Kashima Shrine
Yamaoka was born in Edo (present-day Tokyo) as Ono Tetsutaro, where his father was a retainer of the Tokugawa shogunate and his mother was the daughter of a Shinto priest from Kashima Shrine. Yamaoka practiced swordsmanship from the age of nine, starting in the "Jikishinkage-ryū" tradition. After that he learned "Hokushin Ittō-ryū" from Inoue Hachirō, who was asked by Yamaoka Tesshū's father to teach his son. Later his family moved to Takayama where he began the "Nakanishi-ha Ittō-ryū" style of fencing. When he was seventeen, he returned to Edo and joined the government's "Kobukan" Military Institute and the Yamaoka School of Spear Fighting under Yamaoka Seizan. Not long after Yamaoka had joined the "dojo", Seizan died, Yamaoka went on to marry Seizan's sister in order to carry on the Yamaoka name. From an early age, Yamaoka showed dedication and talent in the practice of martial arts. As he grew up, he became well known for several things: his swordsmanship, calligraphy, drinking and sleeping.