In January 2024 an unexpected stroke of luck occurred – the THRG succeeded in acquiring for its collection a cash of documents which probably belonged to the 10^th shihanke of the Taku Taisha-ryū line of Hizen province (modern-day Saga prefecture) – Nabeshima Ōsumi (鍋島大隅; 1764-1848) – a senior statesman of the Nabeshima domain.

The most wonderful discovery was that among the documents, there was also an extremely rare original manuscript of the Taisha-ryū Kaichū (タイ捨流解紐) – only the second one in existence (the other being in the Nabeshima collection of the Saga Prefectural Library). The manuscript is 2/3 complete and has suffered some insect and structural damage, but it ranks as one of the most important pieces in the collection of Hyōhō Taisha-ryū. The collection also includes a full copy of the initiation vow of Yamamoto Tsunetomo into Taisha-ryū, dated to 1680, of which only the contents of the latter half were known to date.

Among the other documents are certificates and transmission papers of the Anegawa-ryū school of spearmanship and the Heki-ryū school of archery, beside others.

G.K.