MATSUMATA RYU

Matsumata-ryū (松股流) is a school of samurai warriors with origins in the Sengoku Jidai period (戦国時代). Roots go to the very founder of the art of drawing the Sword „Battojutsu“, Hayashizaki Jinsuke Minamoto No Shigenobu (林崎甚助源の重信). Hayashizaki was born in the province of Dewa, Oshu (today’s Yamagata prefecture). He lived circa 1542-1621 in today’s Kanagawa prefecture. Many of the historical details of Hayashizaki’s life are faint, because like most of the well-known fighters in Japan, his story was widely fiction. He appears to have grown up in the time of Warring States in Japan, and thus he has learned to fight with the sword from an early age. According to legend, Hayashizaki’s father was killed, and he began to train more from the revenge. He went to the present shrine of Hayashizaki Meijin to pray and gain divine inspiration for the new sword mowing technique directly from drawing in one movement. The legend says, in the end he actually defeated his father’s murderer. Following this, Hayashizaki continued his pilgrimage to martial arts and trained so Monho renowned swordsmen of the time (such as the Tamiya Heibei, founder of Tamiya-ryū (Tsumaki)). Hayashizaki founded his own style with a sword and called it Shinmei Musō-ryū (神明 夢想 流). Hayashizaki’s art has gained many names in time, such as Hayashizaki-ryū (林 津崎 流) or Jushin-ryū (Una重was 信 流). And it is considered the basis for many of today’s main styles of drawing swords such as Tamiya-Ryu, Araki-Ryu and the „newest“ Musō Jikiden Eishin-ryū and Musō Shinden-ryū.

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