An Empirical Study about the Spread of Kenjutsu Schools in the Rural Kanto Districts during Edo Era.

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26350731
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Developmental mechanisms and the body works
• Research Institution: Kogakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Kazuma Koji 工学院大学, 教育推進機構, 教授 (30204407)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 農村剣術 / 馬庭念流 / 大平真鏡流 / 八王子市犬目町齋藤家文書 / 中世武士 / 大衆化 / 不二心流 / 相馬弾正少弼

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study was to investigate how the kenjutsu schools had been maintained and were popularised by farmers in the rural Kanto districts although the farmers were legally prohibited to learn kenjutsu school by Edo shogunate. I recorded the documents of kenjutsu schools which are Maniwa-nen-ryu,Shinto-Munen-ryu,Fuji-Shin-ryu,Ohira-Shinkyo-ryu,Jiki-Shinkage-ryu and Hokushin-itto-ryu.In case of Maniwa-nen-ryu,Higichi family were once warriares in the 16th century,but they returned to the farm and started to teach kenjutsu school at Maniwa village in 17th century.In the 18th century,middle or upper class of farmers and ladies started to learn Maniwa-nen-ryu kenjutsu.Higuchi family had approximately 7,000 pupils from 1685 to 1815. Higuch family were called the master of Kenjutsu by Nitta Iwamatsu(koke family). The practice was doing Kata and the farmers regarded kendo as the way to keep their body and soul good condition not only as the way for self defence like in case of Fuji-shin-ryu.

Free Research Field

武道論