Sakakibara Kenkichi

14 June 2026

Examining Sakakibara Kenkichi (榊原鍵吉, 1830–1894) and his relation to other famous swordsmen in Japan. People he worked with at the Kōbusho. People he trained under. People he taught. So many people attended his Jikishinkage-ryu dojo, I want to get a better sense of who his top students were, versus others who are not as central to his tutelage.

NOTE: This article got quite long, so I have moved much of its content into smaller pages that are linked to from here.

Tutelage from Odani Nobutomo

Sakakibara’s sword teacher was Odani Nobutomo (男谷精一郎信友). He entered Odani’s Azabu Mamiana dōjō in 1842 at thirteen. Because his family was too poor to pay for the staged licenses, Odani himself prepared and conferred menkyo kaiden on him gratis in 1849. The line he received and carried is the point of interest: sources uniformly call it Jiki Shinkage-ryū Odani-ha (直心影流男谷派).

Sakakibara’s formal training was Jiki Shinkage-ryū (直心影流) alone, and the biographies actually go out of their way to stress that he declined to train anywhere else. He entered Odani Nobutomo’s (男谷信友) dōjō at Mamiana in 1842 at thirteen, and when Odani urged him to transfer to a nearer well-known school — the Genbukan, Shigakukan, or Renpeikan — Sakakibara refused, saying that having once entered he would not move elsewhere, and kept attending. Odani granted him menkyo kaiden in 1849. However, the Odani dōjō brought in Numazu-han jūjutsu instructors Kashiwazaki Matashirō (柏崎又四郎) and Aizawa Katsuyuki (藍澤勝之) to teach Totsuka-ha Yōshin-ryū (戸塚派楊心流), and Sakakibara learned it alongside the other students. This seems to indicate by 1850, any yawara associated to Jiki Shinkage-ryū itself was no longer a major portion of its curriculum (if it ever existed).

Fellow Disciples

Under Odani, his notable fellow disciples were Shimada Toranosuke (島田虎之助), who was Katsu Kaishū’s sword teacher, along with Mitsuhashi Torazō (三橋虎蔵) and Yokokawa Shichirō (横川七郎), and Amano Hachirō (天野八郎), the Shōgitai leader. These are the “great names” he sits beside laterally, through Odani rather than his own dōjō.

Professional Career

Odani recommended him in 1856 as one of the founding kenjutsu instructors of the Kōbusho. Sakakibara went on to serve as Kōbusho kenjutsu shihan-yaku and later was the head of the Yūgekitai. He was Tokugawa Iemochi’s personal fencing instructor and traveled with him during Iemochi’s Kyoto/Osaka period.

From 1856 to 1866 Sakakibara taught at the Kōbusho. The academy opened in Ansei 3 (1856) with Odani Nobutomo as tōdori, and was abolished in the eleventh month of Keiō 2 (1866), absorbed into the Rikugunsho; Sakakibara served there as kenjutsu shihan-yaku, having inherited the Jiki Shinkage-ryū Odani-ha from Odani Nobutomo.

In 1863 he accompanied the shogun’s procession to Kyoto, fighting at Nijō Castle and reportedly cutting down Tosa rōnin at Shijō-gawara. There was a second travel south by sea over the New Year of 1864, returning to Edo in the fifth month of 1864. In 1865 Sakakibara was in the Kansai for the Chōshū campaign, and when Iemochi died at Osaka Castle in the seventh month of Keiō 2 (1866), he returned to Edo.

In Keiō 2 (1866), under the bakufu’s military reform, Sakakibara was transferred to Yūgekitai tōdori (head of the Yūgekitai), but soon resigned and set up a dojo at his Shitaya Kurumazaka residence, and devoted himself to teaching swordsmanship. This is around the time the Kōbusho was reorganized into the Rikugunsho. After Iemochi died at Osaka Castle, he had no inclination to serve his successor, Yoshinobu.

In 1868 at the battle of Ueno, Sakakibara did not join the Shōgitai despite repeated invitations, but guarded the Rinnōji-no-miya prince (the later Kitashirakawa-no-miya Yoshihisa), cut down several Tosa samurai, and with a Yamashita bathhouse keeper carried the prince in turns to Mikawajima before returning to his Kurumazaka dojo.

He then followed Tokugawa Iesato as the Tokugawa relocated to Sunpu. The domain itself was created in the fifth month of 1868. On the 24th of the fifth month, Tokugawa Iesato was granted some 700,000 koku in Suruga, Tōtōmi and Mutsu, and the domain was established — the Suruga-Fuchū domain (駿河府中藩), formed in the fifth month of Keiō 4 (1868), later renamed Shizuoka-han. The grant followed Yoshinobu’s confinement after Toba-Fushimi and the Edo Castle surrender, and it came essentially alongside the Battle of Ueno (fifth month, 1868) — so Sakakibara’s rescue of the Rinnōji-no-miya prince at Ueno sits just days before the domain was settled.

