Mitamura Akinori (美田村顕教)
Akinori MITAMURA (January 16, 1850 - January 10, 1931) was a martial artist (the 14th head of Tendo school) from the former Kameoka Domain of Tanba Province (Kameyama Domain of Tanba Province). A person who established the basis of today's popularity of naginata jutsu (art of Japanese halberd) of the Tendo school. His common name was Okanosuke, and his Gago (pseudonym) was Yaegaki.
In 1849, he was born in Kameyama, Tanba Province (today's Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture) as the grandson of Masaaki MITAMURA, who was a feudal retainer of Kameyama Domain of Tanba Province, and became a disciple of the 12th Tendo school, Kazune SHIMOGAWARA, who was a grandmaster of swordplay of the Tendo school of the domain in 1858. In 1859, the following year, he succeeded the family at the age of 11. Since 1860, he also learned from the Okura group at the Heki school, Japanese horse-back archery technique from the Otsubo new school, the art of spearing from the Kuden and the Inatomi schools, in addition to the Tendo school.
When the Tenchu-gumi incident occurred in 1863, he guarded the outside of the Imadegawa Gomon of the Imperial Palace. In 1864, the following year, as the Domain employed a Western military style, he learned Western gunnery at the Takashima school and Dutch and British military sciences, and received a license to teach gunnery from the Takashima school in 1868.
He got married in January 1871, and after Haihan-chiken (abolition of feudal domains and establishment of prefectures) in August 1871, he started a business that included paper production and timber, but was not successful at it. During this period, he mastered photography.
He lamented the tendency after the Meiji Restoration for the introduction of Western products of culture and the fading of Japanese traditional values, and some people including Akinori established Seitokusha in Kameoka (the name was changed from Kameyama in 1869). Akinori became a sword teacher, and instructed sword fencing at Enshukan, a martial arts school of Seitokusha.
(Enshukan was incorporated into the Nanso branch of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai (Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society) in 1903.)
In 1891, he inherited the style from the 13th Tendo school Ikkaku SHIMOGAWARA. Since Akinori was good at naginata jutsu among all the techniques of the Tendo school, his activity as a naginata teacher increased, and he not only performed the naginata jutsu of the Tendo school in front of the Imperial family, but also instructed at a training hall of the House of Viscount Nishinotoin. Thereafter, he successively held the positions of naginata teacher at Doshisha Girls' School (today's Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts), Kyoto Prefectural First and Second Girls' High Schools, Shiga Prefectural Women's Normal School, and other schools. He also instructed naginata at Shubukan, a training hall of the Konishi family who also founded the Konishi Shuzo brewery.
(The technique of the sword taught at the Tendo school by Akinori is employed in 'Shubukan Oku no kata' (combination arts and deep arts of Shubukan Training Hall), one of the determined sword fencing forms by Shubukan.)
In 1904, he was appointed to assistant professor of sword fencing and naginata jutsu (art of Japanese halberd) at the headquarters of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, so he moved to Kyoto City where the headquarters are.
In 1924, he received naginata jutsu Hanshi (the top rank).
Died on January 10, 1931. Died at the age of 83. The style was inherited by his adopted daughter Chiyo MITAMURA, who was his biological niece.