Hasegawa Eishin — Seventh Headmaster of the Hayashizaki Lineage and Founder of Hasegawa Eishin-ryu The swordsman known in English as Hasegawa Eishin—more fully Hasegawa Chikaranosuke Eishin ( 長谷川主税助英信 ) , or Hidenobu—is the figure from whom Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu takes the second half of its name. In the orthodox lineage claimed by that school he is counted as the seventh-generation successor to Hayashizaki Jinsuke Minamoto no Shigenobu, the late-sixteenth-century originator of the seated and standing drawing methods that later generations called iai or batto. In another, equally traditional reckoning he is not merely a transmitter but the school’s founder ( ryuso ): the man who recast an older tachi art for the katana of the early Edo period and whose personal name became the style’s designation. A biography of Hasegawa must begin with a caution. Almost nothing about him can be fixed with the precision expected of a modern life. Japanese encyclopedic treatments state that h...
