In 1471 Kageyuzaemon’s friend at the Chuujou-ryu Dojo, Asakura Takakage took up arms against his lord Shiba and became the ruler of Echizen. Kageyuzaemon and Yamazaki Ukyounosuke Shougan joined Takakage and fought with him to make him the ruler. Their teacher Kai Yoshihisa and his clan were against Takakage, but after several battles finally he lost and died.
Kageyuzaemon was chosen as 6th souke of Chuujou-ryu. However, when the new Asakura goverment settled down, he gave that title and position to Yamazaki and left Chuujou-ryu to find his own way. He started making his own style based on Chuujou-ryu’s precept ‘Avoid fighting’ with adopting good parts of other styles. He devoted himself to his studies and training, and then reached the point of “ my mind has no limited line like the sky and it is empty”. He founded Mukushin-ryu.
Since he was a successor of Chuujou-ryu once, he considered Yamazaki (he didn’t want to take Yamazaki’s students away from his Dojo), he had taught only his family and relatives and his retainers whom he could trust.
Meanwhile, Oda Nobunaga was gaining his power quickly and Asakura lost the battle with Oda in 1573. There were several battles between Asakura and Oda before 1573, but this was the final for the Asakura clan.
It was the time of the 4th generation of Mukushin-ryu souke. The Ohashi family fought for their lord Asakura. They shared in Asakura’s fate, and Mukushin-ryu seemed to disappear. But a few pupils who survived the battle passed it on to coming generations. They passed on Mukushin-ryu orally. For that reason there aren’t so many documents left. Some soukes' names are still unknown.
Mukushin Ryu was developed during Sengoku jidai. There are many categories in this style because this style is for real battlefields. Mukushin-ryu has Kenjutsu as a main subject, Iai, Kodachi, Jou-jutsu(staff/stick), Han-jou-jutsu(half length staff), Sou-jutsu(spear), Tai-juts(empty hand) and Shuriken. Also there are Kyuu-jutsu(Japanese archery), Ba-jutsu(horsemanship), and Hou-jutsu(gunnery).
Brief History of Mukushin Ryu