Naruse Kanji -- Shuriken, Swordsmanship .... and Sword Repair
Article about: Not wanting to further hijack the thread on Civilians and Swords, I add this article by Jason Wotherspoon, originally found here. A short biography: Naruse Kanji (10 Nov 1888 - 30 Sep1948)
Naruse Kanji -- Shuriken, Swordsmanship .... and Sword Repair
Not wanting to further hijack the thread on Military Civilians Carry Swords, I add this article by Jason Wotherspoon, found here. I originally stumbled upon Naruse Kanji while researching battle damage to swords during Japan's war with China; he was a member of the Akimune Konno Swordsmith Guntō Repair Team and wrote up his findings. I noticed his gunto was rather LARGE and figured he must have also been a martial artist. My hunch was correct.
A short biography: Naruse Kanji (10 Nov 1888 - 30 Sep1948)
成瀬関次
Naruse Kanji
by Jason Wotherspoon
special thanks to Professor Yasuo KAMATA for giving me permission to use the photographs of his grandfather.
Among shuriken enthusiasts, Kanji NARUSE Sensei is most well knbeing the 3rd headmaster of Negishi Ryu Shurikenjutsu, although also the headmaster of a school of swordsmanship, Yamamoto Ryu and he was an author of several interesting books on the sword.
The Naruse family was the head family of Yamamoto Ryu, which passed on through the Kuwana-han, and he trained in this swordsmanship from an early age, eventually becoming the ancestral headmaster of the school. It is said he had a talent for the sword and was highly skilled in its use. As a student, he was also interestesocialist movements of Marx and others, as well as Christian humanilater in Japanese nationalism. It is thought that he also had some pinfluence on famous children's author Kenji Miyazawa.
He was drafted into the army, serving during the Sino-Japanese war that began in 1894, where he both saw action, and was employed as a repairman. Based on his experiences, he wrote several books on the Japanese sword which are becoming quite popular in recent times. In particular, he carefully documented instances of swords being broken in battle, and became a lifelong vocal advocate on changing the design of Japanese swords based upon the repair work he was engaged in during his stint in the army.
During a particular 9 month period he repaired more than 2,000 ranging in age from a variety of historical periods: 25% were Koto, 60% Shinto or Shin Shinto, and 15% were Gendaito. Of these, only 3 had been damaged in battle meaning that most of them (70%) had been damaged in training or through mishandling.
The types of damage they suffered is very instructive. Scabbards required the least attention: about 10% of scabbards had been broken or split --- a problem primarily caused by the stress of incorrect unsheathing or re-sheathing the swords. Blades, of course, were a problem, but not the most numerous problem. About 30% of the swords suffered bent or broken blades. For the most part, these were the swords that had actually been used in battle. Naruse was shocked at the high rate of blade failures. The main problem, however, was not the blades. It was the sword handles. A full 60% of the swords needed to be repaired because their handles had broken. Worse, Naruse reported that almost every sword he examined need to have the handle's mekugi (retaining pins) replaced. Even without severe use, the mekugi quickly wore out or became damaged.
Attachment 1447898
At the forefront of China Mongolia. Naruse Kanji (right) and Kurihara Hikosaburo (left) of the Akimune Konno Swordsmith Guntō Repair Team.
On 15th April, 1927 at a meeting in Tokyo, he met Tonegawa Magoroku (1850 - 1939), second headmaster of Negishi Ryu shurikenjutsu. Tonegawa was an accomplished martial artist, being expert in swordsmanship and horsemanship, and fought in the Boshin battle* in Aizu in 1868 age of eighteen. He was a student of the founder of Negishi Ryu, Shorei, and also Shirai Toru Yoshikane of Nakanishi-ha Itto Ryu and of Shirai Ryu shurikenjutsu.
At this meeting, the aged Tonegawa demonstrated throwing a chopstick into a tatami, which impressed Naruse deeply, and he asked to become his student. Naruse studied with Tonegawa for 13 years passing in 1939.
Before the war, Naruse Sensei and his wife operated and taught at a school for underpriviledged deaf and mute children, and they lived next door to the school. The school's gymnasium served as Naruse Sensei's dojo, and there he taught shuriken.
