Kashima Shrine
The characters "Kashima" 鹿島 are in honor of the deity enshrined in the Kashima Shrine located in Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture, who is supposed to have provided the divine inspiration ("shin" 神) for Kashima Shin-ryū. The earliest elements of the school are credited to "Kashima no Tachi", fencing techniques passed down by the priests of the Kashima Shrine following their creation by Kuninazu no Mahito in the 7th century. In Kashima Shinryū lore, Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami, assisted by Kunii Kagetsugu, refined and expounded on "Kashima no Tachi" into the basis of the modern school. After this development, they went their separate ways. Kunii Kagetsugu began what is now named the "sōke" lineage (and is credited as the 1st generation of such), based in Iwaki province and handed down through the Kunii family line. Conversely, Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami taught a large number of students, creating a number of martial lineages, often with characters reading "shinkage" in the name. In 1780, the 12th generation "sōke", Kunii Taizen Minamoto no Ritsuzan attained mastery in Jikishinkage-ryū, studying under Ono Seiemon Taira no Shigemasa. As Jikishinkage-ryū also traced its founding back to Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami, but passed down through Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami Fujiwara-no-Nobutsuna rather than the Kunii family, this lineage is recognized within Kashima Shinryū as the "shihanke" line, crediting Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami as the 1st generation. The "sōke" and "shihanke" lines remained united within the Kunii family until Kunii Zen'ya appointed Seki Humitake as his successor and the 19th generation "shihanke" while leaving his wife, Kunii Shizu, to carry on as the 19th generation "sōke".