Hōzōin Inshun
Japanese monk and martial artist (1589–1648)
Hōzōin Zeneibō Inshun (宝蔵院 禅栄房胤舜, 1589 to February 5, 1648) was a monk and a martial artist who lived in the early Edo period. He was an Inju (the chief of a temple) of Hozoin Temple, which was a branch temple of Kōfuku-ji temple in Nara Prefecture. He was accomplished at the Hōzōin-ryū sōjutsu School of spearmanship, which was founded by Hōzōin In'ei and features the use of a Jumonji kama-yari (a cross-shaped spear with a sickle on both sides of the blade)
Biography
Inshun was a descendant of a goshi (country samurai) in Yamashiro Province. He was In'ei's nephew and entered the Hōzōin in 1602 when In'ei was already an old man of 81 years. Inshun was not trained in Hōzōin-ryū sōjutsu by In'ei but instructed by an old monk from the Okuzōin (a monastery in the neighborhood of the Hōzōin temple), who had been Inei's direct disciple. One year prior to his death (in 1607) In'ei forbade sōjutsu training. This should have led to the extinction of at least the monastery line of the school. However, after In'ei's death, Inshun restarted his trainings and lifted the order. Inshun formed foundations for the prosperity of Hōzōin-ryū in the Edo period. He established Urajuippon shikimoku (裏十一本式目, eleven "back" techniques of the Hōzōin's spearmanship).
The public source identifies “Hōzōin Inshun” as japanese monk and martial artist (1589–1648). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hōzōin, Inshun and Japanese.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q10490430. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1589, 1648, 1602 and 1607.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hōzōin Inshun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.