Yagyū Munenori
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Yagyū Munenori (柳生宗矩?) (1571 - May 11, 1646) was a Japanese swordsman, founder of the Edo branch of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, which he learned from his father Yagyū "Sekishusai" Muneyoshi. This was one of two official sword styles patronized by the Tokugawa Shogunate (the other one being Ittō-ryū). Munenori began his career in the Tokugawa administration as a hatamoto, a direct retainer of the Tokugawa house, and later had his income raised to 10,000 koku, making him a minor fudai daimyo (vassal lord serving the Tokugawa), with landholdings around his ancestral village of Yagyū-zato. He also received the title of Tajima no Kami (但馬守).
Munenori entered the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu at a young age, and later was an instructor of swordsmanship to Ieyasu's son Hidetada. Still later, he became one of the primary advisors of the third shogun Iemitsu.
Shortly before his death in 1606, Sekishusai passed the leadership of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū to his grandson Toshiyoshi.[1] Following a period of musha shugyō, Toshiyoshi entered the service of a cadet branch of the Tokugawa clan that controlled the Owari province. Toshiyoshi's school was based in Nagoya and came to be called Owari Yagyū-ryū (尾張柳生流), while Munenori's, in Edo, the Tokugawa capital, came to be known as Edo Yagyū-ryū (江戸柳生流). Takenaga Hayato, the founder of the Yagyū Shingan-ryū, was a disciple of Yagyū Munenori and received gokui (secret teachings) of the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū from him.
In about 1632, Munenori completed the Heihō kadensho, a treatise on practical Shinkage-ryū swordsmanship and how it could be applied on a macro level to life and politics. The text remains in print in Japan today, and has been translated a number of times into English.
Munenori's sons, Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi and Yagyū Munefuyu, were also famous swordsmen.
[edit] Munenori in Fiction and Legend
Like his father, and his son Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Munenori has achieved a degree of legendary status. A number of tales and abilities have been attributed to him.
One of the most often repeated is the tale of his amazing sense of danger approaching. He was meditating in his garden facing away from the door when his assistant brought him his sword silently and without any declarations. His assistant, being a young and imaginative sort of person, thought to himself how it would be interesting to see if he could attack Munenori from this position. Before he could act on the fantasy, Munenori leapt to his feet and turned around, stunned to discover only his assistant was behind him. He was sure there was some impending danger.
Later on he was still troubled by the event. How could he have mistaken his assistant for impending danger? Was he losing his edge? He spoke of the incident to one of his trusted advisors while his assistant was in the room, and, being a virtuous youth, his assistant admitted that he had "thought" about attacking him earlier, but made no physical movements in accordance with the attack. Therefore, Munenori concluded that he was not in fact losing his edge but had actually achieved a new level of swordsmanship, one where a man can anticipate impending danger even when people are thinking about it.
Recent fiction has not always been as kind to Munenori as it has been to his son or his father. Munenori has sometimes been depicted as having an adverserial relationship with his son Jubei, (the legends that say that Jubei lost an eye as a boy while sparring with his father are often used to further this), or even being jealous of Jubei's supposedly greater skills. The film Shogun's Samurai shows him as a master of intrigue, repeatedly using tactics such as assassination to secure the post of Shogun for Tokugawa Iemitsu when Iemitsu and his brother Tadanaga vied for the title. The same film also shows Munenori ordering the ruthless slaughter of his own followers when they become a potential obstacle.
In other movies and television shows he is shown as having a bitter rivalry with legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi, and being willing to stoop to underhanded tactics to attempt to kill Musashi. For example, in the anime series Shura no Toki, Munenori sent two samurai to assassinate Musashi as he left Edo.
- ^ Wilson, William Scott, "Introduction", The Life-Giving Sword by Yagyu Munenori, trans. William Scott Wilson, Kodansha International, 2003.
