The school was founded at about time of the reign of Emperor Ōgimachi (1560-1586), probably during the late Sengoku or early Azuchi-Momoyama periods. Central figures in the creation of the Enshin Ryū were Hayami Nagato no Kami Enshin and Inugami Sakon no Shōgen Nagakatsu, a samurai from the Hikone area in the ancient kuni of Ōmi (present-day Shiga Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, at the time of Emperor Ōgimachi's reign, both men were members of the Hokumen no Bushi, a group of warriors appointed as Imperial Guards. Their main responsibility was to protect the emperor and the north gate of the Gosho (the Imperial palace in Kyoto).
Inugami Sakon no Shōgen Nagakatsu studied a kumiuchi system called Hyōhō Kumiuchi Kenden with kumiuchi specialist Hayami Nagato no Kami Enshin and combined this system with ”reiken”, the fighting style that was passed on in the house of Inugami. This new style, which the two probably developed together, was called Enshin Ryū, or Kumiuchi Hyōhō Enshin Ryū. Although Hayami Nagato no Kami Enshin taught Inugami Nagakatsu his kumiuchi system, he is not considered the founder of the ryūha as such, but is usually said to have been an ”advisor.”
Kumiuchi kenden can best be described as a system of armed battlefield grappling. Its exponents used both long and short swords in combination with grappling techniques. One noteworthy point about Hayami Nagato no Kami Enshin is that some sources claim he may somehow have been connected with the Takenouchi Ryū. It is difficult to verify to what extent this is true, and no reference to it can be found in documents of the Enshin Ryū. The Enshin Ryū was passed from Inugami Nagakatsu to his son, Inugami Kyūshinsai Nagatomo, who would become the second grandmaster and further develop the school.
Inugami Kyūshinsai Nagatomo and the Kyūshin Ryū
Inugami Nagatomo showed particular interest in techniques of a jūjutsu nature, and is accredited with having created his own style, called Kyūshin Ryū Jūjutsu. In the Yanagawa domain in Kyūshū this system was also taught under the name Kyūshin Ryū, but with different characters used to write the name.
According to its genealogy, Enshin Ryū was passed on to Ito Sukebei Shigekatsu (the third head), Ii Morimasa (fourth head), and Tanahashi Goei Yoshisada (fifth head).
Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu
Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu, the sixth head in the Enshin Ryū lineage and the fifth head in the Kyūshin Ryū, studied his ancestors’ style of kumiuchi and jūjutsu under his uncle, Tanahashi Goei Yoshisada, a samurai from the Hikone area. From the time of Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu onward, the history of the Enshin Ryū is rather obscure. Some sources have it that in the ninth year of Kyōhō (1724), at age nineteen, Nagayasu went to Kyoto, where he became a disciple of Taki no Yūken of the Kitō Ryū.
Probably under the influence of Taki no Yūken, Nagayasu developed his own system, which he continued under the name Kyūshin Ryū (although it is sometimes also referred to as Inugami Ryū Taijutsu). Inugami Gunbei was thus not the founder of the Kyūshin Ryū, as is often supposed, but he probably modified the system considerably. However, the late Kobashi Nichikan Masanori, previous head of the Enshin Ryū, believed that this ”renewed” Kyūshin Ryū was not developed by Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu, but by his brother Inugami Gundazaemon. To make matters even more complicated, Watanabe Ichirō claims that Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu and Inugami Gundazaemon are actually the same person, and that Nagayasu changed his name to Gundazaemon. However, Watanabe is not consistent, since in two separate articles he produced two different sets of dates for Inugami’s birth and death (in one article,1705-1780, and in another, 1701-1771). So the possibility remains that Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu and Inugami Gundazaemon were actually two different people afterall.
A number of schools were derived from this reinvigorated Kyūshin Ryū. These included Kyūshin Ryū kenpō, Ishikawa Kyūshin Ryū, and Eguchi Ryū Jūjutsu.
The Kyūshin Ryū continued at least through the Meiji period, but the school is no longer thought to exist.
Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu and Enshin Ryū through the present day
Inugami Gunbei Nagayasu was the sixth head of Enshin Ryū, but since his time there has been at least one generation in which it is not clear who succeeded as head of the Enshin Ryū. However, one or two generations later, the tradition was continued by Kobashi Shōbei Masahira, who incorporated Shindō Munen Ryū into it; therefore he is considered the “modifier” of Enshin Ryū. The school became more and more a sword school (iaijutsu and suemonogiri) and at the moment is mostly known and taught as such along several lines. Enshin Ryū’s old sword techniques and jūjutsu were not discarded, however. To distinguish the original tradition from the renewed one, the original is referred to as Koden Enshin Ryū.
Koden Enshin Ryū also includes, in addition to the "old” kenpō (sword method), kumiuchi kenden and kumiuchi hyōhō. The system was passed on from Kobashi Nichikan Masanori Sensei to only one disciple, his best student Tanaka Fumon, who at present occupies the position of eleventh head of the tradition (eleventh since Inugami Sakon no Shōgen Nagakatsu, and fourth in the renewed Enshin Ryū).
Today kumiuchi hyōhō is still taught, but only to those disciples who have sufficient experience in yawara, iaijutsu, and kenjutsu. Kumiuchi kenden,on the other hand, was rarely shown until quite recently, and then only to school insiders on special occasions. However, in order to preserve this system for future generations, Sōke Tanaka has started to teach Koden Enshin Ryū’s kumiuchi kenden to a very select group of disciples, including his daughter Tanaka Midori, who will most likely become his successor. If this happens, it will be the first time in the school’s history that a woman is head of the tradition.
Midori Shihan, as she is called in the dōjō, started her martial arts training at the age of nine. At first her training focused on Enshin Ryū’s iaijutsu and basic jūjutsu, which she studied under one of Tanaka—sensei's more advanced students; later she studied under her father as well. By age nineteen she had studied kenjutsu, naginatajutsu, bōjutsu, hanbōjutsu, and shurikenjutsu. She now holds the rank of kobudō shihan, and supervises lessons in the dōjō when Sōke Tanaka is absent.
description from the book "Classical Fighting Arts of Japan" by Serge Mol
Made proudly by Krzysztof Walla with Mobirise