Isshin-ryū kusarigamajutsu

Isshin-ryū (一心流)
Kusarigama at Iwakuni Castle
Founder	Tan Isshin
Date founded	c.17th century
Period founded	Early Edo Period
Current headmaster	No single headmaster
Art	Description
Kusarigamajutsu	Chain and scythe art
Maniwa Nen-ryū
N/A

Isshin-ryū (一心流^?) is a traditional school of the Japanese martial art of kusarigamajutsu, the art of using the chain and scythe (kusarigama). Its exact origin is disputed, and may have been founded as early as the 14th century by the samurai Nen Ami Jion 念阿弥慈恩 (b.1351-?), but the modern-day techniques were compiled and incorporated no later than the 17th century, by the unification (tan'isshin, 丹一心) of Harayuki Uemon Ujisada (原志右衛門氏貞), hence the name. It is preserved in Shintō Musō-ryū as a "heiden" (subsumed teaching).

The methods that were originally taught in this ryuha included bōjutsu,hobaku (a.k.a. hojojutsu or torinawa), torite, kusarigama and shuriken.

Some scholars date the origin to Harayuki Uemon Ujisada who compiled the techniques. Yet, his lineage harkens back to a priest who lived in the early 15th century, named Nen Ami Jion, as the ryuso (founder). In any case the ryuha eventually fragmented as the bōjutsu tradition was discovered to be practiced in Kyoto; the torite is recorded in Numata-han and Yoshida-han and still another branch was recorded as practicing the bōjutsu (as well as naginata) in Yonezawa-han. The Kusarigama is perhaps the best known fragment of the ryuha.

The original inspiration for the kusarigama is the ordinary scythe (kama) which was used by peasants to harvest crops and by infantrymen to clear out vegetation when on campaign. The Isshin-ryu tradition dictates that the claimed founder of Isshin-ryu, Nen Ami Jion, created the IR-kusarigama after receiving a vision of a divine being holding a scythe(kama) in one hand and a metal weight in the other.

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