20 Facts About Sakakibara Kenkichi

Sakakibara Kenkichi was a Japanese samurai and martial artist.

Sakakibara Kenkichi was the fourteenth headmaster of the Jikishinkage school of sword fighting.

Sakakibara Kenkichi was born on the fifth day of the eleventh month of Bunsei into the Sakakibara Kenkichi clan; his given name at birth was Tomoyoshi.

Sakakibara Kenkichi's family lived in the village of Otsuwa near modern-day Tokyo.

Sakakibara Kenkichi started studying Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryu with Otani Nobutomo in 1843.

Sakakibara Kenkichi proved proficient in that style, and was granted a menkyo kaiden by Otani in 1856, despite his family being too poor to pay for it.

Sakakibara Kenkichi was later to become the fourteenth headmaster of the school.

In 1856 Sakakibara Kenkichi was appointed as a professor at the Kobusho, a shogunate-sponsored military academy.

Sakakibara Kenkichi received this post through the auspices of his teacher Otani, who had himself been granted a teaching position there.

Sakakibara Kenkichi married Taka, the daughter of the shoguns personal retainer Iwajiro Mihashi.

Sakakibara Kenkichi resigned from this post in 1866, after Iemochi's death and started a dojo in Kurumazaka.

Sakakibara Kenkichi did, in fact, rescue the Imperial Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa from the Shogitai, physically carrying him away from the combat.

Sakakibara Kenkichi subsequently returned to the service of the Tokugawa family as Captain of the Guard under Tokugawa Iesato, whom he served until 1870.

Sakakibara Kenkichi was part of the group of fencers who created the forms for the Keishicho-ryu, the style of sword fighting created in 1868 for use by the police, and he worked briefly as a prison guard at the police headquarters.

Sakakibara Kenkichi began organising gekiken kogyo, feeling that such public competitions would instil an appreciation for the art of the swordsman in their audiences.

Sakakibara Kenkichi started an organisation called the Gekken Kaisha, which, inspired by the popularity of sumo wrestling, organised these contests.

The first public kogyo organised by Sakakibara Kenkichi's group took place in April 1873, and lasted for over a week.

Sakakibara Kenkichi disdained the point-scoring swordsmanship of other kendoka of his era, ignoring light touches by his opponents in order to deliver his own powerful strikes.

On New Year's Day of 1894, Sakakibara Kenkichi passed on the Jikishinkage headmastership to his disciple Jirokichi Yamada.

Sakakibara Kenkichi was entombed at Saio-ji temple Yotsuya, Tokyo and given the posthumous Buddhist name Gikoin Jozan Yamatoo Koji.