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The Legacy of Chin Gempin
by Wayne Muromoto
What are the early origins of Japanese unarmed fighting arts?
Most Japanese martial arts historians attribute the earliest beginnings to sumo-like techniques, coupled with battlefield experiences of grappling. Subsequently, there arose in the Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama periods the earliest documented and extant fighting arts that included unarmed techniques.
The Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu, for example, although primarily a composite weapons system, has unarmed grappling in its curriculum.
Daito-ryu adherents claim that their system's origins lie in the methods formulated by Minamoto Yoshimitsu, which were then taught in secret for centuries until the Edo and modern period. However, while this might indeed be so, there are insufficiant public documentation to trace the system past the Edo period.
While we may not be able to therefore accurately pinpoint the very earliest martial ryu (system) that established a system of unarmed fighting, the Takeuchi-ryu (or Takenouchi-ryu) can be considered as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, and certainly among the oldest ryu still in existence that can trace its lineage back over 450 years with actual documentation and corroboration. Even then, notes in the ryu's scrolls indicate that it was but one of several ryu that focused on unarmed or lightly-armed combat. Thus, there were indeed other unarmed fighting arts at the time of its founding.
When speaking of unarmed fighting arts of Japan, there are systems that stress grappling in armor (yoroi kumi-uchi), fighting in close quarters or on the ground (kumi-uchi; za-ai kumi-uchi), the use of breath and hara ("inner energy") (aiki), striking (atemi, kempo, hade), throwing and standing locks and counters (torite, toh-shihade, jujutsu, yawara, etc.) and so on.
Confusion begins first when modern-day practitioners think that the current kempo ("fist-method") is somehow related to what was considered kempo in the ancient annals.
They're not.
There is also no small amount of misinformation when such beliefs are further compounded by a misreading of other English texts. This has led to some people claiming that all Japanese martial arts had their roots in China, or that a variation of modern-day kempo was taught in very ancient times in Japan, and that modern adherents of what is called kempo are therefore the inheritors of an ancient legacy. Again, this just ain't so.
Let us take a deeper look at the historical record. First, the passage by Donn F. Draeger. He notes that Chin Gempin (Ch'en Yuan-pin; 1587-1674) was a:
Chinese-born, naturalized Japanese. . .traditionally believed to have taught three ronin in Edo three tactics (not methods) of ch'uan-fa.
The three were Fukuno Shichiroemon, Miura Yojiemon, and Isogai Jirozaemon. The claim that Chinese martial arts were the sole basis of early Japanese unarmed systems, Draeger writes, is ". . . as valid as implying that the inventor of the wheel was the developer of the modern automobile."
Records show that jujutsu systems existed full-blown before Chin Gempin's time, and the three ronin also had, according to Draeger, jujutsu skills prior to meeting Gempin. But Gempin did, obviously, have a tremendous impact on the development of Chinese-style striking and boxing methods in jujutsu. Chinese Ch'uan-fa, boxing and striking methods developed for unarmed combat, were referred to by the Japanese as hakuda or shuhaku, "to beat by hand," or kempo ("fist methods"), a term applied to all methods used to fight in a boxing manner. (1)
Draeger probably drew on the most famous reference to Chin Gempin (or Genpin), found in the Honcho Bugei Shoden, retranslated into understandable colloquial modern Japanese by Watatani Kiyoshi.
The original Honchi Bugei Shoden was one of the first compilations of extant martial ryu of Japan, by an expert of the Toda-ryu, Hinonatsu Shigetaka, written in Shotoku 4 (1714 A.D.) and published and distributed in 1716. It was also called the Kanjo Shoden.
Watatani Kiyoshi deciphered the text, written originally in kanbun (all Chinese characters), along with a translation of the Shinsen Bujutsu Ryuso Mokuroku. He added considerable footnotes and explanations in the publication Nihon Bugei Shoden (1962; published by Jinbutsu Oraisha, Tokyo, Japan).
In the tenth scroll of the Honcho Bugei Shoden, there is a section attempting to describe the history of the arts of kempo. Draeger apparently drew greatly from the Watatani source, and let us see what he and the original author of the Honcho Bugei Shoden have to say.
In the aforementioned section of the Honcho Bugei Shoden, Hinonatsu Shigetaka writes that:
. . . A person named Chin Gempin came to our country and for a time was at the Azabu Kokushoji temple in Edo (present day Tokyo).
Three ronin visited the temple on occaision, met with Gempin and discussed various issues. Gempin told them, "In China,, there are methods in which you can subdue other people. It's not that I know those particular techniques, but I've had many chances to observe and hear about them."
Gempin described the methods to the three ronin, who tried to reconstruct the techniques, thereby formulating their own methods. This, the Honcho Bugei Shoden writes, "is the origins of yawara (jujutsu). These three spread the knowledge throughout the rest of Japan."
The discrepancies are obvious. Even in the same Honcho Bugei Shoden, there are lists and records of various jujutsu systems that existed long before the era of the three ronin and Chin Gempin.
