The Founder of Mugai Ryu
Mugai Ryu is a traditional style of Japanese swordsmanship created by Tsuji Gettan in 1693.
Tsuji Gettan was born in Omi, Koga in 1648. His given name, that he used throughout his youth, was Heinai. At 13 years of age he moved to Kyoto to begin his sword training under Yamaguchi Bokushinsai. Yamaguchi is known to be the founder of Yamaguchi-ryu swordsmanship. After receiving his instructor license (menkyo), Yamaguchi dispatched Heinai dispatched to Edo (now Tokyo) to open a dojo for Yamaguchi-ryu. At this time, he was only 26 years old at that time and seen as a lowly country kid. Despite being conveniently located in the Kojimachi district, his image hindered him to gather more than a handful of students.
Feeling a lack of education and maturity, Heinai left his dojo and began studying classical Chinese literature and Zen. His teacher was the buddhist pries Sekitan, who lived at Kyukoji temple in the Azabu district of Edo. After Sekitan’s passing, Heinai continued his Zen studies under Kanshu and attained enlightenment at 45 years of age. Kanshu gave Gettan a poem, which is written below, and signed it in Sekitan’s name.
Changing the Name
Around this time, Heinai changed his name to Gettan Sukemochi and decided to start his own swordsmanship style: Mugai Ryu. He took the name from the first line of the poem. His nearly twenty years of Zen training had changed Gettan. Leaving the simple swordsman image behind, he was now seen as a Zen practitioner and well conversed philosopher. Now he had met and conversed with a variety of visitors to Kyukoji. These include various lords (daimyo) such as Ogasawara Nagashige, the lord of Umayabashi, Sakai Tadataka, and the lord of Tosa, Yamanouchi Toyomasa.
In the 8th year of Genroku (1695), Gettan’s home burned to the ground in one of Edo’s many great fires. These consumed large areas of the city from time to time. As a result, the correct number of his students at this time is unclear. Nonetheless, records between the 9th year of Genroku (1696) and the 6th year of Hoei (1710) are known and show that Gettan’s students included daimyo from 32 houses. An agreed number talks about 356 students and an additional 930 students of the daimyos vassals.
Gettans Later Life
Gettan hopes to lead a life in pursuit of truth and as a result often refused daimyo requesting his instruction. Gettan later appointed his nephew and successor, Tsuji Uheita, as the headmaster of the Sakai family in the Umayabashi domain (later becoming part of the Himeji domain) as well the teacher of the Isezaki branch of the Sakai family and the Koromo domain’s Naito family. His adopted son and tertiary successor, Tsuji Tsukehide, was appointed master for the Yamanouchi family in Tosa.
At 61 years of age, Gettan was granted an audience with the fifth generation Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. Unfortunately, Tsunayoshi passed away before the formal meeting could be finalized. However, at that time in Japan’s history, a masterless (ronin) swordsman being granted an audience with the Shogun was an unprecedented achievement.
Gettan was a swordsman and zen practitioner who believed that sword and zen training were two sides of the same coin. He wrote about in detail in his manuscript, “Mugai Ryu Swordsmanship”. Concluding this treatise on his style of swordsmanship, Gettan writes: “Mugai Ryu is taught with zen principles at its roots, and it is my sincere, heartfelt hope that your study and understanding of zen will guide your practice of this art of swordsmanship.” Gettan had his students practice zen mediation, and without this practice they were not allowed to read Gettan’s writings on Mugairyu.
Tsuji Gettans Passing
Three months before his death, Gettan was drawn wearing a kesa (a Buddhist priest’s robes) holding a hossu (a whisk carried by a Buddhist priest), reinforcing the importance that he placed on zen training. In a separate picture, Gettan is wearing a kesa but is holding a wooden sword instead of a whisk. His piercing gaze is that of a true swordsman.
Gettan passed away in the 20th year of Kyoho (1727) having lived a life in pursuit of truth but without a family of his own. His passing was on the same month and same day as the passing of his zen teacher, Sekitan. It is said that he was sitting in mediation when he died at the age of 79 with prayer beads in his left hand and whisk in his right.
“Ippo jitsu mugai
Kenkon toku ittei
Suimo hono mitsu
Dochaku soku kosei”
“There is nothing but the one truth,
it is all-encompassing and everlasting,
the feather carried by the wind is this truth,
to experience harmony amid confusion
means enlightenment.”