Takenouchi ryu is still active today in
Japan, having been guided by one successor
after another for twelve generations. It is
generally held to have been founded by a
samurai of high rank, Hisamori (later and
better known as Takeuchi Toichiro), sometime
between 1526 and 1546. Takeuchi is said to
have developed a substantial number of
armed and unarmed martial arts techniques
where he emphasized the use of
immobilization (osae-waza), which were
organized systematically into five "keys" or
groups (go-kyu).
Takeuchi taught these and other "keys," as
well as techniques of combat based upon the
use of daggers (all particularly effective at
close range). The techniques of his school
proved to be extremely effective, and
countless warriors flocked to his dojo.
According to the scrolls and manuscripts
(makimono) which form the records of this
jujitsu school, Takeuchi's son was requested
to perform techniques from his father's
program of instruction (which included more
than six hundred techniques) before Emperor
Gomizuno (1611-29). After the performance,
the emperor bestowed upon the art the title of
"supreme and unsurpassed art of combat" (hi-
no-shita toride-kaizan).
The vital question was always: "Does it work;
is it effective in combat?" The answer was
concretely provided by the results of
individual duels and public competitions
among the members of the various jujitsu
schools. The harshness of these encounters
and their frequently lethal conclusions are
vividly portrayed in E. J. Harrison's work, The
Fighting Spirit of Japan. Such a process of
qualification (one might say elimination)
through practical testing, insured a continuous
striving to perfect both the tactics and the
strategic ways of employing them. It also
established the reputations of those schools
where that strategic perfection was highly
pronounced. There were innumerable jujitsu
schools which developed extremely effective
methods of combat through the skilled
adaptation of the principle of ju to their
techniques. The following are mentioned
prominently (among many others) in
chronicles dealing with Japanese martial arts
as having been notable jujitsu schools: the
Tenjin-Shinyo ryu, the Takenouchi ryu, the
Daito ryu, and the Kito ryu.
The Principles of “Atemi”
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