Genbukan Ninpo Bugei
玄武館忍法武芸An organisation founded in 1984 by Shoto Tanemura after his split from the Bujinkan. It stresses prescribed kata and documented gradings; the lineages run through the same teacher.
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About Genbukan Ninpo Bugei
Genbukan is an international organisation founded in 1984 by Shoto Tanemura after he separated from the Bujinkan. The split had a specific reason that Tanemura states openly: he wanted to teach the traditional lineages in their original form, that is with prescribed kata, exact terminology and formal transmission of licences, and in his view that was incompatible with how the Bujinkan had spread and loosened worldwide. Genbukan therefore stresses kata and a documented examination path; the freer, improvised work typical of the later Bujinkan recedes here. Besides ninpo itself, Tanemura also brought jujutsu under an organisation called the Kokusai Jujutsu Renmei, along with a number of classical schools with their own licences. The question of documentation is the same as with other ninja organisations, and it is fair to raise it: the lineages Genbukan invokes run through Toshitsugu Takamatsu, that is the same teacher as the Bujinkan's, and their historical continuity before the twentieth century is disputed among scholars. The organisation is active mainly in Japan, Europe and North America. Progression rests on traditional menkyo licences rather than belts and dan grades alone, which is unusual for a modern organisation.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.