Koryu

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Koryū ( Japanese 古 流 , dt. "Old current, old school") is the Japanese name for "classic" Bujutsu disciplines.

Under Koryu bujutsu Budō, Kobudo is meant specifically the traditional Japanese martial arts that before the Meiji Restoration have emerged. There are primarily military-oriented weapons arts that are entirely based on the idea of ​​survival in combat . In contrast, the modern martial arts ( Gendai budō or shin-budō ) such as Jūdō , Kendō , Karate-do or Aikidō are typically practiced as a sport or for the development of personality (Do). The Koryu schools are mostly systems that include various weapons and sometimes also unarmed self-defense and other Jutsu.

Essence of the Koryu schools

The tradition of a Koryu school is defined by the entirety of the Kata . A kata is a precisely defined exercise in which an attack and its defense (or a series of attacks and their defense) is represented. In addition to the technical skills in combat - with a weapon or unarmed - the kata also convey the tactics, principles and "philosophy" of the respective school.

The incoming pupil vowed with a Keppan (written contract; literally " blood oath ") to be loyal to the school and not to reveal its secrets. The student's progress in training was confirmed by the handing over of certificates ("licenses"), which authorized him to give lessons himself, and listed the individual kata that he was allowed to teach. The highest teaching license that confirms the complete acquisition of the school tradition is called Menkyo Kaiden (literally initiation license ). In addition to these traditional teaching licenses, some Koryū schools have also adopted the modern system of Kyū and Dan exams.

The supreme authority of the school is the sōke ( head of the house ), to whom this authority was transferred personally by his predecessor and who does not necessarily have to be the same person as the technical director ( Shihan ). Only the sōke is entitled to make changes or additions to the kata or the teaching program of the school, or even to give the school a different name.

“Koryū Budō” therefore does not mean that the traditional kata are passed on unchanged. The expression "old school" expresses that the leader can trace his authority in an unbroken series from direct tradition back to the founder of the school and that the essential teaching of the school has been preserved in this tradition.

This direct tradition is evidenced by the family tree of the school, which traces the teaching authorization of the current sōke back over the generations of his predecessors to the founder of the school, and in the case of a branching of the schools even further to the original founder of the tradition and thus legitimizes it.

In Japan there is the Japanese Association of Traditional Martial Arts " Nihon Kobudō Kyokai " which promotes and disseminates the Koryu schools.

Some better known Koryu schools

Web links