On Nodachi Jigen-ryu (Yakumaru Lineage) (Part 1)
Takamasa Miyamoto
While continuing my training in Asayama Ichiden-ryu, I frequently visited the National Diet Library and studied historical materials. In the process, I developed a strong interest in Jigen-ryu and Jigen-related schools, which are said to have cut down countless enemies on the battlefields of the Sino-Japanese War and the Second World War.
At that time, I wrote a letter to the late Master Masao Ito, who was the head instructor of Jigen-ryu and also a master of Satsuma biwa. After receiving his permission to enter the school, I traveled by airplane to Kagoshima many times to train under him.
This was long before books, DVDs, and online videos about Jigen-ryu became widely available.
In my training, I mainly studied under Master Ito and Master Toshinari Matsuo, and I also received instruction from Master Shiro Ichoda and Master Ryuichi Higashi.
At first glance, Jigen-ryu may appear to be a simple and rough form of swordsmanship. However, once I began to study it seriously, I realized how profoundly deep it truly is. I came to understand that such a refined art cannot be mastered unless one continually raises questions, takes initiative, and explores it through one’s own body—things that other practitioners rarely attempt.
For this reason, I always stayed close to Master Ito and actively sought his guidance.
On my very first day of training, Master Ito made me strike the standing log (horizontal log striking) about five hundred times. Although I had confidence in my legs and lower body, which I had trained in other martial arts since my early teens, the unique muscle usage of Jigen-ryu placed tremendous strain on my body. By the time I arrived at Haneda Airport, I was suffering from severe muscle pain throughout my entire body.
For about a week afterward, I could barely walk, and even moving my body while lying on a futon was painful. I still remember this vividly.
What impressed me most were Master Ito’s “tachiki-uchi” (log striking) and “nuki,” as well as Master Matsuo’s “nuki.”
Master Ito’s “spirit and strike” were completely different from what one sees in videos. His strikes were like hurling his fierce soul itself into the blow, and they made me feel that even after ten or twenty years of training, one could never truly reach his level.
“Nuki” is a technique in which the blade of the wooden sword is first turned downward and then drawn. However, when Master Ito performed it, even when watching from right in front of him, I could not see the moment when he turned the blade.
By contrast, Master Matsuo’s “nuki” gave the impression not so much of a human movement, but rather of a wooden sword being fired at high speed from a precision machine.
One unforgettable experience was when, on one occasion, Master Ito summoned me alone to a place separate from the training hall. There, he personally taught me the technique he had used in his youth to defeat a kendo practitioner in Kagoshima.
This was a method that involved devising the way of “taking” the sword (in Jigen-ryu there is no formal stance; it is called “taking”) and cutting in from a position that prevented the opponent from striking.
As I continued visiting Kagoshima and gradually improved my skills, one instructor once said to me,
“Why don’t you hold training sessions or start a branch in Tokyo?”
However, I politely declined.
Even today, it seems that instructors in Kagoshima sometimes tell new students from outside the prefecture, especially from the Kanto region,
“There is an old practitioner named Miyamoto in Tokyo. You should visit him.”
Nevertheless, since I do not hold a teaching position within Jigen-ryu, I respectfully decline all requests to instruct or transmit techniques.
野太刀自顕流（薬丸流）について ①
宮本隆正
私は浅山一傳流を稽古するかたわら、国会図書館に通い資料を読み進める中で、日中戦争・第二次世界大戦の戦場において数多の敵を斬ったと伝えられる自顕流・示現流に、強い関心を抱くようになりました。
当時、自顕流の総師範であられた故・伊藤政夫師範（薩摩琵琶の名手でもある）に手紙をしたため、入門の許可をいただき、飛行機で幾度も鹿児島を訪ねて稽古を受けることとなりました。
現在のように、自顕流に関する書籍やDVD、インターネット映像が出回る遥か以前のことです。
稽古では主に伊藤先生、松尾壽也先生に師事し、一丁田四郎先生、東隆一先生からも教えを受けました。
自顕流は一見すると単純粗野に映る剣術ですが、実際に学ぶと誠に奥深く、これほど精緻な剣は、他の稽古生が行わない問いや行動を自ら起こし、体で探り続けなければ身につかぬものだと悟りました。
そのため私は常に伊藤先生の傍に付き、教えを請うようになりました。
初入門の日、伊藤先生から立木（横木打ち）を五百回ほど打たされました。
十代前半より他武術で鍛えた足腰には自信がありましたが、自顕流特有の筋肉に大きな負荷がかかり、羽田空港に着いた頃には全身に激しい筋肉痛が生じました。
その後一週間ほどは、そろそろと歩くのがやっとで、布団の上で体を動かすことすら苦痛だったことを、今も鮮明に覚えています。
特に感嘆したのは、伊藤先生の「立木打ち」と「抜き」、そして松尾先生の「抜き」でした。
伊藤先生の「意地と打ち」は、映像で見るものとはまったく異なり、苛烈な魂そのものを叩きつけるような打ちで、十年、二十年と稽古を重ねてもなお及ぶものではないと感じさせるものでした。
「抜き」は、木刀の刃を下に返してから抜く技ですが、伊藤先生の動作は、目の前で見ていても刃を返した瞬間が視認できないのです。
一方、松尾先生の「抜き」は肉体の動作というよりも、精密機械から木刀が高速で射出されるかのような印象を受けました。
忘れがたいのは、ある時、伊藤先生に稽古場とは別の場所へ私一人が呼ばれ、先生が若き日に鹿児島の剣道家と試合をし、勝利を収めた際の技を直々に教えていただいたことです。
これは、自顕流における太刀の「とり方」（自顕流には太刀の構えはなく、「とる」と言います）を工夫し、相手に打ち込ませぬ体勢から斬り込む技法でした。
鹿児島への訪問を重ね、技が徐々に身についてきた頃、ある師範から
「東京で稽古会、支部をやらんか」
と声をかけられましたが、私は丁重にお断りしました。
現在でも、鹿児島県外、関東地区の入門者に対し、鹿児島の師範から
「東京には宮本さんという古い人がいるから訪ねなさい」
と話されることがあるようですが、私は自顕流において指導者の立場ではないため、技の教授はすべて丁重に辞退しております。
