Japanese Swordsmanship
The Gassankan ("Moon Mountain Hall") maintains a practice of related approached to Japanese swordsmanship dating back to the late Muromachi period of Japan.
Lonin League Kagami Biraki
2021 Summer Keiko
Mark Raugas trained at the Hōbyōkan from 2008 to 2016, receiving a chuden menjo in 2018, after which he began working with a small number of students in Seattle.
Update: Shin-no-shinkage Heihō [
Weekly kata practice is led by Jake Harlin and Nicky Sayah Sina at Lonin League — inquiries can be made through that website.
Resources
☰ Masters of Jiki Shinkage-ryū
September 2025
Survey of contemporary research on the transmission of Jiki Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu.
☰ From Kodachi to Kogusoku
June 2025
Examining the role of kodachi kata in the progression of skill in Jiki Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu, with a description of application to close quarter armed grappling.
☰ Raito and Sente
June 2025
Examining the relationship between combative posture and initiative in a portion of Jiki Shinkage-ryū. What is first observed may be quite different from hidden layers of meaning and practice.
☰ Enren: Circling Continuously
February 2025
An example of the deconstruction of kata. Kuzushi is the name for the activity of pulling apart and analyzing kata in Shinkage-ryū, making connections between different parts of its curriculum. It also at times can refer to sudden, spontaneous, change.
☰ Hōjō ken Kokoro-e sho
December 2024
Text on Jiki Shinkage-ryū Hōjō (foundational) swordsmanship, provided for reference based on Jiki Shinkage-ryū Sōhonbu and Hōbyōkan material. This is typically chanted or recited before performance of the Hōjō kata of Jiki Shinkage-ryū.
☰ Divergence and Unification in Shinkage-ryū
September 2024
Link to an essay on kata, heiho and shugyo, where I compare and contrast different surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū and reflect on my own practice.
☰ General Qi Jiguans's Jixiao Xinshu and Reflections on Claims of Martial Virtue
February 2023
An essay published at Kogen Budo, where I look at some older writings from Japanese koryū that reference classical Chinese military treatises, and then examine how practices described in those works may be represented in arts surviving today.
☰ Jiki Shinkage-ryū in Japan
January 2023
Links to some representative video of Jiki Shinkage-ryū as practiced in Japan.
☰ Overview of Practice
September 2021
I provide some information on the organization, goals, and overal training context of our efforts at preserving a practice of Jiki Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu (heihō) and related arts as part of the Gassankan.
☰ Cultivating Skill in Internal Arts
May 2011
A brief discussion of power generation in internal martial arts.