Takamatsu Toshitsugu

Birth

On March 10, 1889, the 22nd year of the Meiji period, a boy was born in Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture and given the name Hisatsugu. He later changed it to Toshitsugu. As a child he was called Jutaro.

Those were not his only names. Over his life Takamatsu was also known as Nakamushi (“crybaby”), Kikaku (“demon horns”), Kotora (“little tiger”), and Moko no Tora (“Mongolian tiger”). After his death came Bujin (“divine warrior”). In his honor, his student Hatsumi Masaaki named the nine traditions Bujinkan.

Takamatsu suffered from low blood pressure all his life, so he drank a glass of salt water every day. His days followed fixed rules: to bed at 9 p.m., up at 6:30 a.m., then a rubdown with a wet, ice-cold towel. He liked to paint in the morning. His three meals consisted of bean paste, sesame, vegetables, and buckwheat flour, along with plenty of small fish.

Takamatsu is said never to have warmed up before training, not even when fighting with real weapons. His reason: “In a real fight you don’t have time to warm up either.” The first time he saw jūdō on television, he was reportedly indignant because the fighters arched their backs during a technique.

Childhood

Before his first birthday, Takamatsu was separated from his birth mother, Fushi. By the age of twenty he had had nine different foster mothers.

His father, Takamatsu Yasaburo, also known as Takamatsu Gishin, changed jobs often. He was an agent for the Sanyo Railroad and later owned a match factory in Kōbe.

Takamatsu attended the Akashi no Miya English School and later a Chinese school. He was a frail, whiny child, which earned him the nickname “Crybaby”.

Hard Training With Toda

His father wanted to make a strong warrior of him. So at nine, at his father’s wish, Takamatsu began studying martial arts at the dōjō of his maternal grandfather, Toda Shinryūken Masamitsu (some sources call him his uncle), in Kōbe. Toda also ran a chiropractic practice there. He was a samurai from the Iga region and had taught swordsmanship at a Tokugawa military school. That his ancestors were ninja only came out after Takamatsu’s death.

At first Toda taught him no techniques at all. Instead, he and his students shoved the boy around the dōjō and tried out throws on him. Every day Takamatsu came home with bleeding elbows and knees. He later recalled feeling “like a lamb going to the slaughterhouse”. He swore never to go back, yet returned every evening. Soon he grew stronger and put on weight.

After a year, Toda showed him the first techniques of the Shinden-Fudō-Ryū (神伝不動流). Toda saw how gifted Takamatsu was at budōbudō 武道. By thirteen he had mastered the Shinden-Fudō-Ryū.

Alongside school, every other day he went to the dōjō of Mizuta Yoshitaro Tadafusa and learned the jū tai jutsujū tai jutsu 柔体術 of the Takagi-Yōshin-Ryū (高木楊心流). At the same time Toda taught him the ninpōninpō 忍法 of the Togakure-Ryū (戸隠流), the koppō jutsukoppō jutsu 骨法術 of the Kotō-Ryū (虎倒流), the koshi jutsukoshi jutsu 骨指術 of the Gyokko-Ryū (玉虎流), and the ninpō of the Gyokushin-Ryū (玉心流) and the Kumogakure-Ryū (雲隠流).

Takamatsu liked the Kotō-Ryū; the Togakure-Ryū appealed to him less. The Kotō-Ryū hardened the hands and feet, especially the fingers and toes. For years Takamatsu struck his hands against rocks and other hard objects. In the end his fingernails and toenails were 4 to 5 millimeters thick. Ordinary nail scissors could no longer cut them, but he could tear the bark off a tree with them. He himself later said that such weapons were no longer needed today.

One Sunday evening, walking through the park by the coast, Takamatsu saw two children fighting, one about 8, the other 12 or 13. Then four men appeared and sided with the older child. When one of the men hit the child, Takamatsu stepped in and drove off all four. Only later did he learn that they were professional sumō wrestlers, and that one of them had never been beaten.