The physical move came over the following months. Iesato entered the domain about two months before the Sunpu/Shizuoka Gakumonjo opened — i.e. around mid-1868, the academy opening that autumn. Following Iesato, large numbers of former bakufu retainers migrated from Edo to Sunpu, boarding steamships at Yokohama, landing at Shimizu, and heading for the castle town — most of them as muroku ijū, relocating without any guarantee of stipend.

In 1869 Sakakibara was in Shizuoka with the Tokugawa relocation; he returned to Tokyo in Meiji 3 (1870), and declined a Meiji-government post as Gyōbushō daikeibu, recommending his brother Ōsawa Tetsusaburō in his place. He returned to Tokyo in 1870.

Famous Students

Yamada Jirōkichi

The documented inner circle of Sakakibara as a teacher of Jiki Shinkage-ryū is very small, even though his Kuruma-zaka (車坂) dōjō was large and the gekiken-kōgyō pulled in impoverished swordsmen at scale. Yamada Jirōkichi (山田次朗吉, 1863–1930), however, is viewed as his successor.

On New Year’s Day 1894 Sakakibara conferred menkyo kaiden on him as 15th-generation head and handed over the dōjō; Sakakibara died that September. He wrote the Nihon Kendō Shi (1925) and Kashima-shinden Jiki Shinkage-ryū (1929).

In addition to Sakakibara, Yamada Jirōkichi studied kata under the Fujikawa-ha. Shimada Hiroshi’s (島田宏) Ittokusai Yamada Jirōkichi Den (一徳斎山田次朗吉伝), published by the Hitotsubashi Kenyūkai in 1931 — the year after Yamada’s death mentions practice under a man named Yamada Hachirō. Ishigaki Anzō later claims in Gekken-kai Shimatsu (撃劔会始末, 2000) that Yamada Jirōkichi studied under Saitō Akinobu instead.

Takeda Sōkaku

Daitō-ryū Aiki-Jūjutsu history mentions Sakakibara. Takeda Sōkaku (武田惣角, 1859–1943), according to his family’s tradition, became a live-in student (uchi-deshi) of Sakakibara in Jiki Shinkage-ryū in his late teens. Takeda is best remembered as the de facto reviver or founder of Daitō-ryū aiki-jūjutsu. There is little independent verification of his visit there.

Aikidō researchers feel his sword work was more influenced by Ono-ha Ittō-ryū and his time in Kuruma-zaka was spent largely in shiai. Some lines of Daitō-ryū claim to preserve portions of Jiki Shinkage-ryū hōjō, others the use of the heavy furibō used in Jiki Shinkage-ryū.

Matsuoka Katsunosuke

Another famous jūjutsu founder is Matsuoka Katsunosuke (松岡克之助, 1836–1898), whose Shindō Yōshin-ryū (新道楊心流, later written 神道楊心流) jūjutsu influenced Wadō-ryū karate. Matsuoka studied Jiki Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu under Sakakibara at the Kōbusho. The second son of a Kuroda-han (Fukuoka) physician, he studied several martial traditions and operated a school in Hitachi.

End Notes

There are many other famous aspects of Sakakibara’s life, including:

  1. The gekiken-kōgyō (官許撃剣興行; “officially-licensed fencing performances”) Sakakibara organized at Asakusa Saemon-gashi, backed by the Tokyo governor Ōkubo Ichiō, was modeled on sumo staging — a board ring, east/west sides, three-bout matches, a referee — and was hugely popular before a glut of imitators led to a Tokyo ban that July.
  2. In the 1887 imperial-viewing kabuto-wari, three men attempted it before Emperor Meiji at the Fushimi-no-miya residence — Hemmi Sōsuke and Ueda Umanosuke, both Momoi/Shigakukan men, who failed — and Sakakibara, who cut about three sun five bu into the helmet with a Dōtanuki blade.

References

Sources are tiered by evidentiary weight. Encyclopedic and Wikipedia entries serve as starting references for these well-documented figures; the monographs below are recommended for firmer footing on contested points.

