Unravelling the Cords - The Instructions of a Master in the Tradition of Taisha-ryū Paperback – August 26, 2023

Unknown but to a few scholars until recently, the Taisha-ryū “Unravelling the Cords” is an early Edo period Japanese treatise on the Art of War completed in 1710 by Nakano Jinuemon Shūmei (1653–1730) – chief retainer to the feudal lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. A native of Saga in Northern Kyushu, Nakano Shūmei was a swordsmanship master of the Taisha-ryū tradition, reviver of that school in Hizen and instructor to many retainers of the Nabeshima clan, not least among them Yamamoto Jōchō – author of the famous Hagakure.This volume contains the first complete annotated translation of the original text of the Taisha-ryū Kaichū (タイ捨流解紐), as well as a document penned by Taisha-ryū’s founder – Marume Kurando (1540–1629) – containing an original text by Kamiizumi Nobutsuna (ca. 1508–1577) – the renowned founder of the Shinkage-ryū school and Kurando’s own swordsmanship master.The translations are accompanied by extensive notes, a historical overview of the Taku line of Taisha-ryū to which Nakano Shūmei belonged and a comprehensive discussion of the treatise’s historical, cultural, spiritual, and literary background. The Kaichū consists of five parts: a preface, three main fascicles (containing twenty articles each, of varying length), fifty poems summarising the contents, and eighteen articles of teaching instructions.Without imposing modern concepts and without preconceived notions of the so-called “classic Japanese warrior code” this volume aims to unravel the tangle of popular clichés and to begin uncovering what truly lies at the roots of Japanese martial philosophy and conduct – roots that go back to Huáyán, Chán and Esoteric Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Legalism and the Ancient Chinese treatises on the Art of War. Read more