The Revival of the Takeda School in the Nineteenth Century

After the ravages of the civil war in the sixteenth century, which undoubtedly affected the transmission of the Takeda martial arts, the genryu (original line) remained hidden in the shadows of history for almost three hundred years. Takeda Ryu Aikijutsu did not emerge again until after a historically decisive change occurred during the Meji restoration, and after the government had prohibited the wearing of swords in 1876. Its teachings came to life again when, in the forty-first generation of Takeda Ryu, the era of Takeda Tadakatsu, a few young men formed an association of nationalists called Genyosha (Association of the Black Ocean) and started to practice Aikijutsu. In its forty-second generation, the school was headed by Nakamura Kichio who belonged to the Genyosha but also to Uchida Ryohei’s Kokuryukai (Black Dragon Society). After him, it was Oba Ichio who became the head of the forty-third generation.