Genko Nito Ryu

Martial art with two swords

Genko Nito Ryu is a Iaido and Kenjutsu style which solely focuses on fighting with two swords.

The student is taught in Kata, Kumitachi and Tameshigiri with the Katana and the Wakizashi. The style is efficient and fight-oriented, the Kenjutsu and its effective, direct and lethal techniques are paramount.

The use of two swords is advandtageous, like Miyamoto Musashi had said before:” If you are capable of using both of your arms, Nito-Ryu is better than Itto-Ryu.”
Many practitioners find the equally usage of both arms to be more natural and fluent.

Genko Nito Ryu was developed by Niina Soke from Yamaguchi Ryu, Mugai Ryu and his long years of experience with many other martial arts.

Yamaguchi Ryu was founded by Yamaguchi Umanosuke Ietoshi “Bokushinsai”. He was born in the year 1582, the same year Miyamoto Musashi was born in. Then later on, one of Bokushinsai’s students added seven longsword and shortsword Kata to the style. The shortsword Kata were declared as “Ura” (hidden/ advanced techniques which were not shown publicly and taught only to selected students).

It was then Tsuji Gettan who, after many years of intensive Zazen, the seated Zen-meditiation, created a new style from Yamaguchi Ryu: Mugai Ryu. Through intensive Mugai Ryu training and the search for its roots in Yamaguchi Ryu we find the Nito-Ryu ( “Two-sword techniques”) from the time of Mugai Ryu’s origin.

There are 10 Iaido Kata and 45 Kumitachi forms in Genko Nito-Ryu.