Toyama Ryu Batto Jutsu VHS
by Tasaburo Tokutomi

The military sword method of the Japanese pre-war Toyama Officers Academy. Including eight directional cutting, true iaido, and test cutting of hard objects.

In 1925 Lieutenant Morinaga Kiyoshi contacted Nakayama Hakudo, on behalf of the army, to compile a set of sword forms which could be used on the future battlefield. Morinaga sensei served as a fencing instructor as lieutenant, captain, major. Later, from 1939 to 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Morinaga was the Director of Fencing at the Toyama Academy. As such, he was responsible for expanding the iai curriculum from five kata to seven. This was technically accomplished by deleting the 1925 version of form 5, and adding a new form 5, 6, and 7.

Tokutomi Tasaburo, the author of this video, was one of Morinaga Kiyoshi sensei's longtime disciples before Morinaga sensei's death at age 86. You might recognize a younger (and trimmer) Tokutomi sensei from the 1980 video Einaru Budo (released as Budo: The Art of Killing in English). Both he and Nakamura Taizaburo sensei appeared opposite each other near the end of the video, where they both walk towards each other and then commence kumitachi forms.

This video is a valuable research source. There are three major traditions of Toyama Ryu iaido extant today: Morinaga Kiyoshi sensei, Nakamura Taizaburo sensei, and Yamaguchi Yuuki sensei. Of the three, only Nakamura sensei actively teaches class; Morinaga sensei died in 1981 and Yamaguchi sensei, close to 100 years old, has recently retired (however, his school is still active and is taught through Hontai Yoshin Ryu jujutsu). Previously unknown to me as a researcher, this video is valuable because it allows me to compare it against the written descriptions in the army manuals to get a better understanding. Before, we had to puzzle out the actual movements and guess the directions of travel. Fortunately, producers were recently able to save this video and make it available to martial arts researchers.

We have compared the techniques portrayed in this valuable video to descriptions in both the Japanese Army manual Kenjutsu Kyohan Shokai (1925) and Gunto no Soho Oyobi Tameshigiri (1940). These are the original forms (unchanged) taught at the Rikugun Toyama Gakko. This video teaches the original 5 forms from 1925, plus the three other forms added around 1940; a total of 8 kata.

Tokutomi sensei appears to be well qualified and executes his movements cleanly. The one criticism we have is that he is not wearing the traditional hakama and keikogi; nor the military physical fitness uniform. Instead he wears what looks like a doctors high-collared short-sleeved shirt with a breast pocket (the shirt is so thin that it sticks to his body after he perspires).

The video begins with eight batto techniques (batto-ho) then demonstrates tameshigiri (test cutting) with the techniques. The next section transitions to the actual forms. In Morinaga sensei's hard to find book, you have tounderstand the batto techniques first because the kata instructions say to Use the first cut in Batto, etc. This video clearly displays how the batto techniques are employed as part of the kata.

We strongly recommend this video if only to understand the original techniques of Toyama Ryu as they were taught from 1925 ­1945. Even adherents of Yamaguchi sensei and Nakamura sensei should own a copy to be able to understand the variances as are currently taught. But beware! Although both Yamaguchi sensei and Nakamura sensei teach Toyama Ryu iaido, they incorporated some changes. But thats another story.

VHS - NTSC (American standard)
Running time 50 minutes.Japanese narration. $49.95