Local Hero

Sixty against two: according to tradition, at thirteen Takamatsu and a friend ran into about 60 furyōfuryō 不良 “young delinquents” who started a street fight, some of them armed with swords. They wanted to force the two boys to bow to their leader. Takamatsu knelt, grabbed a stone, and smashed it onto the leader’s foot. The man went down screaming, and the others rushed Takamatsu. After he had put 5 to 8 of them out of action, the rest fled.

The next day a policeman came to his house and took him to the station. He wanted to know how many others had been involved and refused to believe that Takamatsu had beaten the attackers alone. Only the friend confirmed it, saying he had not fought himself.

The following day the newspaper ran the headline: “13-year-old jūdō expert easily puts 60 gangsters to flight”.

The Sumō Bout

According to tradition, Takamatsu watched a sumō tournament around this time. A big wrestler called Oni no Yama (“demon mountain”), who had already beaten many opponents, faced Raiden (“lightning”), simply threw him down, and hurled him out of the ring. Takamatsu jumped up and climbed into the ring in his everyday clothes. Asked for his name, he called himself Akebono. He beat Oni no Yama and then eight more men.

Then a man who called himself Osakayama climbed into the ring. He was huge and weighed 112 kilograms; Takamatsu weighed only 59. They fought hard, but however Takamatsu strained, he could not move the heavy man. Osakayama seized his wrist and squeezed hard. In the end Takamatsu threw him off balance, and Osakayama stepped out of the ring. The crowd cheered and tossed their seat cushions into the air.

The next day Osakayama turned up at the door of Takamatsu’s father. He was a professional sumō wrestler from Ōsaka, he said, and wanted to train the son as a wrestler. The father refused: his son was to become a soldier. Only through this visit did he learn that his thirteen-year-old son had beaten a professional wrestler.

Fight Against Karate Students

At fifteen, his master asked him to face two karateka of the Musashi-Ryū, aged 27 and 28. The first underestimated Takamatsu and lost to a gyaku nagegyaku nage 逆投げ.

The second had been warned. As Takamatsu went to throw him, he struck Takamatsu on the right ear and right arm while falling, and Takamatsu lost consciousness. When the man learned that his opponent was only 15, he was deeply impressed. He could not beat him a second time, he said, because Takamatsu now knew the secret technique of the Musashi-Ryū, musha dori.

The fight left Takamatsu with lifelong hearing damage in his right ear, which later kept him out of military school.

At seventeen he received the menkyo kaidenmenkyo kaiden 免許皆伝 of the Takagi-Yōshin-Ryū from Mizuta Yoshitaro Tadafusa. In those days it was not unusual to award a student this certificate early to spur greater effort.

Training With Ishitani

That same year Takamatsu met Ishitani Takakage Matsutaro, who worked as a bodyguard at his father’s match factory. Ishitani was famous as a fighter throughout Japan. He set up a small dōjō in the factory and taught Takamatsu the happō hikenjutsuhappō hikenjutsu 八法秘剣術 of the Kukishinden-Ryū (九鬼神伝流), the koppō jutsu of the Gikan-Ryū (義鑑流), and several other aspects of ninjutsu.

At eighteen, Takamatsu fetched 330 gallons of fresh water every morning for his father’s factory, with one gallon equal to 4.546 liters. The spring lay at the foot of Mount Maruyama, 7 to 8 blocks from the factory. He had to make the trip five times, carrying about 300 kilograms of water each time. It made his body very strong.

The Night Attacker at the Bridge

One day a worker from the factory told him that someone had stopped him at the Shin bashi bridge the night before. Whenever he tried to step aside, the man blocked his way again. Finally the stranger grabbed him and threw him into the water.

The following night Takamatsu crossed the bridge several times, and nothing happened. Perhaps the attacker knew him? The next night he came in disguise, and as expected someone blocked his way, face hidden under a hat. The stranger tried to throw Takamatsu and failed. He punched and kicked, but Takamatsu dodged everything. When the man was at a loss, Takamatsu threw him to the ground, and the attacker ran off. He lost his hat as he fled: it was a student of Master Mizuta. Takamatsu shouted after him that he should be ashamed of disgracing his school like that.

