordsman Chiba Naritane, he trained alongside his brother Shūsaku under their father before Shūsaku founded the Hokushin Ittō-ryū and the Genbukan. In 1853, Sadakichi was appointed sword instructor for the Tottori domain's Edo residence. That same year, Sakamoto Ryōma, a young samurai from Tosa, enrolled at his dojo; because Sadakichi's domain duties kept him busy, day-to-day instruction is believed to have fallen mainly to his eldest son, Chiba Jūtarō, though it was Sadakichi himself who in 1858 formally granted Ryōma a certificate in the school's naginata techniques. His dojo, grounded in the Hokushin Ittō-ryū's streamlined and practical ranking system, trained numerous students during the turbulent final years of the shogunate. Remembered today largely through his association with Sakamoto Ryōma and his children Jūtarō and Sana, he died in 1879 and was buried at Zōshigaya Cemetery in Tokyo.