The original picture is from Bujinden Honbu Dojo
Takamatsu (Chosui) Toshitsugu was born on the 10th November 1889 in Akash, Hyôgo prefecture. Takamatsu was a small child bullied by others. At 9 years of age, his father took him to be taught by Toda Shinryûken Masamitsu, hoping his son would become a soldier in the army. Initially, Takamatsu did not like budo practice in the slightest. Toda-sensei first instructed him in Shinden Fudo Ryu Dakentaijutsu, in which the boy received his Menkyo Kaiden as a 13 year old. He later received tuition in other old martial arts from his sensei, such as Koto ryu, Grokko ryu, Gyokushin ryu, Kumogakure ryu, and Togakure ryu.
Takamatsu’s second instructor was Mizuta Yoshitarō Tadafusan from whom he learnt Takagi Yoshin ryu, earning his Menkyo Kaiden in this art as a 17 year old. Takamatsu’s father owned a match factory and employed an old samurai named Ishitani Matsutarô Takakage as its guard. This man took on Takamatsu as his apprentice, and Takamatsu inhereted Kukishinden ryu, Hontai Youshin Takagi ryu, Shinden Muso ryu and Gikan ryu from Ishitani, who ultimately died in his apprentice’s arms.
Due to a hearing impairment caused by an challenge match, Takamatsu did not get to join the army. As a young adult, however, he travelled to Manchuria in China and to Mongolia, where he worked for influential locals and had to fight for his life on many occasions. There he received the nickname Môko no Tora (蒙古の虎), ‛The Mongolian Tiger’. He visited China twice, and on his second trip became spokesman for a Sino-Japanese martial arts organisation. He was also a renowned instructor of martial arts there. Upon his final return to Japan in 1919, he was ordained as the priest of a small Tendai temple where he soon rose to leadership. At the same time, he assisted the Kuki family, whose ancestor had founded Kukishinden ryu, in returning that branch of martial arts to them. The contemporary patriarch at the time Kuki Takaharu in particular wished to reinstate his family’s traditions, as a few generations previous, the art had died out in his family. Takamatsu was able to study old texts and such things preserved by the Kuki family. The Kukishin ryu had branched out into several different branches at that point, and Takamatsu helped them found the Kukishin Shobukyoku organisation. Iwami Nangaku became the organisation’s head of instruction in traditional martial arts. When he became terminally ill, he requested Takamatsu take on the responsibility for teaching, but Takamatsu declined the request, eventually founding his own dojo Kashihara Shobukyoku in Nara. His correspondence with Kuki Takaharu continued, from which it can be understood he departed the organisation on amicable terms. A part of the Amatsu Tatara texts were unfortunately destroyed during the Tokyo bombings in WWII, after which Takamatsu made copies of the texts from his notes and entrusted them to the Kuki family in 1949. He later married and opened a restaurant in Kahiwabara Nara. There, he had Budo students and maintained a lively correspondence with many contemporaneous martial arts masters in Japan, His dojo was named Sakushin, which means ‛spiritual development’ or ‛spiritual strengthening’.
In 1957, Takamatsu met Masaaki Hatsumi who became his apprentice in martial arts for the following fifteen years, and to whom Takamatsu bequeathed his title of Grand Master of his schools.
Takamatsu passed away on 2nd April 1972.
