Nishioka Tsuneo
Encyclopedia
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese martial artist and the founder of the Shinto Muso-ryu
Shinto Muso-ryu
, most commonly known by its practice of jōdō, is a traditional school of the Japanese martial art of jōjutsu, or the art of wielding the short staff . The technical purpose of the art is to learn how to defeat a swordsman in combat using the jō, with an emphasis on proper combative distance,...
Jōdō
Jodo
, meaning "the way of the jō", or is a Japanese martial art using short staffs called jō. The art is similar to bōjutsu, and is strongly focused upon defense against the Japanese sword. The jō is a short staff, usually about 3 to 5 feet long...
group Sei Ryu Kai (清隆会). As of 2002, Nishioka has been teaching at the Bunbukan in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan.
Nishioka Tsuneo started his training in Shinto Muso Ryu (神道夢想流) under Shimizu Takaji (清水隆次) in 1938 at the age of 14. Nishioka studied constantly with Shimizu Takaji until Shimizu’s death in 1978. Nishioka received his first scroll of transmission (Oku-iri) in 1941, the second (Shomokuroku) in 1943 and (Gomokuroku) in 1966. In 1975 Nishioka received his Menkyo Kaiden or "license of full transmission" from Shimizu Takaji. During the above timeline Nishioka started teaching and training with the Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei (ZenKenRen) but has ceased to be involved with them and has only returned to teach occasionally
Nishioka created the Sei Ryu Kai in honor of Shimizu Takaji after his death by using the kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
found in his name to form Sei (or Shi) 清；Ryu 隆 –and Kai 会, which could be interpreted as “Shimizu Takaji’s” group Nishioka actively teaches people in Japan and hosts several students from around the world. He heads several international groups and through them has traveled the globe several times through the years to teach Shinto Muso Ryu Jo and spread the art.