School of the Hidden Door

Characteristics

This is the only school of Ninjutsu that has been taught openly by Soke Hatsumi.  It is a distant branch of Gyokko Ryu Kosshijutsu, but a school in its own right.

   The Ryu is based on low, wide body positions or Kamae, and powerful strikes.  It is a complete fighting system consisting of many unarmed techniques, techniques with sword, spear, kusarigama and a secret weapon called Sanpo Hiden, which was characteristic only for this school.

   When necessary the emphasis was on escape and spying involving the use of little gadgets, espionage, concealment, sabotage, breaking in etc.  Togakure Ryu used a lot techniques that incapacitate, sometimes brutally and in times of conflict they were very deceptive.

   The Sakki Test comes from the Togakure Ryu.  The school is famous for its different Ninjutsu weapons such as the Shuko and Ashiko, Shinodake, Senban Shuriken and Kyoketsu Shoge.

History of the Togakure Ryu

So-o was the name of a monk at a monastery on Mount Hiei-zan.  As was custom in those times he left his home to live for three years in a cave, subjecting himself to the hardship of nature in order to discover enlightenment.  It was after a mysterious dream that he formed the Tendai Shugendo sect of Buddhism, and established the headquarters of the Tendai monastery at Heie-zan.  These monks still exist today and some are engaged in Shugendo, or mountain asceticism: purifying one's self by trial and hardship.

   Near to Hiei-zan was a small village called Togakure, in the prefecture of Shinano.  Here in approximately 1161 Daisuke Nishina was born into a Samurai family.  Sometime during his early life, he studied at the Tendai monestery on TogakureMountain (Mount Heie-zan) near his village.  These early experiences were to play an important role later when Daisuke was to establish a system of fighting, survival and infiltration. 

   It is important to understand the events leading up to the creation of the Togakure Ryu Ninpo.  Daisuke Nishina's father was Yukihiro Nishina, who was a highly ranked Samurai in the service of Lord Yoshinaka Minamoto, the cousin of the first Shogun of Japan.  When Yoshinaka Minamoto was only an infant, a samurai was sent from a rival family to kill him and his mother.  Yoshinaka's mother escaped with him and went secretly to the home of a farmer who was loyal to their family.  Yoshinaka was later brought to Kiso village in Shinano not far from Togakure village.

   It was possibly because of this movement that Yukihiro Nishina of Togakure came into his service.  Years later, Yoshinaka's family had defeated their rivals and became rulers of Japan.  But they saw Yoshinaka as a threat to their leadership, and they turned on him.  Yoshinaka Minamoto changed his name to Yoshinaka Kiso, taking the name of the village where he lived, which was a common practice at that time.  In 1184, Yoshinaka was attacked by the army of his half-brother.  Sixty thousand warriors descended quickly upon Yoshinaka's army near Kyoto.  The battle was Awaza no Kassan, and Yoshinaka Kiso was killed by an arrow in his eye.  On his side had fought Yukihiro Nishina of Togakure who was also killed and his son Daisuke Nishina survived.

   Daisuke, being on the losing side of this battle, was forced to flee into far away Iga to escape persecution.  There he fled into the remote villages, hidden in the mists of a land of high mountains and thick forests.  He changed his name to Daisuke Togakure, after the village of his birth.

   While he was in Iga, Daisuke was found by Kagakure Doshi.  Kagakure Doshi was a shinobi and the third Soke of Hakuun Ryu, which was one of the original ninjutsu systems developed from the teachings of Ikai (Yi Gai, who brought the roots of Koshijutsu from China).  It was also possible that Doshi was Daisukes uncle, and that Daisuke fled to Iga with the intention of finding him.

   Daisuke Togakure learned Doshi's warrior teachings, and added them to his own Shugendo beliefs, and the beginnings of the Togakure Ryu were forged.  But Daisuke  was not the only one studying under Kagakure Doshi .  With him was Shima Kosanta Minamoto no Kanesada.  He was a high level samurai retainer who had also fought at the battle of Awaza no Kassan, where he had become a friend to Daisuke and his father.  Shima was wounded in the fighting, and was taken by Daisuke to Iga.  Shima was to become the second Soke of Togakure Ryu.  He took the name Daisuke Togakure II after Daisuke's death.  His son Goro Togakure, the third Soke, is recognised as being the person who actually formed the teachings of Togakure into the Ninjutsu system that we learn today.  The 11th, 12th and 13th Soke of the Ryu are named after the main town of Iga, Ueno.  Again, it was common in those days to be named after the town or village of which you came.  It is therefore likely that the Togakure Ryu was based at or near Ueno at that time.  Ueno is in north Iga, but the Togakure Ryu mainly operated out of southern central Iga during most of its history.

