Cummins - The lost samurai school: secrets of Mubyoshi Ryu

Mubyshi Ry is a samurai warfare school from the Kaga domain from around the time of the fourth lord of Kaga, Maeda Tsunanori (16431724), who is sometimes also considered the fifth lord. The school appears to have been established in the mid to late seventeenth century, with some of the earliest scroll transcriptions dated to around the 1670s. The school itself contains a collection of civilian samurai skills, concentrating more on personal protection than battlefield warfare, including the arts of the shinobi and some esoteric magic. The origins appear to center on a samurai named Hagiwara Jz and his colleague Niki Shinjr, who as contemporaries appear on nearly all the school scrolls. The name Mubyshi Ry (), which can also be pronounced as Muhyshi Ry, is best translated as the school with no discernible rhythm or the school that has no gap between event and reaction.

: without

: rhythm

: school

The name implies that a student of the school will be a samurai who has no identifiable gaps in their skills and defenses, making their offensive and defensive skills complete and whole. Furthermore, as discussed in the schools original scrolls, the name implies that a student of the school shows no delay between an event and the students reaction. According to the schools introduction within the Yawara Jo scroll, mubyshi is the lack of distance between the beat of a hand clapping and the echoing sound it produces. This means that the student is without gap in their ability to react in combat and that no discernible shape can be found in their strategy.

Mubyshi Ry is considered to be connected to the school named Shinjin Ry (), which infers a connection to the famed swordsman Kusabuka Jinshir. Mubyshi Ry continued down the centuries, taught in the Kaga domain throughout Japans Edo Period when the Tokugawa clan ruled the land. Student records show that the school was healthy and thriving until the end of the period of peace and lasted beyond the end of the samurai themselves, which came about with the Meiji Restoration in 1868. It was at this timejust before the fall of the samuraithat a man named Kaneko Kichibei (17951858) really pushed the school to probably its highest level of popularity. After this point it began to decline. Some of the schools teachings are now no longer a part of the living tradition, a percentage of which have been lost forever while some have been preserved through scrolls that remain in multiple collections. The most recent and still current grandmaster of the school is Uematsu Yoshiyuki, who lives and runs his dj in Nonoichi within the Ishikawa Prefecturepreviously the Kaga domain. Mubyshi Ry lives on through Uematsus dedicated efforts, through a traditional dance found in the local area, in various scrolls in library and personal collections, and now within this book. Mubyshi Ry, the school that gives a person no discernible rhythm, is a thrilling and motivating facet of Japanese culture that deserves its place in Japanese history and world recognition to live on alongside its more famous counterparts.

Uematsu Sensei was born in Nagasaki on New Years Day, 1948. He began his initiation into Zen Buddhism training at the age of nine under his uncle Mori Goh in Saga, and received tutelage in the martial arts (mostly Okinawan karate) from Mori. He moved to Ishikawa Prefecture at the age of twenty-four to join the Sjiji Temple in Monzen. He opened the Mushinkan Dj shortly thereafter. He continues his martial arts study with Shinkage Ry (iaijutsu) and Mubyshi Ry (jjutsu), among others.