Hosokawa Tadaoki
Sasaki Kojirō went by the fighting name of , which was also the name of the "kenjutsu" school he had founded. It is said that Sasaki studied the Chūjō-ryu of sword fighting from either Kanemaki Jisai or Toda Seigen. Toda Seigen was a master of the "kodachi". If Sasaki had indeed learned Chūjō-ryu from Seigen, he would have been his master's sparring partner. Due to his master's use of the kodachi, Sasaki used a "nodachi", or a long "katana", against him, therefore eventually excelling in its use. It was after defeating his master's younger brother that he left and founded the Ganryū. The first reliable account of his life states that in 1610, because of the fame of his school and his many successful duels, including once in the late 1500s when he fended off three opponents with a "tessen", Sasaki was honored by Lord Hosokawa Tadaoki as the chief weapons master of the Hosokawa fief in the north of Kyūshū. Sasaki later became skilled in wielding a "nodachi", and used one he called "monohoshizao" ("The Laundry-Drying Pole") as his main weapon.