The were a family of ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

s'' (feudal lords) with lands just outside

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

, who became the heads of one of Japan's greatest schools of swordsmanship,

Yagyū Shinkage-ryū is one of the oldest Japanese schools of swordsmanship (''kenjutsu''). Its primary founder was Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, who called the school Shinkage-ryū. In 1565, Nobutsuna bequeathed the school to his greatest student, Yagyū Munetoshi, who ...

. The Yagyū were also

Kenjutsu is an umbrella term for all ('' ko-budō'') schools of Japanese swordsmanship, in particular those that predate the Meiji Restoration. Some modern styles of kendo and iaido that were established in the 20th century also included modern forms ...

teachers to the

Tokugawa shōguns Tokugawa may refer to: *Tokugawa era, an alternative term for the Edo period, 1603 to 1868 *Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime of Japan during the Edo period **Tokugawa clan, a powerful family of Japan ***Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), most nota ...

and descendant of the famous

Taira clan The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divide ...

, hailing from prestigious Imperial Lineage with the

Kabane were Japanese hereditary noble titles. Their use traces back to ancient times when they began to be used as titles signifying a family's political and social status. History As the national unification by the Yamato imperial court progressed ...

rank of ''Ason''. Yagyū Muneyoshi (1527-1606), the first famous Yagyū swordsman, fought for a number of different lords before meeting

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

, the first Tokugawa shōgun. In 1563, he was defeated by the great swordsman Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, praised as one of the very few ''Kensei'' throughout Japan. Humbled by his defeat, Muneyoshi became Nobutsuna's disciple, and was later named his successor, founding the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū school of swordsmanship. In 1594, Muneyoshi was invited to Tokugawa Ieyasu's mansion in Kyoto, where he provided such an incredible display of sword skills that the warlord asked that the Yagyū become sword instructors to the Tokugawa family. Among other things, Muneyoshi demonstrated Shinkage-ryū techniques of sword catching on Ieyasu himself, to convince him his martial art was no hoax. Muneyoshi suggested that his son Munenori be Ieyasu's teacher; Muneyoshi then retired from swordsmanship, and died in 1606, by which time Ieyasu had become shōgun. It was at this time also that the Yagyū swordsmanship school split in two, Munenori and his nephew Toshiyoshi each becoming the hereditary heads of the Owari and

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

schools of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū. The Nara area bears many memorials to the Yagyū family, and their family graveyard lies on the grounds of the Hōtoku-ji where once Yagyū clan's main bastion Yagyū Castle was. Perhaps the most interesting one is a rock called Ittō-seki, probably split by lightning, which Muneyoshi is supposed to have cut in half with his sword. The ''

mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * A ...

'' (crest) of the Yagyū family was a wide-brimmed black hat with ties.

Notable members of the Yagyū family

* Yagyū Muneyoshi (1527–1606)- founder of the swordsmanship school and first of the family to earn significant power and prestige. ** Yagyū Toshikatsu (柳生厳勝) (?–?) – the eldest son of Muneyoshi and father of Toshiyoshi. *** Yagyū Toshiyoshi - head of the Owari branch of the swordsmanship school, which served the junior branch of the Tokugawa family, based in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

. ** Yagyū Tajima-no-kami Taira-no-Munenori (1571–1646) – first swordsmanship ''sensei'' to the Tokugawa, and head of the Edo branch of the swordsmanship school. *** Yagyū Jūbē Taira-no-Mitsutoshi (–1650) – one of the most famous and romanticized samurai in history, Jūbē was the head of the Edo branch of the swordsmanship school and instructor to shōgun

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

. Although very strong, talented and known throughout the land because of his social status, it seems Jūbē didn't like his job. In training, he struck Hidetada with his boken instead of stopping his wooden blade before contact, since it was the custom among swordsmen from the same Dōjō. For someone else, it would have been preposterous, but it was Jūbē's job to do as he thought fit. Thus, Yagyū Jūbē got fired, and history almost lost his tracks. Because he was also the heir of Munenori as a

Daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

, Jūbē could not be condemned to

Seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...

, neither just become a wandering Rōnin, so is thought to have played a role in the Bakufu's secret police, and the reason why he was so romanticized. ***Yagyū Samon Taira-no-Tomonori – one of two younger brothers to Jūbē, he replaced his elder as the Shōgun's training partner after he got fired, but Samon died of illness some years later. ***

Yagyū Munefuyu was a '' daimyō'' and a teacher of kenjutsu and military strategy in Japan during the Edo period. His highest-ranking pupil was Tokugawa Ietsuna, fourth Tokugawa '' shōgun''. Munefuyu, who also went by the name Matajūrō, was the third son ...

- among the 3 sons of Munenori, Munefuyu was the less gifted in martial arts, he is also remembered as a womanizer and a Noh amateur. A kōan says how he became far stronger than average the swordsman by staying always alert with ''Zanshin'', always prepare to fight. Despite of that, he was defeated in a single strike by Yagyū Renya in an official contest. *Yagyū Hyōgonosuke Taira-no-Toshitoshi – 3rd Sōke of Owari Yagyū line. Beloved grandchild of Sekishūsai, his gifts in martial arts allowed him to inherit Shinkage-ryū instead of his uncle Munenori, the Shōgun's own instructor. **Yagyū Renya Taira-no-Toshikane (a.k.a. ''Yagyū Renyasai'') – 5th Sōke of the Owari Yagyū, very famous in his time as a child prodigy, and both a master of the pen and the sword ( ''Bunbu Ryōdō''). Renya and his father slightly modified the teachings of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū to take into account the change in warfare, caused by the fact samurai almost no longer fought in armours or in battle, but mainly in duels with civilian clothes : this was called ''Tsuttattaru Mi'' (Heihō without Armor). In the Edo period, Renya was also very famous for having kill in one stroke of his wakizashi someone who attacked him in the night. The so-called wakizashi was a blade of peculiar design forged by famous Japanese swordsmith Hata Mitsuyo, because of this, the blade was nicknamed ''Onibōchō'' ( Oni kitchen knife). *Yagyū Kōichi Taira-no-Toshinobu,

Sōke , pronounced , is a Japanese term that means "the head family ouse" In the realm of Japanese traditional arts, it is used synonymously with the term ''iemoto''. Thus, it is often used to indicate "headmaster" (or sometimes translated as "head of ...

(headmaster) of

since 2006, from the main line of ''Owari Yagyū''. ''*Each change in ranking in this list indicates a father-son relationship (a change in generation).''

References

*De Lange, William (2019). 'The Remarkable History of the Yagyu Clan'. New York: TOYO Press. *Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.

Notable members of the Yagyū family

References

Further reading