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As his years of training piled up, however, Innei became more and more interested in a corollary art of both ryu, the methods of the spear, called sojutsu. The young priest concentrated his energies on the spear, polishing his skill and gradually incorporating his own ideas into his practice. On afternoons after the day’s devotional liturgy were finished, the air of the temple courtyard hummed as Innei’s spear cut through it in sojutsu’s precise thrusts and sweeps. It wasn’t long before many of the monks watching Innei begged their abbot to teach, and thus was born the Hozoin ryu.

By the mid-1500s, the Hozoin had become a pilgrimage site, not just for members of the Kegon sect, but for wandering martial artists as well, who wished to test their abilities. According to legend, a young, aspiring swordsman named Miyamoto Musashi paid a visit to the temple. In reality, through the gates of the Hozoin passed many of that age’s greatest martial arts masters. Yagyu Muneyoshi and his son, Yagyu Munenori, founders of the Yagyu Shinkage school of fencing, were acquaintances of the master Innei. Okuyama Kimishige, headmaster of the Okuyama ryu, visited, as did Ono Jiroemon Tadaaki, second headmaster of the Itto ryu, and Toda Shigemasa, of the Toda style of swordsmanship. For so small a temple as the Hozo to have been the center of so much exalted attention, not to mention the hordes of lesser known warriors who journeyed there for a match or lesson, the methods of the ryu must have been truly impressive. Unfortunately, we know comparatively little of the Hozoin spear techniques. There is a Hozoin ryu still in existence, but its movements have been changed considerably. About twenty kata with the spear used in the manner of the Hozoin ryu are still extant, most of them featuring the school’s most distinctive technique. This involves thrusting the blade and tip of the spear toward the joints of an opponent’s body, at the knee, for example, or under the arm, and then twisting the weapon forcefully in a circular motion that bends the joint, throwing the opponent as neatly as any judo throw.