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Established in 1925, Toyamaryu Iaido is based on Gunto Soho, a consolidated and officially adopted katana swordsmanship of the Toyama Military Academy of the Imperial Japanese Army. After the Second World War, it was referred to as "Toyamaryu", "Toyama-Ryu" or "Toyama Ryu" and established as schools of traditional Japanese swordsmanship or Iaido. Since the process of consolidation and establishment of Gunto Soho took approximately twenty years, from the Taisho period until the end of the Second World War, several sword masters from different schools were involved in its development by stages thus, Toyama Ryu can not be attributed to a single founder. == Background == After the Meiji Restoration, officers in the Japanese army were required to carry Western-style sabers. However, this caused problems during battles against rebels in Satsuma (now Kagoshima Prefecture), since soldiers equipped with single-shot rifles and sabers were frequently overwhelmed by samurai who knew Jigen-ryū (示現流)and could charge much faster than the non-Samurai soldiers could cope with. During the Russo-Japanese war (1904–05), the Cossack cavalries frequently charged against the Japanese infantrymen and again it was extremely difficult for the Japanese to defend themselves using sabers once their enemy reached them. The Japanese studied the First World War with great enthusiasm, hoping to learn more about fighting modern warfare. They discovered that much fighting was still occurring at close quarters in trench warfare, often with heavy swung weapons like entrenching tools. This likely prompted the Japanese to tighten up their close quarter combat training. The katana was therefore readopted as the Japanese could access domestic sword masters more easily than European ones. was also developed at this time, being based on the use of ''sōjutsu'' (spear) techniques. This later became the rarely practiced sport of ''jūkendō'', after the war ended. In 1925, Lieutenant Colonel Morinaga Kiyoshi, who was the head of sword fighting at the Toyama Military Academy, officially adopted five Kata (forms) of tachi-waza, the sequences of movements starting from standing position, devised from traditional (koryu) Iai and formulated it to modern warfare by Nakayama Hakudo. However, these were only practiced in the academy and were not disseminated to the whole army. In 1934, the Imperial Japanese Army officially switched its fighting sword from the western style saber to the traditional Japanese one with the model 94 military sword becoming the first Japanese katana style military sword, or Gunto. Thus, Japanese Army officers were later issued new swords shaped more like the katana. However, not all officers had sufficient background in kenjutsu to deploy these weapons in combat. Consequently, this simplified form of sword technique was devised that emphasized the most essential points of drawing and cutting. For instance, the army ''iai-battō'' ''kata'' differ from those of many ''koryū'' sword schools in that all techniques are practised from a standing position. (Koryū schools included a number of techniques executed from ''seiza''.) Also, this modern ''ryū'' has a strong emphasis on ''tameshigiri'', or "test-cutting." In 1940 the Toyama Military Academy, after revising and adding more Kata with the cooperation of Mochida Seiji, Saimura Goro, Tokutomi Tasaburo, Nakayama Hakudo, Kunii Zenya and Nakamura Taizaburo officially adopted seven tachi-wazas. These were included in a supplement of a leaflet ‘Kaiko-sha article, November 1940 issue’, called ‘The Techniques and Tameshigiri of Gunto (military sword)’ published in November 1940 by Kaiko-sha, a social organization of army officers. The leaflets were distributed to all the army officers thus making the Gunto Soho, developed at the Toyama Military Academy, known to the whole Imperial Japanese Army. In January 1942 ‘Gunto Intensive Training Manual – Kill with One Blow –’ was published and in March 1944, ‘Gunto Intensive Training Manual – Kill with One Blow –’ was revised as ‘Gunto Soho no.1’ and the original ‘Gunto Soho’ as ‘Gunto Soho no.2’, and the Toyama Military Academy combined both with some editing and published it as ‘Gunto Soho and Tameshigiri’ from Kokubo Budo Association. At the end of World War II, the Toyama Military Academy became the U.S. Army's Camp Zama. Nonetheless, the military Iai system was revived after 1952. By the 1970s, three separate organizations represented Toyama-ryū Iaido: in Hokkaidō, the Greater Japan Toyama Ryu Iaido Federation (established by Yamaguchi Yuuki); in Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka area), the Toyama Ryu Iaido Association (established by Morinaga Kiyoshi); and the All Japan Toyama Ryu Iaido Federation or ZNTIR (established by Nakamura Taizaburo and Tokutomi Tasaburo). Each of these organizations is autonomous and retains its own set of forms. Today, there are also at least a dozen active instructors of Toyama-ryū outside Japan, many of whom are in California, Florida and New York. Although there are also various international schools in Poland, Spain, Taiwan and Australia. The adoption of the katana by the Westernized Japanese army was also part of a Nationalist trend in Japan. During the 1920s Japan went through a phase of Militant Nationalism that lasted until defeat in the Second World War. By adopting the katana, the traditional sword of the Samurai〔Although the Samurai traditionally carried two swords (a katana and wakizashi) non-Samurai had been banned from carrying katana (with numerous exceptions) in 1607 and the katana had become associated strongly with the Samurai.