According to Bujinkan tradition, Takamatsu received from his grandfather Toda the menkyo kaiden of the Shinden-Fudō-Ryū, Togakure-Ryū, Kumogakure-Ryū, Gyokushin-Ryū, Kotō-Ryū, and Gyokko-Ryū. Soon after, in 1909, Toda Shinryūken Masamitsu died, and Takamatsu became the next sōkesōke 宗家. Before his death Toda is said to have told him: “Even if you face certain death, die laughing.”

In 1910 Ishitani Takakage Matsutaro died as well. Takamatsu became sōke of the Gikan-Ryū and the Kukishin-Ryū.

Journey to China

Soon afterward, Takamatsu quit the match factory and set off for China. He wanted to test his skills, he was dissatisfied with his life, and he wanted to earn money. China was in turmoil at the time, with many warlords fighting over the country.

On the way, in Korea, he met Kim Kei-mei, who taught him eighteen Korean and Chinese martial arts.

Illness and Return

Then Takamatsu fell ill and returned to Japan. He wanted to visit the grave of his girlfriend Kogane and to see his grandmother. She was glad to see him and offered to let him recover at her home. He had beriberi, a disease caused by vitamin B1 deficiency that occurs when people live mainly on polished rice.

A month later a messenger arrived: Takamatsu’s father would stop his monthly payments to the grandmother if she kept sheltering his son. Takamatsu was gravely ill; the disease had badly damaged his lungs. Even so, he would not let his grandmother come to harm. Two days later he left the house with nothing but the clothes on his back.

The Hut in the Mountains

On heavy, swollen legs he dragged himself toward Mount Maya. Without his ninjutsu training he could not have walked at all. On hands and knees he crawled up the mountain until he reached a waterfall. A small, very drafty hut stood there, about 4 meters wide and long.

At the foot of the mountain he had bought 2 liters of rice, but he had forgotten matches, so he could not make a fire. Then he remembered his master telling him that a ninja should eat natural food. He washed the rice and laid it on a stone. In the sun it turned floury when he ground it between his hands. Takamatsu had only a photograph of Master Toda with him, and he talked to it. He thought about how his masters Toda, Ishitani, and Mizuta had all died, and the raw rice tasted to him like the best thing in the world.

He was already feeling a little better and rested for a few days, with only the birds and the wind for company. One evening someone called out: “Go home!” Takamatsu saw no one and went back to sleep.

Healed by a Yamabushi

A few days later an old man came to the waterfall and asked why he was practicing austerities there. To cure his illness, Takamatsu answered. That was not so hard, the old man said: he had beriberi and tapeworms in his belly, and he could heal him. The tapeworms would come first. The man folded his hands and murmured a few sounds. Takamatsu wondered how that was supposed to help. Then the old man jabbed him in the belly and said he would return in a few days.

A few days later Takamatsu felt a sharp pain in his belly. He relieved himself and found two tapeworms in his stool. After ten days the old man came back, this time to cure the beriberi. After the treatment he vanished again without a sound.

Seven days later Takamatsu could stand up. He resumed taijutsutaijutsu 体術 training and regained his strength. He changed his name from Jutaro to Kikaku, to remind himself that he could achieve anything he set out to do.

The yamabushiyamabushi 山伏 came by once more to ask how Takamatsu was doing.

Second Journey to China

After that, Takamatsu went back to China. He stayed ten years in northern China and Manchuria.

Once, in the mountains of China, bandits attacked him. One grabbed him around the waist, then suddenly screamed and clutched his face. Takamatsu did not know what he had done to the man. Then he felt something soft and warm in his hand: the bandit’s eye. He gave the man first aid and accepted money for it.

