Koryu Bujutsu
古流武術An umbrella term for the Japanese combat schools founded before 1868. It is not a style but the dividing line between the old schools and modern ways such as judo or kendo.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
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.
Catalogs & Databases for Koryu Bujutsu
About Koryu Bujutsu
Koryu bujutsu is not a martial art but an umbrella term for the Japanese combat schools founded before 1868, that is before the end of the shogunate. The boundary is deliberate and sharp: what arose earlier is koryu, an old school; what came after belongs to gendai budo — the modern ways such as judo, kendo, aikido or karate in its Japanese form. The difference is not only one of date. Koryu schools were created for fighting and their content is correspondingly broad — one school will commonly teach sword, spear, glaive, staff, dagger, armoured combat and wrestling, because a warrior had to know everything. They are transmitted in prescribed paired kata, have no competitions and no sporting contest, and progression often follows traditional menkyo licences rather than belts and dan grades. Entry is usually bound to a written oath and a recommendation, so the schools stay small. How many exist cannot be said exactly; hundreds are claimed, but far fewer have a documented unbroken line. The Japanese kobudo association covers several dozen. The best known are Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu, Kashima Shin-ryu, Niten Ichi-ryu and Yagyu Shinkage-ryu. The umbrella bodies are the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai and the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai; both admit only schools with documented transmission, which is the main reason their lists run to dozens rather than hundreds.
Styles & Branches
A sword school of Miyamoto Musashi that teaches forms with the long sword, the short sword and with two swords. Today several lineages on Kyushu transmit it.
Old Japanese school from Katori, founded by Iizasa Choisai Ienao. It teaches swordsmanship, iai, staff, spear and naginata, and is an intangible cultural property of Chiba Prefecture.
Sword-drawing school from Tosa, according to Green one of the two most popular iai schools. Named after its seventh holder Hasegawa Eishin, while sources differ on its founder.
Sword school from the late 18th century where Kondo Isami and other Shinsengumi men studied. Training uses a thick wooden sword weighing up to two kilograms.
Sword school of the Ono family, whose founder taught shogun Tokugawa Hidetada. According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, its core is kiriotoshi, victory in a single beat.
Edo branch of the old Japanese school Yagyu Shingan-ryu, which Nihon Kobudo Kyokai lists among the taijutsu schools. It names Araki Mataemon as founder.
A composite Japanese old school founded by Asayama Ichidensai. Several separate lines now carry the name, and the details about the founder differ among them.
A spear-fighting school founded in Nara by In'ei, a monk of Kofuku-ji. Its typical weapon is the kama yari, a spear with a cross-shaped transverse blade.
Versatile old school from Kashima, founded per dictionaries by Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami. Besides the sword it teaches jujutsu, naginata and spear.
An old sword school founded by Tsukahara Bokuden. The Yoshikawa family of Kashima transmits it, and it is listed as an intangible cultural property of Ibaraki Prefecture.
An old Japanese school whose curriculum koryu.com opens with torite kogusoku. Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai lists it three times, in Gunma and Kanagawa.
Sword school from the village of Maniwa in Gunma Prefecture, founded by Higuchi Sadatsugu in the early Edo period. The Higuchi family still leads it.
A sword school that Wikipedia derives from Shinkage-ryu and links to the Kuroda family and the Shinbukan dojo. We are still looking for other sources on its history.
Old Japanese naginata school derived from Toda-ryu. Women have led it since the 14th generation, and it now exists in two lines.
Old naginata school from Kumamoto. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, it uses a four-shaku blade and shaft, and women have led it since the Taisho period.
Japanese military horsemanship: according to Nipponica it long developed as mounted shooting combined with archery. The Ogasawara-ryu and Otsubo-ryu schools, yabusame, kasagake, inuoumono.
A branch of the Shinkage-ryu sword school, named after Hikita Bungoro, a pupil of Kamiizumi. We have not found a living lineage in the sources.
The Japanese art of binding a person with rope. According to Nipponica, it was first practised on the battlefield and later served to detain and escort criminals. A skill, not a school.
