The founder of Mugai-ryū, Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi (辻月丹資茂) was born to Tsuji Yadayū descendant of Sasaki Shirō Tadatsuna, in the first year of Keian (1648, early Edo period), in the Masugi (馬杉) village area of Miyamura (宮村), in Kōga (甲賀郡) region of Ōmi (近江), now Shiga Prefecture.
[1] When he was 13 he went to Kyoto to study swordsmanship and at the age of 26 he received kaiden (full transmission) and opened a school in Edo (now Tokyo).
The most accepted theory is that he learned Yamaguchi-ryū [note 1] swordsmanship under Yamaguchi Bokushinsai, but earlier documents state he studied under Itō Taizen.
At the age of 32 he reached enlightenment and received from his Zen teacher a formal poem taken from the Buddhist scriptures as an acknowledgment and proof of his accomplishment.
"There is nothing other than the One True Way As vast as Heaven and Earth may be, only the Way can create this single Righteous Virtue The One True Way dwells in our hearts and its sharpness can slice a fluttering feather in two And the purest light radiates whenever It manifests"The earlier documents on the school opened by Tsuji Gettan were lost in 1695, when a great fire hit Edo.
As an evidence, his writing Mugai Shinden Kenpō Ketsu[note 7] shows heavy influences from Zen and Chinese philosophy.
The tombs of Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi's successors are kept at the Nyoraiji temple (如来寺), which is now in Nishiōi (西大井町), Shinagawa (品川区), Tokyo.
In the Meiji Era, two of the most famous swordsmen in Japan were from Mugai-ryū, both being appointed as Hanshi by Dai Nippon Butokukai: Takahashi Kyūtarō (1859-1940) from Himeji and Kawasaki Zensaburō (1860-1944) from Tosa.
[note 16] He did not appoint a successor, but awarded several menkyo kaiden (full transmission), and his students continue to teach the school and several new lines have been established, each with their own sōke.
Although there are some minor variations according to the lineage, the base curriculum of the school can be considered as follows:[6] Apart from these, there is a set called Naiden (内伝), taught only for the advanced students.
This is apparent in his explanation of the densho called Yōhō(Mochiikata) Nijūgoka-ji(Nijūgoka no koto) (用方二十五箇事), where he admits his ignorance about the concept of "misumi" (三角), for instance.