ZIRAN MARTIAL ARTS LINEAGE AND HISTORY
PART 2 - No Shadow Fist Shaolin Gongfu
& Musoryu Jujitsu Lineage
This section will briefly describe the history of individuals listed in the lineage for No Shadow Fists (Wu Ying Quan) Shaolin Gongfu and for Ogoshi Musoryu Jujitsu. The other lineages shown here, Choy Lay Fut and Wing Tsun, (Wing Chun) will not be discussed in this article as we use them as auxiliary disciplines and they are not our primary focus at Ziran Martial Arts.
Muso Ryu Jujitsu Lineage 一流天下無双流
Musoryu is a branch of classical Japanese Jujitsu specific to Kagawa Prefecture. It was prevalent prior to WWII. It included swordsmanship and other weapons, a striking art, joint manipulation and grappling, along with multiple other areas of discipline. The portions that have been passed on to us include specific sword strategies, staff work, tekken (steel knuckles fighting), grappling and joint locking. The joint locking aspects are reminiscent of taihou justu, the police art of apprehending and controlling arrestees. Muso Ryu was practiced by police in the Ogoshi area of Kagawa Prefecture.
Kaneiki Bunzo （金生文蔵） （B?- 1923）
Kaneiki Takasaburo （金生隆三郎）(1898-1954)
Kaneiki Takasaburo was the last known person to receive Menkyo Kaidansho for Muso Ryu Jujitsu in Kagawa Prefecture. Kaneiki, Iwao, my teacher was in possession of two of the scrolls for Muso Ryu. I was allowed to photograph them in order to work on translations. He later donated them to a museum in order to preserve them. The other scrolls are believed to have been lost in a flood.
Kaneiki Toshiaki （金生利明）(1932-2009)
Kanieiki Toshiaki was one of three brothers. According to Kaneiki Sensei, all three of the brothers were required to train with the police to black belt level and then were taught to lineage level in different areas of study. Toshiaki was taught the joint manipulation specialization, while one of his brothers was taught swordsmanship and the other the striking disciplines of the art. Later all three brothers would share their skills with Kaneiki Iwao in the hopes of passing on Muso Ryu Jujitsu.
Kaneiki Toshiaki （金生利明）(1932-2009)
Kaneiki Iwao （金生岩男）
Kaneiki Iwao was taught Muso Ryu as a child, first by his father and then with the assistance of his uncles. His father encouraged him to pursue his interest in the martial arts, and especially No Shadow Fist and Taijiquan, suggesting that they also would help support his growth in Muso Ryu because of similarities in the mechanics and strategies.
No Shadow Fist Lineage 無影拳
Li Sigong (李師傳)
Li Sigong (Grandmaster Li) was a master of No Shadow Fist. He became ill and received medical treatment from Zhang Keming, (see below,) another martial arts master and doctor of Chinese Medicine. Li shared No Shadow Fist with Zhang and recognized him as a lineage holder. Li’s first name is not known and details about him are scarce in that they were passed on verbally from Zhang Sigong to our Grandmaster, Kaneiki Iwao.
Zhang, Keming Sigong （張克明師傳）
Zhang, Keming traveled by boat to Japan from Shanghai in the early 1970’s. like many other masters, he had fled China to avoid the restrictive communist rule. Kaneiki Sensei described believed that Zhang was in his fifties or sixties at the time. Zhang was a master of the Shaolin school of Wu In Quan （無影拳）, (Mueiken in Japanese,) "No Shadow Fist" in English, as well as Crying Crane （鳴鶴拳）and a branch of Chen Style Taijiquan. After his three years of teaching Kaneiki Sensei, (described below), it is unclear if Zhang moved to another part of Japan, returned to China, or traveled elsewhere. There are some indications that he may have taught elsewhere in Japan and eventually returned to China, via Hong Kong, but there has been no way to solidly verify this so far.
Kaneiki, Iwao 金生岩男(1959-)
Kaneiki Iwao is a Doctor of Chinese Chiropractic Medicine and Acupuncture, based in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Japan. He is also a master martial artist of several Chinese martial arts and his family art of Ogoshi Musoryu Jujitsu.
Kaneiki, Iwao first learned Muso Ryu Jujitsu from his father and uncles as a child, starting early and then learning more intensively from age seven. When his father went through an extended period of illness and was unable to teach his son regularly, he enrolled Iwao in Okinawan Gojuryu around the age of ten. Later as an adult, Kaneiki once more was able to continue his training and delve deeper into Muso Ryu with his father’s and uncles’ guidance and through additional historical research.
At the age fourteen, Kaneiki was an exceptionally tall and athletic youth. Once while practicing kicks in a park, he was spotted by a Chinese man named Zhang Keming （張克明. He would become Iwao`s mentor during an intense three year apprenticeship. The training took place from the age of 15 to 18. After graduating junior high school Iwao opted to work while studying under Master Zhang instead of attending high school. During the day Kaneiki worked as a welder and riveter in a shipyard, working on the hulls in narrow spaces inside of ships. Because of his large size and independence, he was treated as an adult by employees, who overlooked his age. Every night, from 9:00-12:00 he would meet with his teacher to train at a Buddhist temple in called Kannon Temple (観音寺）. Incidentally, it is the 69th temple of the famous 88 temple pilgrimage of Shikoku, should anyone wish to visit.
During the period of study with Master Zhang, Iwao never once missed a training session. His teacher's policy was: "If you miss a practice, don’t bother to come back." Early in this training, there was one other student, but he failed to live up to these standards and was dismissed. After three years of concentrated training, Iwao was trained thoroughly in No Shadow Fist (NSF) and received licensure in the system. At age 16-17 he tested himself by going to various Dojo and conducting "dojo yaburi" which may be politely translated as "issuing challenges.” It literally means “dojo busting”. He commented during one interview in the summer of 2006 that he was only beaten twice and implied with a glint in his eye, that this was only a small percentage of his mischief during his teen years. I have heard a number of stories from my teacher and from witnesses about various exploits around Kagawa during his earlier days as a martial artist. Kaneiki's teacher master Zhang ultimately returned to China. He did comment that getting beaten was quite painful and also made him feel so upset that he found no outlet but to train harder.
As a portion of the Wu In Quan system taught by Zhang, Kaneiki learned a Chen Style taijiquan condensed fighting form of Canon Fist. This was his first exposure to taijiquan.
At the age of 18, Kaneiki Iwao traveled to Hong Kong and studied Chinese Medicine from1977 and continued to learn a variety of martial arts, both during his first stay and on many future visits. Notably, he studied Choy Lay Fut under Grandmaster Lee Koon Hong and Wing Tsun (Wing Chun) under Grandmaster Leung Ting and later under Grandmaster Alan Fong.
Some specifics of his taijiquan studies are included in the Part 1 of the Lineage article within this blog. Additional details will be shared in our upcoming ZMA Student Guide and Volume One of the No Shadow Fist instructional manual series also currently being revised.
Kaneiki Sensei founded the Buyuu Kai （武勇会）and taught NSF in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture and then later returned to Kagawa Prefecture and continued the school there.
Sources:
1. Interviews with Kaneiki Iwao August 2006, July 2009, August 2011, July 2015, July, August 2016, 2018 Kagawa Japan, regarding biographical information and documented telephone conversations/ emails through the most recent update.
© Seth Davis 2022
Last Update August, 2022