In 1938, Naruse Sensei gave a demonstration of Negishi Ryu shurikenjutsu at the Meiji Shrine, on the day of the Meiji celebrations, (3rd of Novembe). During the demonstration, a young Eizo SHIRAKAMI, still in high school saw Naruse Sensei and was very impressed with his art. Two days later Shirakami visited Naruse and became his student, and he visited every 10 days for training.
In 1941, at the age of 19, Satoshi SAITO also began training underSensei, who taught both the shuriken of Negishi Ryu and Shirai Ryu,as the Kuwana-han Den Yamamoto Ryu style of swordsmanship.
Naruse Sensei wrote several books, listed below, which are apparently somewhat difficult to find. It is thought that due to his nationalistic tendencies during the war, many of his books were removed from libraries.
• Japanese Sabre Fighting (further details not known)
• Tatakau nihonto (1940, Japanese swords in battle)
• Jissen todan (1941, Discussion of practical swords)
• Shuriken (1943, ) Tokyo: Shin-Taishusha
• Rinsen tojutsu (1944, Battlefield swordsmanship).
The position of headmaster was passed onto an elder student of Naruse Sensei's, Isamu MAEDA, who in 1959, with permission of Naruse Sensei's daughter Eiko, transferred the title of headmaster to Saito Sensei, who remains the current master of Negishi Ryu shurikenjutsu and Yamamoto Ryu Iaijutsu. As it has with many classical arts, indeed the Naruse family's Yamamoto Ryu Iaijutsu of the Kuwana -han line, Negishi Ryu shurikenjutsu has not passed on through blood family ties, rather, the headmastership has been passed on to students selected by the current headmaster. Saito Sensei says it seems to be the fate of the art.
Naruse Sensei lived his last years on a farm at Akitsu, in Musashino on the Seibu line. According to his student, Saito Sensei, Naruse Sensei had a fondness for shochu, a form of Japanese rice wine, which he heated and drank in winter while sitting under a kotatsu (a sort of low table with a heated blanket under it to keep ones feet warm. He developed a cirrhosis of the liver, no doubt due to the shochu, and sadly passed away in 1948.
Interesting to learn that the mekugi were failing. I've always been amazed that a single bamboo peg was all they used to hold a combat tsuka to a blade. Now we know!
I would suggest that mekugi were failing because of poor fitting of the hilt to the tang, and bad maintenance. If the tsuka is properly fitted then all the strain is taken by the actual tsuka, the mekugi takes very little or no stress. There is also a question of the right quality bamboo being used, as opposed to the ever popular chopstick. It should be cut from aged bamboo, seasoned by being used over a fire as a pan holder (no joke) for some years to cure it, and the outer grain facing the area of most stress. Namikawa sell the right stuff, and it's not cheap!
To cut a long story short, IJA officers were not trained samurai, and most sword assembly was not done by trained craftsmen, indeed often by schoolgirls in fact.
Further on mekugi material, I quote... "SUSUDAKE means smoked bamboo..... which follows a very unique preparation method. SUSUDAKE smoked bamboo is sourced from IRORI open hearth in a traditional Japanese house. Bamboo is used to build the IRORI open hearth, and naturally takes on the rich appearance over many years due to exposure to the cooking heat and smoke. The smoked bamboo materials are very limited, so that the manufacturer buys in and stocks them whenever this type of bamboo becomes available; it is extremely rare."..
And a nice informative article from a commercial site that I found surprisingly relevant!
Guy,
Do you know what rank Naruse carried in his Repair Team work? He was Gunzuko right? I don't see any rank on his uniform.
Hi Bruce,
No, so far all I find is "he was a civilian working for the military" type of comments. Here's one that I like:
As mentioned earlier, Mr. Naruse was on the verge of annihilation three times while with the troops he was dispatched to. In the Battle of Xuzhou, he was surrounded by 200,000 enemy soldiers, which was more than ten times as large as they were, and their food and ammunition was exhausted.
In the end, no one was expected to survive, and all of them engaged in a bayonet and sword combat.
Colonel Takahashi of the veterinary department, who is not a combat soldier, and Mr. Naruse, a civilian employee, were also prepared to die with a sword.
He miraculously managed to survive annihilation by developing fierce hand-to-hand combat.
The fact that Mr. Naruse said that "hand-to-hand combat is the essence of the imperial army" seems to have come from this situation.
Naruse Kanji -- Shuriken, Swordsmanship .... and Sword Repair
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by Bruce Pennington
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