[2] He learned under Bangoro Shibukawa of the Shibukawa-ryū, an offpsring of the Sekiguchi-ryu school, and he was soon among the four greatest jujutsu artists of Kyushu, along with Danzo Naka, Shogo Uehara and Hansuke Nakamura.

[3] In 1854, after 27 years of local career, he left for mainland Japan in order to learn new styles, carrying from Shibukawa the final lesson of always being prepared to die in every randori he fought.

[2][4] He first landed in Ōmi Province, where he briefly trained under Eizaemon Naomura of Kitō-ryū, but he did not like its ways and eventually moved to Tokyo, where he became a trainee under Hikosuke Totsuka of Yōshin-ryū at the Kobusho.

On April 19, 1859, fighting on behalf of Shimosaka, Hisatomi fought a challenge against Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū artists, losing to Otonojo Yamada yet defeating Teinosuke Yagi.

The same date on 1863, in a similar challenge, Hisatomi dominated Chiyokichi Mochida (who later changed his name to Hachinosuke Fukuda) and Jiro Yamamoto, failing to finish them yet giving the best performance of his team that day.