Daito-Ryu Aiki Jujutsu
History
The origin of Daito-Ryu Aiki Jujutsu dates back nine hundred years
to the Emperor Seiwa (reigned A.D 858 - 876) and his grandson, Shinra
Saburo Minamoto No Yoshimitsu. Yoshimitsu is considered the founder
of the tradition.
His family settled in the village of Takeda in Koma/Kai. (Now in Yamanashi
Prefecture). There, the art passed through the Takeda clan including
the famous warrior Shingen Takeda. His descendant, Kunitsugu Takeda,
relocated to the Aizu district, in Fukushima and the art was passed
down through the Aizu Takeda family as "Aizu Han O-Tome Waza."
It was also developed into an art instucted to high ranking persons
for use as secret techniques for indoor use known as "O-Shiki
Uchi"
In 1898, Sokaku Takeda received permission to teach the art openly
from the chief steward of the clan, Tanomo Saigo (1830 - 1905) with
the words: "the time of the sword is over."
From this point onward, Sokaku, who had until then practiced the sword
arts, began to perfect the arts of jujutsu (unarmed combat). Sokaku
is considered the Chuko no So ("the founder of a renaissance
") of the art. Sokaku then embarked on a "musha shugyo"
- a warrior's pilgrimage, in which a practitioner of bujutsu travels
from place to place to hone and perfect their skills through contests
and the hardships of travel. This pilgrimage was to last the rest
of his life.
In 1909, Sokaku went to Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan
with Zaibu Sanehide, who was the chief of the Hokkaido police.
In Hokkaido, Sokaku stayed at the inn of Taiso Horikawa (the father
of Kodo Horikawa), in Yubetsu. From this base, he traveled to many
places to teach Daito-Ryu.
His students included: Taiso Horikawa, Kodo Horikawa, Morihei Ueshiba
(the founder of Aikido) Yukiyoshi Sagawa, Toshimi Matsuda, Takuma
Hisa and Ryuho Okuyama (founder of Hakko-Ryu Jujutsu).
Takeda had many students, but the one who spent the longest time
with him, and who learned the most techniques, was Kodo Horikawa.
Sokaku's son, Soke Tokimune Takeda, was based in Abashiri, Hokkaido
until his passing in 1993.
Hiroo Iida was a direct student of Kodo Horikawa and his successor,
Inoue Kosuke, for a total of thirty years and received the rank of
Shihan (master instructor) in the Ryu. In 2001, he set up a new Ryu-Ha,
the Muden Juku. |