Martial Arts Teacher in China

By the age of 26, Takamatsu had won 19 fights in many places across China, only 7 of them competitions. Lord Ren, the uncle of the Chinese emperor, regarded him as his own son. Takamatsu was a famous teacher: he had already taught more than eight hundred Chinese, Japanese, American, and French students, and 70 to 80 trained with him every day. Even in the summer heat not a drop of sweat showed on him. Twice Choshiryu, a Shaolin kung fu master from Santo Province, challenged him to a contest. Both times Takamatsu declined.

Takamatsu’s Dream

One night he dreamed of a huge red demon swinging an iron bar at a butterfly. Each time the butterfly flew away, until the demon collapsed, drenched in sweat, and cried “Enough!”

The next morning Takamatsu developed a new technique. When Choshiryu challenged him again, he accepted. The challenger was 37 years old and weighed 112 kilograms; Takamatsu weighed 74. The fight took place in an English settlement. For two hours Takamatsu evaded Choshiryu’s punches and kicks. Choshiryu grew slower and slower, sweat dripping from his brow, and Takamatsu saw his moment to attack.

But Lord Ren stopped the fight, because everyone could see that Choshiryu no longer stood a chance. Afterward the two fighters congratulated each other and drank to their new friendship.

Back in Japan, Takamatsu became head of the Nippon Minkoku Seinen Butoku Kai, a Japanese martial arts organization.

Monk of the Tendai

Takamatsu went to Mount Hiei near Kyōto to become a monk at the Tendai monastery. Perhaps he hoped to atone for the sins of his youth. He became a respected monk and representative of the monastery and studied Shintō and mikkyōmikkyō 密教 in depth.

During his absence the Kuki family had passed the menkyo kaiden of the Kukishin-Ryū to Iwami Nangaku, believing Takamatsu would never return to Japan.

During World War II, the Kuki family’s scrolls burned in an Allied bombing raid. Takamatsu reconstructed them from his notes and his memory and presented them to the family three years later. In return he received permission to found a sub-school, the Kukishinden-Ryū.

Marriage and a Dōjō of His Own

Takamatsu married Uno Tane, then 23. They had no children of their own, so they adopted a girl, Yoshiko.

He founded a small dōjō, the Sukisha Dōjō (“place for people who love the martial arts”), and trained there with a small group of students, among them Koba Koshiro, Sato Kimbei, Hanaoka Nangaku, Ueno Takashi, Takeuchi Kikakusai, Kimura Masaharu, Fukumoto, and Akimoto Fumio.

In Kashihara in the Nara region he ran a small teahouse and a hotel.

Hatsumi

In 1958 Takamatsu took on a new student: Hatsumi Yoshiaki (later Hatsumi Masaaki), 26 years old. For the next fifteen years he taught no one else. Every weekend Hatsumi traveled across Japan to his teacher, and Takamatsu showed him things he had never taught any student before. A few years before his death he told Hatsumi: “I have taught you everything I know, and so repaid the kindness of Toda Sensei, Ishitani Sensei, and Mizuta Sensei.” He placed his legacy in Hatsumi’s hands because he considered him the most suitable.

The Challenge

In the late 1960s Takamatsu wrote in an article: “When fighting, one must be prepared to be killed by an attacker or to kill him.”

A Japanese karate teacher countered in a television interview that this was out of date, and called Takamatsu an “old man whose time is up”.

Takamatsu took it as a challenge. Also on television, he declared that he was far from finished and accepted. He gave the man three days to apologize publicly; otherwise he would fight him and kill him. The karate teacher apologized publicly.

Takamatsu trained himself until the age of eighty; after that he only watched Hatsumi train.

Death

On April 2, 1972, Takamatsu died at his home in Nara, east of Ōsaka. He was buried in Kumedra Cemetery near Nara.

In memory of his teacher, Hatsumi named his dōjō the Bujinkan Dōjō, “The Hall of the Divine Warrior”.

Only after his death did his neighbors learn about his eventful life, and they were deeply impressed. Few had known that he was a ninja.