Koryu budo

The Japanese term koryū budō (古流) can be literally translated as "old school" or "classical style". It is used to refer to those martial arts that emerged before the Meiji Restoration of the 19th century. Although there is no single exact date that marks the division between the ancient or classical schools and the traditional martial arts of today, the most commonly used are both 1868, the beginning of the Meiji era that began the process of modernization in Japan, and 1876. with the appearance of the Haitorei decree that prohibited samurai warriors from carrying their sabers in public.

The modern arts that emerged and became popular after this event, at the end of the XIX century and during the XX are the so-called gendai, these are usually understood as disciplines adapted to the existing needs of our current society, more oriented to the personal, technical and physical development of the individual, sometimes also as sports, and in some cases also for use in personal defense if necessary. Some of these modern disciplines are: aikido, kendo, kobudō, iaidō, jōdō, karate (martial art originated by the Okinawan nobility, and later Japanized in the 20th century), and judo. On the other hand, the classical martial arts classified as koryū are the teachings that come directly from the Japanese feudal military culture, and responded to the needs for supremacy and survival, predominant in said historical and social context, being for Therefore, combat effectiveness is essential, although not necessarily to the detriment of the personal development of the individual.

General characteristics

These schools or ryū were normally aimed exclusively at the samurai warrior class, and taught to fight with all kinds of weapons, typical of their time. Each school teaches different techniques, tactics, concepts, and strategies, and they have relatively different ways of teaching and training. There were both schools that taught how to handle all kinds of weapons, as well as schools specializing in a specific one.

The techniques and tactics of unarmed combat were also developed, but to a lesser extent than the techniques with weapons, and generally understood as an exceptional resource for very specific circumstances. However, there are some schools specialized in this type of work, known as "Yawara" or "jujutsu" most of which arose during the Edo period.

Each school, or ryū, is an independent entity from the others, and each one has its own way of organizing itself and its particular internal rules. When speaking in general about this type of school, it must be taken into account that they can be very diverse and it is difficult to attribute something common to them that is always true in all of them.

Otome ryū

During the feudal era of Japanese history, many of these schools were otome ryū (literally, "what flows but stays at home") of the han (domain). Being an otome ryū meant that the heads of these schools would receive rice stipends from the total koku of the han (koku was a unit of measurement used to calculate income from rice and used to measure the wealth of a han), in exchange for training the samurai of this domain. In any case, many schools never depended on a specific han or only partially did so. For example, Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū was supported by donations from local bushis and was never tied to a specific domain. Similarly, Maniwa Nen-ryū was founded and supported by the peasants of the Maniwa village in Gunma Prefecture, as a means of protecting the village. A third example is Kashima Shin-ryū, named after a famous Shinto temple, which acquired funds to support itself by taxing activities associated with land owned or regulated by the temple, also serving as hereditary guardians of the Kashima temple.

This type of arrangement allowed the leaders of the schools to dedicate themselves completely to the teaching of their school, giving service to those who maintained them. It wasn't until the Meiji Restoration that these deals began to disappear and school leaders had to find other ways to support themselves. Showing the school to the general public was only one among many other options. Today there are few teachers of these schools who live exclusively from their teaching, many of them do it out of simple devotion, to ensure that these traditions continue to prosper during the following generations in the same way that they came to them.

Address

In schools there is usually the figure of the sōke, the heir to the tradition, who normally exercises the functions of representative of the school, the highest authority within it, and responsible for ensuring the correct transmission of the teachings. Each sōke has received the title of the previous sōke, usually hereditary within the family, although this is not always the case. In this way, the teachings of the school go back to the founder, being transmitted from generation to generation by each sōke of the school.

In some schools, however, the figure of sōke is merely representative, and the responsibility for teaching and transmission falls on a different figure. It is not uncommon to find schools that at some point in their history divided into several branches, considered as different visions of the same tradition, each having its own sōke. There are also traditions in which the figure of sōke no longer exists, instead existing various teachers recognized as its main representatives.

Grading system

Unlike modern martial arts or gendai budo in which the system of degrees by belts or " kyu-Dan " (which was devised by Jigoro Kano, the founding teacher of judo) to assess the degree of knowledge of the practitioners; In classical or ancient Japanese martial arts schools the menkyo system is followed. In these systems the sōke grants the student a title depending on his level of knowledge attained in school, normally the title of Menyo Kaiden, or full broadcast license, being the highest attainable.

