Bajutsu
馬術Japanese mounted warfare of the samurai: combat from horseback, care of the animal and gear, increasingly ceremonial after 1600.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Bajutsu
Bajutsu is the Japanese art of mounted warfare, a distinct branch of samurai combat training separate from yabusame, the discipline of mounted archery: yabusame is ceremonial shooting, while bajutsu is horsemanship itself treated as a martial skill. Sources place its beginnings in the 7th century, during the reign of Emperor Tenji, though it only spread widely in the 12th century, once mounted combat became a standard part of major battles. Horses were scarce and expensive in Japan, so bajutsu remained an art of the elite throughout its history, practiced only by samurai of high rank. Training covered far more than swordwork from the saddle: it also required knowledge of horse care and equipment. A Japanese stirrup design known as shitanaga abumi, together with a matching saddle, let a rider stand up and shoot a bow while mounted. Toward the end of the 14th century, emphasis shifted from archery to spearwork, and mounted charges by whole formations grew increasingly important. From 1600 onward, with the arrival of the Tokugawa peace, bajutsu lost its military purpose and gradually turned into a ceremonial discipline. Even so, more than twenty schools of bajutsu still existed at the start of the 20th century, and in 1946 the Japan Bajutsu Federation was founded in Tokyo, turning the art into a modern sport. Its three principal historical schools are Ogasawara, Otsubo, and Hachijo.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.