12 essays on spear/Hōzōinryū written by Kagita Chūbee (1957 - 2011), 20th sōke (headmaster) of the Hōzōinryū.

First published in the Nara town magazine Ubusuna, 2009.

Essays by the 20th sōke of the Hōzōinryū

Written by Kagita Chūbee, 20th sōke of the Hōzōinryū

Yagyū and Hōzōin

The region called Yagyū1 was located 36 km away from Kyōto and more than 10 km away from Nara. In the East it bordered upon the province of Iga which made it very easy to obtain information about the powerful clans in all of Japan2. Due to its abundance of water the region was very fertile. Furthermore Yagyū together with Nara and Iga was an area that produced a lot of martial artists, amongst others the Yagyū clan with the sword, Hōzōin Inei and Takada Matabee with the spear, Bōan3 with naginata and spear, Heki Danjō Masatsugu4 with bow and arrow or the members of the ninja school Igaryū.