〕 the Japanese were allying themselves with the Samurai military tradition. Adopting the Katana also served to calm discontent among the more politicized sections of the army who had been outraged at mechanization (another lesson learned from World War I) which had de-emphasized the role of infantry and cavalry. The Treaty of Peace with Japan (San Francisco Peace Treaty) was signed in 1951 and came into force in 1952. As Japan regained its independence and the martial arts ban was lifted, Morinaga Kiyoshi, the former director of sword fighting at the Toyama Military Academy, Yamaguchi Yuki, Nakamura Taizaburo, and others started to call the swordsmanship based on Gunto Soho ‘Toyamaryu’, disseminating it all over Japan and Internationally. TOYAMA MILITARY ACADEMY The Toyama Military Academy started with the establishment of the Toyama Branch of the Army Cadet School in June 1873. The school was built at the site of one of the former town residences of the daimyo of Owari-han, in present-day Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. In February the following year, it was renamed to Toyama Gakko (Toyama Academy) of officer training for the Imperial Japanese Army. In the prospectus with the history of the Toyama Military Academy published in late December 1907, Ota Tasuku, an Imperial Army Infantry Staff Sergeant, wrote as follows (excerption); ◦Establishment of the School: the School was established in August, started enrolling students and administering school affairs from the 20th of the month 1873. ◦Due to the abolition of cadet schools in May 1875, the school became an academy directly under the Ministry of War. ◦Due to the regulatory changes that came into effect on 2 January 1897, the Academy, which had been overseen by the Kangun-bu department, came under the Sokan-bu department in the military and continues to be so today. ◦From 1873 to 1884, specialist French officers were employed as teachers for physical training, shooting, and sword fighting. ◦Intention of establishing the academy: It was an urgent requirement when establishing the Imperial Japanese Army to pursue learning in order to unify the education of the whole armed force. It is especially important to learn about the situation of fast moving military affairs of foreign countries in order to progress in tandem with them. In order to do so, it is essential to train the officers based on the same curriculum so that a trained officer could return to his regiment with the knowledge to disseminate in order to assure even progress. That is the intention of establishing the academy. ◦Later in 1903, an Imperial decree was issued defining the Toyama Military Academy to be that of providing military education and mainly infantry training in battle strategy, shooting, physical exercise, sword fighting, and drum and bugle in order to advance the whole army, to promote continuous research, to study and test portable firearms, and in the case of music students to be the future members of the military band. ◦The present academy has the following departments; Battle tactics (including former shooting section) Administration Physical training (including former sword fighting section) Military Band ◦The academy enrolls four types of students; Students of battle tactics: infantry captains (sometimes including heavy artillery engineering officers) Students of physical training: infantry, cavalry, and artillery first and second lieutenants Students of military band: to be chosen from civilian candidates nationwide Auditors: infantry, cavalry, and artillery soldiers and the head of the buglers In short, the Toyama Military Academy was established in 1873, at the very beginning of establishing the Imperial Japanese Army in order to catch up with the Western powers as quickly as possible. In order to do so, it invited French army officers to provide unified military education for Japanese officers who would be the core of each regiment, to disseminate the knowledge so that the advancement of the unified and integrated army affairs would be achieved. The academy was closed at the end of the Second World War in 1945. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Toyama-ryū」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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