11 Facts About Hikosuke Totsuka

Hikosuke Totsuka was a Japanese jujutsu master of the Yoshin-ryu school.

Hikosuke Totsuka was reported to be one of the strongest martial artists of his era.

Hikosuke Totsuka was the elder son of Hidetsuka Totsuka, the founder of the Totsuka branch of Yoshin-ryu jujutsu.

In 1860, his prestige in the teaching of jujutsu carried to him to an audience with Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi, whom Hikosuke Totsuka showed his style by performing kata in his presence.

Iemochi was impressed, so Hikosuke Totsuka started working for the Tokugawa Shogunate as a jujutsu teacher at the Kobusho academy in Tokyo.

At 178cm and 86kg, Hikosuke Totsuka was large and imposing for a Japanese man at the time, as well as highly skilled.

In 1861, Hikosuke Totsuka departed from the Kobusho due to political changes and decided to settle by himself, opening the first of a system of Hikosuke Totsuka-ha dojos in Atago, Edo.

Hikosuke Totsuka later moved his residence to Chiba after the 1868 Meiji Restoration.

Hikosuke Totsuka worked as the main hand-to-hand teacher of the Chiba Police Department, but taught several great exponents of his art, like Matashiro Kashiwazaki, Jujiro Aizawa, Taro Terushima and Teisuke Nishimura.

In 1885, Hikosuke Totsuka sparred against another renowned fighter, Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu master Katsunosuke Masuoka, and defeated him twice despite being 23 years older and the same weight.

Hikosuke Totsuka was succeeded by his adopted son Hidemi, who later joined Kodokan founder Jigoro Kano to form the jujutsu department of Dai Nippon Butoku Kai.