Step into a working dojo where the discipline of the samurai has been preserved for over 340 years. Mugairyu Houtamakai is not a tourist performance: it is a living tradition that has carried its forms, its ethics, and its contemplative practices across the centuries, and guests are welcomed into the same space where its apprentices train today.

Two paths are offered. The Regular Lesson is a focused first encounter with samurai technique, attire, and bearing. The Luxury Lesson is a longer, more intimate session led personally by Master Takeda, the 17th-generation head of the school, that opens up the philosophical and contemplative dimensions of the sword.

❖Regular Lesson

1:00 h ~ (1 – 10 Participants)

Guided by senior apprentices of the Mugairyu Houtamakai school

In this one-hour session, guests learn and practice the fundamental techniques of the samurai under the guidance of senior apprentices of the Mugairyu Houtamakai school. While President Takeda oversees the school, the hands-on instruction and live demonstrations are led by his most accomplished students, allowing guests to gain practical skills and insight into samurai movement, etiquette, and form.

The session culminates in a cutting demonstration by an assistant instructor, showcasing the precision and disciplined beauty of Mugairyu technique within the authentic atmosphere of a working dojo, a tradition active for over 340 years.

What this lesson includes:

• Fitting and wearing of traditional samurai attire

• Cultural briefing on the samurai

• Sword handling and foundational Mugairyu movements

• Trial cutting with a wooden practice sword

• Cutting demonstration by an assistant instructor

• Personalized completion certificate

• Commemorative photograph in samurai armor

• Q&A session

❖Luxury Lesson

2:00 / 2:30 h ~ (1 – 20 Participants)

Under the personal guidance of Master Takeda, 17th-generation head of Mugairyu Houtamakai

The Luxury Lesson is a longer, more intimate session led personally by Master Takeda, the 17th-generation head of the Mugairyu Houtamakai school. Beyond hands-on technique, guests step into the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of the sword: Zen meditation, the ethical foundations of the samurai, and a personal demonstration by the master that few outside the school ever have the chance to witness.

What this lesson includes:

• Fitting and wearing of traditional samurai attire

• Zen meditation drawn from the school's training at Eirinji Temple, Yamanashi

• Talk on samurai spirituality, including the Five Virtues of the hakama

• Trial cutting with a wooden practice sword, guided by the principle of cutting yesterday's self

• Learning a traditional Mugairyu kata with 340 years of lineage

• Advanced cutting demonstration by an assistant instructor on tatami mats, allowing guests to witness the sharpness and precision of the sword first-hand

• Self-defense techniques: a senior apprentice attacks Master Takeda with a short dagger, who demonstrates classical Mugairyu defense

• Paired wooden-sword combat between two practitioners: a Mugairyu sparring demonstration

• Personal kata demonstration by Master Takeda, embodying the beauty and power of 340-year-old traditional forms

• Personalized completion certificate

• Commemorative photograph in samurai armor

• Q&A with Master Takeda
  

The philosophy of the sword

For guests who choose the Luxury Lesson, four threads of Mugairyu's contemplative tradition open up.

The Five Virtues. Reserved historically for the samurai class, the hakama (the traditional pleated trousers) carries five pleats. Each pleat names one of the Five Virtues that orient a warrior's life:

• Jin (仁): be kind to others

• Gi (義): do what is right

• Rei (礼): be courteous

• Chi (智): be wise

• Shin (信): be trustworthy

  
  

If a guest's interest invites it, Master Takeda extends the conversation toward how these virtues shape Mugairyu practice today.

Cut yesterday's self. In Mugairyu, the trial cut is not aimed at an enemy. Guests are guided to name a personal weakness, the apology never made to a family member, the homework set aside for play, and to direct the cut against that. The discipline points inward: the work of the sword is the work of the self.

The beauty of kata. Mugairyu kata are forms refined across 340 years. Their movements share a quiet aesthetic with the other classical Japanese arts, the tea ceremony and the art of flower arrangement, where precision, restraint, and presence of mind are the marks of mastery.

Zen at Eirinji Temple. Mugairyu's training tradition is rooted at Eirinji Temple in Yamanashi, where the school maintains a Zen practice integral to its swordsmanship. The Luxury Lesson includes a taste of this contemplative side, the still center from which the Mugairyu form draws its precision.