Tsukahara Bokuden

Ukiyo-e print of the alleged fight between Tsukahara Bokuden and Miyamoto Musashi

Tsukahara Bokuden ( Japanese 塚 原 卜 伝 ; * 1489 ; † 1571 ) was a Japanese sword master and samurai during the Sengoku period .

He is considered one of the most famous historical sword masters in Japan and developed the Kashima fighting style ( Kashima Shintō-ryū ).

Much information about Tsukahara Bokuden exists only in the form of anecdotes and oral tradition. It is known, however, that he trained the then 17-year-old Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru in sword fighting in 1552 . He called the fighting technique he developed Kashima Shinto-ryu after the Kashima-jingu , where his father was a Shinto priest.

literature

• Roland Habersetzer: The warriors of ancient Japan. Famous samurai, ronin and ninja . Rosewood 2008, ISBN 978-3-938305-07-2 .
• Steven Turnbull: The Samurai Swordsman . Tuttle Publishing 2008, ISBN 4-8053-0956-3 . ( limited online version (Google Books) )
• Jinichi Tokeshi: Kendo: Elements, Rules and Philosophy . University of Hawaii Press 2003, ISBN 0-8248-2598-5 .

Web links

• Life story www.tenshukaku.de
• Brief information on the tomb and statue of Tsukahara Bokuden in the city of Kashima

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Tsukahara is the family name, Bokuden the first name.