What is "yoshin-ryu"

("The School of the Willow Heart") is a common name for one of several different martial traditions founded in Japan in the Edo Period. The most popular and well-known was the Yōshin-ryū line founded by physician Akiyama Shirōbei Yoshitoki in Nagasaki in 1632. The Akiyama line of Yōshin-ryū is perhaps the most influential school of jūjutsu to exist in Japan. By the late Edo Period, Akiyama Yōshin-ryū and its descendants had spread all over Japan. By the Meiji Era, Yōshin-ryū had even spread overseas to Europe and North America.

Yōshin-ryū is a traditional school of Japanese martial arts founded in the mid 17th century by Akiyama Yoshitoki. However, a number of other traditional martial arts schools were also named or referred to as Yōshin-ryū, including:

• Takagi Yōshin-ryū , founded in the mid 17th century by Takagi Oriemon Shigetoshi
• Hontai Yōshin-ryū , a branch of Takagi Yōshin-ryū
• Moto-ha Yōshin-ryū , a descendant of Hontai Yōshin-ryū
• Shindō Yōshin-ryū , a branch of Yōshin-ryū
• Yōshin-ryū (Yōshin Koryū) , founded c.1610 by Miura Yōshin