   It is told that members of the Hattori clan trained in Togakure Ryu.  Hattori Hanzo is the most famous of all Ninja.  Also members of the Momchi family trained in this system, and the 21st Soke of Togakure Ryu was Momochi Kobei, a descendant of Momochi Sandayu, the second most famous ninja and a leading figure of the Iga region.

   As with most martial traditions in earlier days, control of the system stayed within the family that founded it, and control style passed from father to son.  With Togakure Ryu, it continued in this way for the most part until the 1600's.  When the immediate family died out, the most senior member of the system was Nobutsuna Toda, who was given leadership and became the 24th Soke.  When the Toda family took control in 1625, they added their own ninjutsu system of Kumogakure Ryu to it.  They also controlled Gyokko Ryu and Koto Ryu, and from that time on, all tose martials systems were then passed down together.

   The 32nd Soke of Togakure Ryu, Shinryuken Masamitsu Toda, was the sword instructor for the Tokugawa Shogunate in the mid 19th century.  He resigned his post when he learned that he was teaching men who were then forced to kill other Japanese people.  This went against the law of the Togakure Ryu.  The 33rd Soke, Toshitsugu Takamatsu, was the last member of the Toda family to control the Togakure Ryu.  Within the Tendai Shugendo sect, nearly a millennium after its founding by the monk So-o, the 33rd Soke of the Togakure Ryu Toshitsugu Takamatsu was ordained on Mount Hiei-zan.

"Violence is to be avoided, and Ninpo is Bujutsu"

"The sword is to be used for peace and to protect family, country and nature"

 

San-po Hiden:  Three Secret Treasures Of The Togakure Ryu

Senban Shuriken - the four pointed throwing star.  This resembeld a tool used by carpenters to remove nails, called a kugi-nuki.  It was a weapon to harness the enemy to assist in escape.

Shuko - commonly known as climbing claws, they were frequently used on both the hands and the feet for combat as well, capable of delivering very serious injuries.  They were made of metal bands around the hand and wrist with a strap of leather connecting them.  Also called Tegaki.

Shindake - a bamboo tube around 4 feet long, used as an underwater breathing tube and a blowgun

                                                                  

 

Soke Of The Togakure Ryu

 

  1. Togakure (Nishina) Daisuke - Oho era - 1161
  2. Minamoto no Kanesada, Shima Kosanta - 1180
  3. Togakure, Goro - 1200
  4. Togakure, Kosanta
  5. Koga, Kosanta
  6. Kaneko, Tomoharu
  7. Togakure, Ryuho
  8. Togakure, Gakuun
  9. Kido, Koseki
  10. Iga, Tenryu
  11. Ueno, Rihei
  12. Ueno, Senri
  13. Ueno, Manjiro
  14. Iizuka, Saburo
  15. Sawada, Goro
  16. Ozaru, Ippei
  17. Kimata, Hachiro
  18. Kataoka, Heizaemon
  19. Mori, Ugenta
  20. Toda, Gobei
  21. Kobe, Seiun
  22. Momochi, Kobei
  23. Tobari, Tenzen
  24. Toda, Nobutsuna Seiryu - Kwanyei era 1624 - 1644
  25. Toda, Nobuchika Fudo - Manji era 1658 - 1681
  26. Toda, Kangoro Nobuyasu - Tenna era 1681 - 1704
  27. Toda, Eisaburo Nobumasa - Hoyei era 1704 - 1711
  28. Toda, Shinbei Masachika - Shotoku era 1711 - 1736
  29. Toda, Shingoro Masayoshi - Gembun era 1736 - 1764
  30. Toda, Daigoro Chikahide - Meiwa era 1764 - 1804
  31. Toda, Daisaburo Chikashige - Bunkwa era 1804 - ?
  32. Toda, Shinryuken Masamitsu - ? - 1907 [b.1824 - d.1909]
  33. Takamatsu, Toshitsugu - 1907 - 1968 [b.1887 - d.1972]
  34. Hatsumi, Masaaki (Yoshiaki) - 1968 - ... [b.1931 - ]