Marume Nagayoshi (丸目長恵, 1540–1629) was a retainer of the

Sagara clan The Sagara clan (相良氏, ''Sagara-shi'') was a Japanese samurai clan of daimyos. They were a tactical ally of the Shimazu clan. In the Edo period, they became the daimyo of the Hitoyoshi Domain and ruled until the Meiji Restoration. After t ...

in the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

and a swordsman in the early

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. He was considered one of the best pupils of

Kamiizumi Nobutsuna Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, (上泉信綱), born Kamiizumi Ise-no-Kami Fujiwara-no-Hidetsuna, (c.1508 – 1572/1577) was a samurai in Japan's Sengoku period famous for creating the Shinkage-ryū school of combat. He is also well known as Kamiizumi Iseno ...

, and went on to found the Taisha ryū school. He was sometimes known as Kurandonosuke and also as Ishimi Mamoru, but was best known as Marume Nagayoshi, which he was called in

kōdan is a style of traditional oral Japanese storytelling. The form evolved out of lectures on historical or literary topics given to high-ranking nobles of the Heian period, changing over the centuries to be adopted by the general samurai class and e ...

. His original name was Fujiwara, and his art name was Tessai. In his later years he shaved his head and went by the name of Ishimi Nyūdō Tessai.

Life

Marume was born in 1540 in Yatsushiro District, Higo Province (modern-day Hitoyoshi,

Yatsushiro is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Geography Located at the geographic center of Kyushu, Yatsushiro City is situated on the aptly named Yatsushiro Sea in between Kumamoto and Ashikita City. Climate Yatsushiro has a humid subtro ...

City,

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture to ...

). His father was Marume Yozaemon and it is said that his mother was a woman from Akaike Izu. When the

Satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a sou ...

army attacked Ōhata in 1555, he fought alongside his father, earning recognition for his military prowess in his first battle. They both received the name ''Marume'', their former one said to have been ''Yamamoto''. In 1556, he underwent military training by Amakusa Izu Mamoru, the lord of Amakusa Province and Hondo Castle. He went to

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

in 1558, studying

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

under Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, the founder of

Shinkage-ryū ' meaning "new shadow school", is a traditional school ('' koryu'') of Japanese martial arts, founded by Kamiizumi Ise-no-Kami Fujiwara-no-Hidetsuna, later Kamiizumi Ise-no-Kami Nobutsuna Friday, Karl ''Legacies of the sword'', page 24. Univers ...

. Later on, when the

Muromachi The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

'',

Ashikaga Yoshiteru , also known as Yoshifushi or Yoshifuji, was the 13th ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1546 to 1565 during the late Muromachi period of Japan. He was the eldest son of the 12th ''shōgun'', Ashikaga Yoshiharu, and his mother ...

, saw a fencing performance by Kamiizumi with which Marume assisted, Yoshiteru gave them both a letter of commendation. They gave the same demonstration to

Emperor Ōgimachi was the 106th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from November 17, 1557, to his abdication on December 17, 1586, corresponding to the transition between the Sengoku period and the Azuchi–Momoyama per ...

, and so the Honchō bugei shōden records Nagayoshi as being a warrior of the north side of the imperial court, although it has not been confirmed as to whether he actually was in imperial service. Returning to his home town, Nagayoshi taught the Shinkage-ryū style for the Sagara clan. In 1566, he once again went to Kyoto taking along his students Marume Jusai, Marume Kihē and Kino Kurōzaemon, but Kamiizumi was visiting his native

Kōzuke Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Gunma Prefecture. Kōzuke bordered by Echigo, Shinano, Musashi and Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Kōzuke was ran ...

at the time. Nagayoshi put up notices at

Mount Atago ''Mount Atago is a very common name for peaks all over Japan.'' is a 924m mountain in the northwestern part of Ukyo-ku, in the city of Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an islan ...

