26th April 1873

On the 26th of April 1873 a 10 day event occurred in Asakusa, Tokyo, which had a direct influence in the development of modern kendo and possibly without which the fledgling kendo (then called gekkiken or kenjutsu) could have faded into extinction: the first ever Gekkikenkai (撃剣会) – or gekkiken kogyo (撃剣興行) . This was a public gathering of budo experts who fought each other in front of an audience and received money to do so. Many of the combatants of this first gekkikenkai were out of work ex-samurai, but it also included some women and – intriguingly – a couple of non-Japanese kenshi.

Three woodblock prints were commissioned to commemorate the event, the artist being Utagawa Kunitera the 2nd (歌川国輝2代). The above picture is one that many kenshi247.net readers have seen no doubt. What I would like to do here – briefly – is introduce the people in the picture, one of whom was one of the most influential figures in the history of kendo.

Sakakibara Kenkichi (榊原健吉), 1830-1894

Sitting on the far right of the picture holding a fan is Sakakibara Kenkichi. There is no one who has studied the history of kendo that has not heard his name. He was the man who promoted and ran the first gekkikenkai, the headmaster of jikishinkage ryu, an ex-kenjutsu instructor at the government run Kobusho (講武所), and later in life a kenjutsu instructor at the fledgling Keishicho amongst other things. This small biography gives you an insight into how influential he was. I intend to do a more detailed article on him later.

Nomi Teijiro (野見錠次郎), 1827-1909

The shinpan (then called 見分役 or miwakeyaku) standing between the two kenshi is Nomi Teijiro. Nomi was Sakakibara’s top student, and It was his idea to start the gekkikenkai: worried that budo was declining and was going to disappear, and also that many out of work samurai could not afford to eat, he approached his sensei with the idea. Nomi would later inherit both the jikishinkage-ryu* and the running of the gekkikenkai from his teacher.

* The general accepted main-stream inheritor is Yamada Jirokichi of-course

Ogawa Kiyotake (小川清武)

The kenshi on the left hand side of the picture is Ogawa Kiyotake. Originally from a different style, he changed to the study of jikishinkage-ryu and was listed on the banzuke (the link shows a sumo banzuke not a gekkikenkai one… more on that later) as a first-class kenshi (一等剣士). He worked as a police inspector in the fledgling Japanese police force between 1874-1883.

Akamatsu Guntayu (赤松軍太夫)

Akamatsu Guntayu stands in the middle of the picture wielding jodan. His dou has the first character of his name (赤) emblazoned on it. Although not a student of Sakakibara’s, he was listed as a first class kenshi like Ogawa above. Akamatsu was from the Choshu domain, a place noted for its strong kenshi. He was known for attending various gekkikenkai meets throughout the country.

The whole gekkikenkai phenomenon is often belittled in kendo history books, sometimes receiving barely a mention. Rather than just accept the usual rhetoric I would like to look at it from a different angle than usual (and use a source promoting it as having a positive affect). I hope you find this area of kendo history as interesting as I do.

This article is deliberately brief as I want to talk more about the gekkikenkai and some of the figures involved (particularly Sakakibara) in later articles.

Note

Please remember I am not a professional translator, nor have studied Japanese at university nor in an institution. Any errors in fact, misunderstandings in the reading of the text, errors in translations, etc, are all my own. I can but apologise in advance.

Sources
撃剱会の始末。石垣安造。平成十二年発行。
剣の達人111人データファイル。新人物住来社。2002年発行