Reference works & encyclopedias

  • “Sakakibara Kenkichi” (榊原鍵吉), Kōdansha Nihon Jinmei Daijiten and Nihon Daihyakka Zensho (Nipponica), via Kotobank. — Network, Kōbusho, transfer to 遊撃隊頭取 (Keiō 2 / 1866), gekiken-kōgyō, kabuto-wari.
  • National Diet Library, Kindai Nihonjin no Shōzō (国立国会図書館「近代日本人の肖像」), “Sakakibara Kenkichi.” — Career outline and dates; confirms the 遊撃隊頭取 transfer at the Kōbusho’s 1866 closure.
  • “Shimada Toranosuke” (島田虎之助), Heibonsha Sekai Daihyakka Jiten (entry by Nakabayashi Shinji) and Kōdansha Nihon Jinmei Daijiten, via Kotobank. — Biography, Odani tutelage, ken-shin itchi (剣心一致).
  • “Totsuka Hikosuke” (戸塚彦介), Nihon Daihyakka Zensho (Nipponica), via Kotobank. — Dates (1813–1886), Numazu-han, “father of early-modern randori,” Kōbusho jūjutsu.
  • “Kanō Jigorō” (嘉納治五郎), Nihon Daihyakka Zensho, via Kotobank. — Iikubo Tsunetoshi as his Kitō-ryū teacher.
  • “Shōgitai” (彰義隊), JapanKnowledge (Nihon Daihyakka Zensho / Sekai Daihyakka Jiten / Kokushi Daijiten). — Formation, Ueno, disbandment.
  • “Takahashi Deishū” (高橋泥舟), NDL Kindai Nihonjin no Shōzō. — Dates (1835–1903), offices, Three Boats of the bakumatsu.

Kōbusho Scholarship

  • Wakadoshiyori Mōshiwatashi (若年寄申渡), in “Ansei 3 Gosho-tsukemen 7” (安政三年御書付面 七), held in the 東京大学史料編纂所 (Historiographical Institute, University of Tokyo) database.
  • Nakamura Tamio (中村民雄) — the scholar you already use. Beyond the Fukushima Daigaku papers (the “幕末関東剣術流派伝播形態の研究” series, (1) no. 61 1996 and (2) no. 66 1999), his Kendō Jiten: Gijutsu to Bunka no Rekishi (剣道事典 技術と文化の歴史, 島津書房) is the standard reference for this milieu.
  • Enomoto Shōji (榎本鐘司), Nanzan University — Budōgaku Kenkyū papers on bakumatsu shinai-match kenjutsu and the formation of modern kendō, which treat the Kōbusho’s role directly.
  • Watanabe Ichirō (渡辺一郎) — Bakumatsu Kantō Kenjutsu Eimeiroku no Kenkyū (幕末関東剣術英名録の研究), built on the Man’en 1 (1860) register of Edo swordsmen, and editor of Kendō no Rekishi (剣道の歴史, 全日本剣道連盟編). The 英名録 is close to a census of the Kōbusho-era Edo kenjutsu world.

Japanese Wikipedia (starting references)

  • 「榊原鍵吉」「彰義隊」「上野戦争」 — Sakakibara’s career; Shōgitai formation (Shibusawa / Amano), Ōmura’s assault, Kōbusho-style dress.
  • 「戸塚彦介」「楊心古流」「戸塚派楊心流柔術」 — Totsuka-ha character; the 56-technique Hisatomi randori set.
  • 「嘉納治五郎」「起倒流」 — Iikubo (Takenaka-ha, menkyo 1856); Kitō-ryū as throw-centric.
  • 「伊庭八郎」 — Yūgekitai origin (okuzume-shū), Hakone campaign, Iba’s Shingyōtō-ryū / Renbukan house.
  • 「島田虎之助」 — the 松平忠敬 patron detail (read against the chronology note in the Shimada section above).
  • 「高橋泥舟」「山岡鉄舟」 — Deishū as Yūgekitai tōdori and Kōbusho spear shihan; the Tesshū link and deferred Saigō mission.

Government / museum records

  • Chiba City / Chiba Prefecture cultural-property pages for the Totsuka Yōshin-ryū founders’ graves (戸塚彦介英俊). — Totsuka biography and lineage.

Monographs

  • Iwashita Tetsunori (岩下哲典), Yamaoka Tesshū・Takahashi Deishū (山岡鉄舟・高橋泥舟), Minerva Shobō (ミネルヴァ書房), 2023. — Scholarly treatment of Deishū and the bloodless surrender.
  • Nomura Toshio (野村敏雄), Iba Hachirō (伊庭八郎), PHP Bunko. — Iba and the Yūgekitai (popular biography).
  • For the Iikubo / Motoyama detail: a Kōdōkan-published Kanō history, or Maruyama Sanzō (丸山三造), Dai Nippon Jūdō Shi (『大日本柔道史』) — corroborate Motoyama Shōō (本山正翁) as Kōbusho Kitō-ryū kyōju-kata.
  • Regarding Shinsengumi: Shinsengumi Nagakura Shinpachi: Ko Sugimura Yoshie no Sōnen Jidai (新撰組永倉新八：故杉村義衛の壮年時代), edited by his son Sugimura Gitarō (杉村義太郎) in Otaru,