It is said the Tachikawa-ryu school was founded in the Kamakura period by a monk of Esoteric Buddhism, Ninkan, and perfected in the period of the Northern and Southern Courts by Monkan who became the gojiso (a priest who prays to guard the emperor) to Emperor Godaigo.
立川流は鎌倉時代に密教僧である仁寛によって開かれ、南北朝時代に後醍醐天皇の護持僧となった文観によって大成されたといわれる。