A sword school founded by Chiba Shusaku at the end of the shogunate. According to Heibonsha, it had the greatest influence of all sword schools on the system and theory of modern kendo.
Sword school of the Satsuma domain, founded by Togo Shigekata. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai describes it as single-strike swordsmanship, and training uses strikes at a standing trunk.
An old naginata school, one of the two main surviving ones according to Heibonsha. It claims Jikishinkage-ryu, while Ellis Amdur considers it the work of Satake Yoshinori.
A Japanese martial art of the jitte, a hooked metal rod carried by Edo-period police officials. It is a skill, not a school.
Collective name for old Japanese schools of mostly unarmed combat: throws, locks, chokes, strikes to vital points and handling of short weapons. Kano's judo came from its schools.
An old sword school tracing itself to Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami and Kashima. Dictionaries regard Yamada Mitsunori as its founder. Teaching rests on the hojo kata.
Japanese old school of staff fighting, listed by the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai together with Takagi-ryu jujutsu under number 014. Traditions of its origin differ.
Sword school of the Tensho years, founded by Ono Shogen according to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai. It uses thick wooden swords, and one form is, per Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, the model of a kendo strike.
Older name for Japanese archery, now called kyudo. Schools such as Heki-ryu and Ogasawara-ryu, foot and mounted shooting, toshiya contests at Sanjusangendo.
A Japanese school of shuriken throwing founded by Negishi Shorei in the late Edo period. According to the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, the shuriken flies point first without rotating.
Sword school of the Yanagawa domain founded by Oishi Susumu. Known for thrusts with a long bamboo sword, with which the founder succeeded in Edo in 1832.
Sword-drawing line from Kumamoto, derived from the Sekiguchi family school in Wakayama. Nihon Kobudo Kyokai describes one-handed cuts and alternating steps.
A sword-drawing school founded by Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu, according to Nipponica one of the sources of modern iai. Today it is practiced in Tokyo with Ono-ha Itto-ryu.
Old Japanese school of fighting with the jo staff, founded by Muso Gonnosuke. Today's jodo of the Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei draws on its kata.
Swordsmanship school built on drawing, the only surviving sword school of the Tsuyama domain. Trained with a wooden sword in its scabbard, one branch in armor.
Japanese swimming as a martial art, old name for nihon eiho. Edo schools protected by han domains, swimming in armor and with a bow, now 13 schools under the Japanese swimming federation.
Old Japanese sword-drawing school from Shizuoka, founded by Mima Yoichizaemon Kagenobu. Besides iai it teaches swordsmanship, staff, naginata and Masaki-ryu kusarigama.
Testing a sword's sharpness by actually cutting an object or a body. In the Edo period it was the hereditary trade of the Yamada Asaemon family, who tested the shogun's swords.
Old Japanese school from Chiba, centred on iai and swordsmanship and founded by Tatsumi Sankyo by tradition. Intangible cultural property of Chiba Prefecture.
Old Japanese school of naginata, swords, kusarigama and kodachi. The Heibonsha encyclopedia ranks it with Jikishinkage-ryu among the two main naginata schools still alive today.
A Japanese group claiming descent from the Edo-period Tenshin-ryu and the Shinkage-ryu line. We have not found independent evidence of its age.
Japanese combat with the iron fan tessen, a protective weapon of the bushi in the Edo period. It is not a school but a skill, on which we found only a few reliable sources.
Sword-drawing school of the Seigo-ryu family, whose iai was absorbed into the Owari Yagyu family's Shinkage-ryu in the Edo period. Today led by the 14th Yagyu holder.
Sendai branch of the old Japanese school Yagyu Shingan-ryu, which preserves armored combat. According to Nihon Kobudo Kyokai, it has been a cultural property of Miyagi since 1981.
Line of the Shinkage-ryu sword school taken over from Kamiizumi by Yagyu Munetoshi. Famed for muto-dori, its 22nd holder is based in Nagoya, says NKK.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.