Totsukawa Village is a pretty mysterious place. Remote as it was, cradled by nature in the inner Kii Peninsula, this little village was somehow the home of numerous legendary samurai and swordsmen. It’s also the birthplace of Japan’s most prominent Kendo practitioner, whose name has gone down in the sport’s history.
That legendary status continues today, as this town still produces some of the country’s best Kendo players. Only 0.6% of Kendo players are in the seventh ranking, aiming to make the eighth and final rank, and three of them are from Totsukawa Village. Why does this village keep producing top-notch swordsmen? Wanting to know the answer, we asked Mariko Yoshimi, of the Totsukawa Village Historical Folk Museum, and Toshiaki Hashitani, Level 7 Kendo practitioner.
There are several legends in Totsukawa Village. One of them can be found on the homepage: “The people of this town have, since time immemorial, been hunters, and thus have excelled at archery. They were the ‘mythical ravens’ who guided Emperor Jimmu to Yamato, and they aided Emperor Tenmu during the Jinshin Revolt in 672.” It’s recorded that their military prowess was recognized in the Middle Ages, and that they suppressed many uprisings during that time.
There aren’t any official documents recording history before the Siege of Osaka, so we can’t be sure how true that is, but according to Ms. Yoshimi, “The people of Totsukawa all had swords and spears, and seemed to be ready for battle at any time. There are some records showing that when Totsukawa residents went to the Edo Prefectural Governor’s Office, they wore samurai garb with two swords at their sides.” That may be true; Mr. Hashitani’s family had a sword and a spear in their home up until the middle of World War II, so maybe the “Totsukawa Country Samurai”, as the people of Totsukawa Village were called, really were part of a hot-blooded battalion.
In any case, they really began to make history at the end of the Edo period, when the 1863 Tenchūgumi Uprising brought them their fame.
“The Tenchūgumi Uprising happened five years before the Meiji Restoration. The Tenchū faction, who believed that the emperor should be in power and that foreigners should be expelled, sought to overthrow the shogun. They failed and were forced to retreat. One group of Totsukawa warriors in Kyoto chased down their fellows in the Tenchū faction and persuaded them to leave, believing that the Tenchū were operating under false orders. After that, the Tenchū were destroyed.”
Just before this incident, the Totsukawa Warriors were ordered to patrol the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and were headed to the capital. They continued their post until 1872, the fourth year of the Meiji period.
The year after the Tenchūgumi Uprising (1864), a literary and military arts hall was founded in the Totsukawa Township (it would later become Totsukawa Village in 1971). Why was that? “Perhaps because they thought that, since they were going to Kyoto, it would be good to receive an education,” said Ms. Yoshimi. The Totsukawa Township submitted a request to the Emperor Kōmei and were approved, which may have been a reward for their assistance during the Tenchūgumi Uprising.
Three years later, Shōgorō Nakai, a Totsukawa native and an expert at iai, or instantaneous sword drawing and sheathing, became the center of attention. While on duty at the Kyoto Imperial Palace, he became close friends with the famous samurai Ryōma Sakamoto and Shintarō Nakaoka. There are records of a letter between Sakamoto and Nakai, so they were likely good friends.
When Sakamoto and Nakaoka were assassinated in 1867, Nakai attacked the suspected killer and his compatriots out of vengeance. He ended up crossing swords with the Shinsen-gumi faction and being killed in battle.
By the way, it’s said that the assassin disguised himself as a Totsukawa samurai to get Sakamoto and Nakaoka to let their guard down, but the truth is shrouded in mystery.
After that, the literary and military arts hall continued to support the many skilled swordsmen who came out of Totsukawa Village.
“When Ryōzō Nakanuma, official Confucian tutor to Emperor Kōmei, built the hall, he sent his son to Totsukawa as an advisor to the swordsmanship division. At the time, Kyoto was in a state of turmoil, so I think maybe the hall became a refuge for those who fled the capital. So all of these feudal retainers from different parts of the country were gathered there, and we believe they taught the local children swordsmanship.”
One famous swordsman associated with Totsukawa’s literary and military arts hall was Kamejirō Nakai. Raised in the Nakahara area of Totsukawa Village, he’s known as an “unrivalled swordsman”, and in his later years he worked as a dormitory leader at the hall. His tale is told in the stories written by the famous novelist Ryōtarō Shiba, but, as Mr. Hashitani tells us, “We don’t know if they’re really true or not (laughs)”. Kamejirō’s legendary sword is supposedly in the care of a representative of the Naihara area.
Yoshinobu Nishi is another famous samurai associated with the hall. He is a Totsukawa Village native, a level 8 kendo master, and Vice President of the All Japan Kendo Federation.
“He’s Japan’s most prominent kendo practitioner, and students from all around Japan come to ask to train with him,” Hashitani told us. “In order to receive his coaching, though, you have to be prepared to fight to the death, because, as I like to say, when you practice kendo you are risking your life. If you are not prepared to do that then you may not cross swords with Nishi-sensei.”
The hall eventually became Nara Prefectural Totsukawa High School, but the school has a very strong kendo program which has won numerous titles over the years. Mr. Hashitani also works as an instructor there, as well as being the Totsukawa Kendo Club President, so he has helped many students of all ages make it to the national level. There are also a lot of people in the village who have experience practicing kendo, and at the Totsukawa Village Historical Folk Museum, two out of the six employees are or once were kendo practitioners. There was even a female employee who made it to level four. Ms. Fushimi, who is a Nara native, laughed as she said "I'm constantly told to say out of the center line." The center line is a crucial spot in Kendo.
Many of the members of the Totsukawa Kendo Club go to elite schools outside of the town when they move on to high school, so the Kendo Club at the high school only has three students. Thanks to the declining birth rate in Japan, there are only two junior high school students in the Totsukawa Kendo Club. The town’s tradition of producing legendary swordsman is in danger of extinction, but Mr. Hashitani doesn’t let that change how he teaches the Totsukawa Village style of Kendo.
“It’s not about fighting, or winning, or losing. If kendo can help the kids have bright futures, then that’s all that matters. I want them to participate in a kind of kendo that’s as grand as the ancient cedar trees at Tamaki Jinja Shrine. Because that’s what Totsukawa’s kendo is all about.”
One of Mr. Hashitani’s former students is actually a member of the Imperial Guard now. It might be hard to believe, but the tradition of the Totsukawa warriors protecting the emperor has continued from the Edo period even on to today.
Not much remains of the original interior of the literary and military arts hall, but there are lots of great artifacts left in the Totsukawa Village Historical Folk Museum, like hapi coats actually worn by the Tenchū faction; the sword carried by Shōgorō Nakai, which is so long an ordinary person wouldn’t even be able to draw it; and a copy of the letter from Ryoma Sakamoto to Nakai. You’ll have a great time checking out all of the relics of the history of Totsukawa’s warriors.
