Nakayama Ryu/Ryu Sei Kenjutsu?

[Cryozombie]

Does anyone have any information on Nakayama Ryu or an offshoot of it called Ryu Sei Kenjutsu?

Thanks

 

[Ken Morgan]

I got nothing.

I'm assuming Nakayama Ryu has something to do with Nakayama Hakudo, though I could be very wrong in the assumption.

What's your thoughts?

 

[Cryozombie]

No idea, but they are teaching the Ryu Sei Kenjutsu nearby me, and the website claims ties to Nakayama Ryu... I was gonna go check them out, but cant find much in the way of background on them.

 

[Ken Morgan]

I looked around, all i found, (as I'm sure you did), was this tameshigiri demo on youtube,

He looks like he's had some training, i but know nothing about them.

Could they be under another name? Do they have a website with some videos or photos? Lineage listed perhaps?

 

[Cryozombie]

http://www.shinjitsudojo.org/

Thats the website and this is their claim:

Ryu Sei Kenjutsu was developed by Saruta Soke and approved by the Japanese Goverment. Saruta Sensei was asked to oversee Nakayama Ryu Kenjutsu but refused to do so and no longer teaches any other form of kenjutsu other than Ryu Sei Kenjutsu.

It sounds fishy to me... But I'm no expert.

 

[Ken Morgan]

Ok, so Nakayama Ryu I know. Legit.

Ryu Sei Kenjutsu, I have never heard of. Apparently it’s a break away school founded by Saruta Soke.

I’m not making any comment on the school as I’ve only seen bits and pieces.

Things from the website though do set off some alarm bells.

• Since when do JSA schools need to be approved by the Japanese government? Did I miss something?
• Someone founding their own school has always set off alarm bells for me.
• The use of the word katana. No one I know in the JSA use the word.
• Mentioning learning the art of the samurai, has always set off alarm bells for me as well. Again no one in the JSA references the samurai.
• Emphasis on cutting. Cutting is a simple. I can train anyone to cut through multiple mats in well less then an hour. Its not a difficult skill to learn.

 

[Cryozombie]

• Since when do JSA schools need to be approved by the Japanese government? Did I miss something?

This seemed off to me as well.

• Mentioning learning the art of the samurai, has always set off alarm bells for me as well. Again no one in the JSA references the samurai.
• Emphasis on cutting. Cutting is a simple. I can train anyone to cut through multiple mats in well less then an hour. Its not a difficult skill to learn.

The Samurai thing doesn't bother me as much, in the Buj we use it a lot... I dunno if its different for a Sword School tho, which is why I asked the experts over here... and yes, Cutting is a simple skill, when we do Tameshigiri, most of the new guys learn in about 2 sessions... 1 swinging a Bokken, and one actual cutting. They aren't experts, but do a decent job.

Thanks for your Input!

 

[pgsmith]

I've seen Ryu Sei Ken in action, and the kata seemed to be overly flowery to me, like he was trying to make them look impressive. They put a lot of emphasis on cutting as that was Saruta sensei's thing. He used to do Nakamura ryu, but was hamoned by Nakamura sensei for reasons that I know nothing about. That was when he went and created his own Ryu Sei Ken. Saruta sensei was the one that did the original Guinness record senbongiri thing that Russell McCartney then redid later. As far as I know, Ryu Sei Ken has very little, if anything, to do with Nakayama ryu.

 

[Stan]

Here is the website from Japan.
http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~ryuseiken/english/main.htm