Kamiizumi Nobutsuna

Samurai in Japan's Sengoku period

Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, (上泉 信綱), born Kamiizumi Ise no Kami Fujiwara no Hidetsuna, (c.1508 – 1572/1577) was a samurai in Japan's Sengoku period famous for creating the Shinkage ryū school of combat. He is also well known as Kamiizumi Isenokami (上泉 伊勢守) which was his name as a samurai official (武家官位, Bukekani) for a period of time.

Kamiizumi was born as Kamiizumi Hidetsuna in his family castle in Kōzuke Province (modern day Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture). His family were minor landed lords in the service of the Yamanouchi branch of the Uesugi clan. At the time of his birth, Kōzuke Province was being contested by the Uesugi, the Hōjō, and the Takeda clans. His family was originally a branch of the Ōgo clan that moved to nearby Kaigayagō Kamiizumi and took its name for their own. When the main Ōgo clan moved to Musashi Province, the Kamiizumi family took over Ōgo Castle, at the southern foot of Mount Akagi. It is not clear who Kamiizumi’s teachers were; in all of his later writings, he marks the start of lineal transmission of his art from himself. The lineage of Hikita Kage ryū puts Kamiizumi second or third after Aisu Ikōsai. In Yagyū Shinkage ryū, it is believed that Kamiizumi learned Kage ryū from Ikōsai, receiving full transmission around the age of 23. while the records of Chōnenji, the temple where Nagano was buried, dates it to 1566. Narimori killed himself on February 22, morale fell, and the castle followed on the 28th. A common story is that in recognition of his tremendous ability in defense of the castle, Takeda Shingen allowed Kamiizumi the use of the 信 character (read as either “shin” in “Shingen”, or “nobu” as in “Harunobu”) in his name, and thereafter Kamiizumi was known as Nobutsuna. However, in the license of transmission given to Yagyū Munetoshi in 1565, Kamiizumi signs it as “Kamiizumi Ise no kami Fujiwara no Hidetsuna”, and in the scrolls given to Munetoshi the following year he signs “Kamiizumi Ise no kami Fujiwara no Nobutsuna (上泉伊勢守藤原信綱).” While traveling to Kyoto in late 1563, he met Yagyū Munetoshi, and stayed in Yagyū Village for about half a year before arriving at the capital in 1564.

A counselor in Kyōto named Yamashina Tokitsugu wrote in his diary that Kamiizumi came to the capital in 1570. He stayed with Yamashina for about two years, teaching Shinkage ryū, and serving Yamashina. During this time he was known as Kamiizumi Musashi no kami Nobutsuna, or sometimes Ōgo Musashi no kami. In 1572 he visited Yagyū Village, and then traveled back to eastern Japan, with a letter of introduction from Yamashina to the Yuki clan in Shimōsa Province. Jikishinkage ryū, Kashima Shin ryū, Taisha ryū, and Komagawa Kaishin ryū. He is popularly credited as the inventor of the fukuro shinai, a practice sword made from split bamboo in a leather sleeve, allowing practitioners to practice together and swing with full force without fear of death or major injury.