Togo Shigekata (東郷重位, 1560- 1643) was a direct student of

Terasaka Yakuro Masatsune Akasaka Yakuro Masatsune (赤坂弥九郎政雅, 1567–1594) was a direct student of Kaneko Shinkuro Morisada, the second headmaster of the Tenshinsho Jigen Ryu. Akasaka is better known by his Buddhist dharma name- Zenkitsu (善吉, also read ...

, the third headmaster of the

Tenshinsho Jigen Ryu Tenshinsho Jigen Ryu Hyōhō (天眞正自源流兵法) is a koryu (ancient martial art) specializing in iaijutsu (quick-draw sword art) and kenjutsu (swordsmanship) founded by Tose Yosazaemon Osamune around the Eiroku Era (1558- 1570). The sy ...

(自顕, Jigen), and of

Marume Nagayoshi Marume Nagayoshi (丸目長恵, 1540–1629) was a retainer of the Sagara clan in the Sengoku period and a swordsman in the early Edo period. He was considered one of the best pupils of Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, and went on to found the Taisha ryū s ...

, founder of the Taisha Ryu.Togo was a samurai from the

Satsuma domain The , briefly known as the , was a Han system, domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of ...

credited with founding the Jigen Ryu (示現, Jigen).

Biography

Togo Shigekata was born in 1560 in Satsuma, Japan (current day

Kagoshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,527,019 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 9,187 Square kilometre, km2 (3,547 Square m ...

). He had his first battlefield experience in 1577 at the Battle of Mimigawa when he was seventeen years old. In his twenties, Togo came under the tutelage of Marume Nagayoshi, the founder the Taisha Ryu and quickly mastered the system where he was then initiated into the gokui (secrets) of the tradition. In 1588, Togo accompanied

Shimazu Yoshihiro was the second son of Shimazu Takahisa and the younger brother of Shimazu Yoshihisa. Traditionally believed to be the 17th head of the Shimazu clan, he was a skilled general during the Sengoku period who greatly contributed to the unificatio ...

(Lord of the Satsuma domain) to Kyoto where he met a Buddhist monk that went by the name of Zenkitsu. (Zenkitsu's given name was

) Zenkitsu was the chief priest of Tenneiji Temple and third headmaster of the Tenshisho Jigen Ryu. Under Zenkitsu's guidance, Togo mastered the Tenshinsho Jigen Ryu in less than a year. Togo would return to Satsuma where he trained in the Tenshinsho Jigen Ryu for three years before combining his studies to create the Jigen Ryu. Togo’s renaming of his school was based on an insight he gained by performing religious austerities (shugyo). While meditating on a section of the

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: ''Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram'', ''Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'', zh, p=Fǎhuá jīng, l=Dharma Flower Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. ...

, Shigekata became inspired by the phrase “jigen jintsuriki” (示現神通力, a sudden revelation of divine power). He therefore changed the characters of Jigen Ryu from jigen (自顕, self-power revelation) to a set of characters from the Buddhist text- jigen (示現, sudden revelation). In this sense, jigen indicates the use by a buddha of a “manifest form” in order to teach sentient beings. At the age of 44, Togo became the chief swordsmanship instructor for the Satsuma domain. Togo died in 1643.

References

{{Reflist Japanese martial artists Japanese swordfighters Samurai