But let us continue with the text. Hinonatsu further states:
The philosophy of this method is that you do not fight directly with an opponent, rather you are flexible and pliable, not even seeking victory, but to search for peace. . . thereby subduing the opponent. (2)
Watatani goes further, drawing on various sources to discuss the errors inherent in the document and adding other facts drawn from other sources about the origins and development of boxing-type martial arts in the West and Asia. He has a very interesting paragraph about the Buddhist monk Boddhidharma's legacy as well as the difference between what the Japanese (and Chinese) call (in Japanese) the gaike ("external" styles) and naike ("internal" styles) of Chinese martial arts.
Watatani discusses the known history of unarmed combative systems in Japan. Then he returns to a more detailed research of Chin Gempin based on extrapolating information in the Honcho Bugei Shoden, the Bujutsu Ryusoroku, Honcho Seijidan, Kokushi Daijiten and so on. Chin, Watatani writes, originally was from the Kaolin (?) district of China, and the first time he came to Japan was in the spring of Genna 7 (1621), at the age of 35. Some years later, he returned to China, underwent the civil service examinations, and for a time served in the government. Because of wars and unrest, Chin returned to Japan with three other companions in Kan'ei 15 (1638), for a while residing in the port town of Nagasaki. He later moved to Edo. In Manji 2 (1659), upon orders from the Shogun government, the four were assigned to various fiefs.
Chin went to the han (feif) of Owari, ruled by a branch of the Tokugawa family. He moved to the city of Nagoya and was granted a stipend of 60 koku, which is a measure of wealth based on rice bales. In later years, Chin resided in Kodoken Machi, Owari. He was known as a skillful calligrapher and artist, and created a particular style of tea ceremony ceramics using Seto clay, called Gempin-yaki. Sources say that he was very skilled in Japanese and betrayed no trace of a Chinese accent in his Japanese conversations. Gempin died at the age of 85 in Kambun 11 (1671).
Apparently, Gempin must have stayed in Azabu Kokushiji temple before he was relocated to Nagoya.
Based on these books and other documentations, Watatani believes that there are some discrepancies. For one, the Kokushoji temple was not yet built at Azabu; its reconstruction at the Azabu site was after a great fire destroyed the original temple building. However, notes in other scrolls of that period place Fukuno Shichirouemon as having lived earlier than that; i.e., Fukuno reached his maturity circa the Genwa era (1615-1623) and was known by then for his jujutsu methods, called the Ryoi Shinto Yawara. It was also called the Fukuno-ryu in scrolls of the Kito-ryu and Shinshin-ryu. The other ronin, Miura Shinjiuemon, according to the Bujutsu Ryusoroku, made a mark during the Eiroku period (1558-1560), and therefore was in his prime much earlier than the last coming of Chin Gempin. Sekiguchi Jushin, as well, lived much earlier than the last arrival of Chin.
Watatani notes that such unarmed combative forms originated in Japan long before Chin's arrival in peacetime Edo, and especially indicates that the Takeuchi-ryu (or Takenouchi-ryu), founded by Takeuchi Nakazudaiyu Hisamori has koshi no mawari and kogusoku methods that predate Chin's arrival by several hundred years.
He adds that records exist that indicate Miyamoto Musashi, the famous swordsman and author of Gorin No Sho (Book of Five Rings) lived some decades prior to Gempin's arrival, and he, too, wrote and developed an unarmed system of combat, although it seems that the system has not survived intact to this day.
Do we therefore discount entirely all of the accounts of Chin Gempin? I would be of the opinion that we take Draeger's analysis, note it and then consider that Chin Gempin might indeed have had a marked influence on the development of Edo-period jujutsu, but that whatever influence he had, it certainly didn't mean Gempin was the "father" of Japanese unarmed combative arts.
There are periods in Japanese history when borrowing and adapting from another culture is extensive, and anything connected to that root culture is given great prestige. (Note the value placed, for eample, on Gucci handbags and other European designer products, such as Mercedes, by modern-day Japanese fashion mongers.) Various jujutsu ryu might have attributed more than was true to the influence of Chin Gempin due to his great knowledge of Mainland Chinese culture, thereby obfuscating the age of native martial arts.
However, as the Honcho Bugei Shoden itself states, Gempin did discuss hitherto unknown boxing methods with Japanese jujutsu adepts, and markedly influenced all subsequent unarmed grappling methods during the Edo period. While therefore not as monumental as being the "father of Japanese jujutsu," the Chinese scholar Chin Gempin may thus be, at the very least, a very important influence on premodern Japanese martial arts.
Footnotes
(1) P. 112-113, The Martial Arts and Ways of Japan, v.II: Classical Budo, by Donn F. Draeger, John Weatherhill, Inc., 7-6-13 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, Japan. 1973 edition.
(2) P. 357, Nihon Budo Shoden, By Watatani Kiyoshi. Jinbutsu Oraisha, 12-gokan, Mitsubishi Naka, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 1962.
Copyright ©Tengu Press and Wayne Muromoto. All rights reserved.