, Seigan-ji temple and

Kiyomizu-dera is a Buddhist temple located in eastern Kyoto, Japan. The temple is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) UNESCO World Heritage site. History Kiyomizu-dera was founded in the early Heian period. By 77 ...

temple. They challenged martial artists and passersby to a real sword fight with swordsman from the best style in all the land, but nobody came forward and Nagayoshi returned home without taking having a duel. In 1567, Kamiizumi, who had learnt of what happened in Kyoto, awarded him (under the name Kamiizumi Isenokami Nobutsuna) a

menkyo is a Japanese term meaning "license." It refers to the license to teach used by practitioners of various Japanese classical arts and martial arts certifying some license within the school or ryū. The ''menkyo'' system dates back to the 8th cen ...

kaiden that recognised Nagayoshi as 'master of the killing sword' and 'master of the life-saving sword'. Once again returning home, Nagayoshi performed government service for the Sagara clan, but when

Shimazu Iehisa was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period, who was a member of the Shimazu clan of Satsuma Province. He was the fourth son of Shimazu Takahisa. He served in a command capacity during his family's campaign to conquer Kyūshū. His sons were S ...

of the

Shimazu clan The were the ''daimyō'' of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan. The Shimazu were identified as one of the '' tozama'' or outsider ''daimyō'' familiesAppert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888). in contrast ...

attacked Ōkuchi Castle, the Sagara clan, for whom Nagayoshi was choosing strategy, were defeated. Many officers and soldiers were killed, and Ōkuchi Castle was taken. After this defeat, Sagara placed the blame on Nagayoshi's shoulders, sentencing him to the severe punishment of ''hissoku'', a kind of house arrest. His dreams of becoming a military commander effectively ended. Following this, Nagayoshi focussed exclusively on swordsmanship. He defeated different schools across Kyushu, and when Kamiizumi learnt of this he entrusted Nagayoshi as the teacher of Shinkage-ryū in western Japan. Nagayoshi once again travelled to Kyoto along with his students to study Kamiizumi's newly developed techniques, but upon their arrival he had already died. It is said that a dejected Nagayoshi returned home and, after several years of training night and day, he opened his 'Taisha ryū' school. The Sagara, who had already surrendered to the Shimazu, now only controlled Kuma District in Higo Province and had also sworn allegiance to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1587, the disfavour towards Nagayoshi had eased, and he once more began to serve under the Sagara clan, being paid 117

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

as an initial salary to teach his Taisha ryū style. Taisha ryū spread throughout Kyushu, and not only amongst members of the Sagara clan, but also many members of other clans. Among them were the military commanders Kamachi Akihiro and Tachibana Muneshige, with secret techniques being passed on to the former. In his later years, Nagayoshi assumed the art name 'Tessai', and it is said he spent his life reclusively, whilst pursuing the cultivation of Kiriharano (in Nishiki). Nagayoshi had ability not only in kenjutsu, but also

sōjutsu , meaning "art of the spear", is the Japanese martial art of fighting with a . Origins Although the spear had a profound role in early Japanese mythology, where the islands of Japan themselves were said to be created by salt water dripping fro ...

naginatajutsu is the Japanese martial art of wielding the . The naginata is a weapon resembling the medieval European glaive and the Chinese guan dao. Most naginatajutsu practiced today is in a modernized form, a ''gendai budō'', in which competitions al ...

equestrianism Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, Driving (horse), driving, and Equestrian vaulting, vaulting ...

shuriken A ''shuriken'' ( ja, 手裏剣; literally: "hidden hand blade") is a Japanese concealed weapon that was used as a hidden dagger or metsubushi to distract or misdirect. They are also known as throwing stars, or ninja stars, although they were ...

and

ninjutsu , sometimes used interchangeably with the modern term , is the martial art strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage purportedly practised by the ninja. ''Ninjutsu'' was a separate discipline in some tradit ...

. It is also said that Nagayoshi was a man of culture who excelled in things like

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

, waka, dancing and the flute. He died in 1629. His grave is in Kiriharano Dōzan, Nishiki, Kuma District, Kumamoto.

Life

References

See also