Generally in the menkyo system there are fewer titles than in the case of the Dan grading systems, although depending on the school both the number of titles and their names may vary. However, there are schools or branches thereof that have adopted the modern system of Dan grades.

Transmission and learning

In the case of traditional schools, the fact that the student follows a correct learning process is considered very important, since it is not only a martial art, but also a cultural and historical tradition with sometimes several centuries old, which is intended to continue preserving for future generations through a correct transmission.

Therefore, it is considered that every student should learn from someone who has the permission of the school to teach, and that it is also highly advisable that they also try to train with the highest grade teachers of the tradition whenever there is that possibility. It is also considered essential that there is regular contact between each student and their teacher, to supervise learning and ensure the correct transmission of the tradition throughout the entire teaching chain that arises from the head of the school, normally the sōke. If this connection is broken at any point in the chain, that tradition is not usually considered to be being practiced in the most appropriate way by those who have lost contact with the original source.

The fact of having access to this type of teaching, to be in contact with the main source, and also to have the constant and regular supervision of high-grade teachers is not usually considered as something meritorious or a type of teaching of highest quality, but as something necessary and fundamental to be able to begin to consider that the student can learn in the appropriate way.

Due to the less diffusion of these classical disciplines, and the fewer teachers available compared to modern martial arts or gendai budō, it is common for some people who want to learn to do so in considerate ways. as inappropriate, such as trying to learn from books or videos, or being taught by someone with permission to teach the school at some point, but not maintaining reasonably regular contact afterwards, so that the student's work is supervised. The orthodox practitioners of these disciplines consider these practices a serious error that is in no way useful to really understand these disciplines, and nonsense if they also try to teach others what has been practiced in this way.

Historical documentation

The Boshin War caused the destruction of many castles, the disappearance of clans and the documentation required to prove the antiquity of martial arts that often claim to be koryū but lack testimonials or documentation to prove it. A frequently consulted reference source is the Bugei Ryuha Daijiten, an encyclopedia on martial arts, their origins and traditions written by Kiyoshi Watatani, but it is not the only source since despite Watatani's thorough research not all arts were recorded..

The other source could be the records of the Dai Nihon Butokukai created in 1895 to regularize and organize martial arts in Japan, but beyond some material in their museum most of the documents appear to have been destroyed or at least dispersed during the end of the second world war.

Therefore it becomes really difficult to make a list of koryū ryuha that maintains a balance between the formality of requirements and the understanding of situations. This situation favors that from time to time modern disciplines are created and they try to pass themselves off as koryū, mainly due to the good recognition that this type of ancient disciplines usually have within the community of martial arts practitioners.. However, within the community of koryū practitioners there is a certain consensus on which disciplines are recognized as such and these deceptions are usually quickly identified.

The following list cites a number of well-known koryū that are considered to be completely legitimate. The fact that a school is not on the following list does not necessarily mean that it is not legitimate, but the ones that are here are fully recognized as such.

• Araki-ryū

• Asayama Ichiden-ryū

• Daitō-ryū Aikijutsu

• Higo Ko-ryū

• Hoki-ryū

• Hokushin Itto-ryū

• Hontai Yoshin-ryū

• Hōzōin-ryū

• Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū

• Isshin-ryū (Do not confuse with the style of karate Isshin-ryu)

• Kage-ryū

• Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū

• Kashima Shin-ryū

• Kashima Shinto-ryū

• Kitō-ryū

• Kogen Itto-ryū

• Kurama-ryū

• Maniwa Nen-ryū

• Mizoguchi-ha Itto-ryū

• Mugai-ryū

• Musō Jikiden Eishin-ryū

• Musō Shinden-ryū

• Ono-ha Itto-ryū

• Owari Kan-ryū

• Sekiguchi Shinshin-ryū

• Shingyoto-ryū

• Shinkage-ryū

• Shinmuso Hayashizaki-ryū

• Shinto Muso-ryū

• Shojitsu Kenri Kataichi-ryū

• Sosuishitsu-ryū

• Suiō-ryū Iai Kenpō

• Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu

• Takeda ryu aiki no jutsu [1]

• Takenouchi-ryū

• Tamiya-ryū

• Tatsumi-ryū

• Tendo-ryū

• Tenjin Shinyo-ryū or Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū

• Tennen Rishin-ryū

• Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū

• Toda-ha Buko-ryū

• Uchida-ryū

• Yagyu Seigo-ryū

• Yagyu Shingan-ryū

• Yagyu Shinkage-ryū

• Yoshin-ryū