Hokushin Ittō-ryū Swordsmanship Oath

　This is a scroll which has been passed down within the Hibiya Family (日比谷家). The second photograph shows the preface of the oath, which pledges not to divulge the secrets of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū (北辰一刀流) swordsmanship to others. The title on the bobbin reads “Hokushin Ittō-ryū Swordsmanship Oath” (Hokushin Ittō-ryū Shinmon-kan 北辰一刀流神門巻). As with a standard mastership license for this kind, this oath is rolled and kept in a crystal tube. It was given to Hibiya Kenjirō (日比谷健次郎) (1836–1886) by the Hokushin Ittō-ryū Genbukan Dōjō in the first year of the Meiji era (1868).

All Japanese names in this translation follow the Japanese order: surname-name, and all Japanese names and words follow the Hepburn romanization method.