Nippon Kempo
日本拳法Nippon kempo is a Japanese budo founded by Muneomi Sawayama in Osaka in 1932, in which strikes, kicks, throws and ground fighting are contested in armor.
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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.
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About Nippon Kempo
Nippon kempo is a Japanese martial system that Sawayama and Tsuchiya defined in 1968 as an unarmed budo combining strikes and kicks, throws and joint locks in the clinch, and strikes on the ground as well. Nippon Kempo Kai describes it as a budo in which strikes, throws and ground fighting are contested in men, do and mata-ate armor and in gloves, and gives the abbreviation nikken. The Waseda University sports center calls it the oldest Japanese mixed martial system.
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According to Sawayama and Tsuchiya, nippon kempo came into being in 1932 and received the name nippon because kempo with protective armor did not yet exist and Japanese created it. A co-author of that article was the founder Muneomi Sawayama himself, personal name Masaru. An article from 1976 in Budo Research, which he also co-wrote, places its origin in Osaka. According to Nippon Kempo Kai, Sawayama founded the organization Dai Nippon Kempo Kai in the autumn of 1932 after finishing Kansai University. According to the 1968 article, he designed the armor himself, and kendo inspired him only in the method of training in armor. Hosoda in Number Web notes that the same name is borne by the nippon kempo karate-do of Yamada Tatsuo, but a different school. According to Nippon Kempo Kai, the armor permits full-power strikes and kicks, including strikes to the head. The examination rules of the Nippon Kempo National Federation list dan grades up to 10th dan.
History
According to the biography on the Nippon Kempo Kai website, Sawayama was born on 12 December 1906 in Nara, entered the preparatory school of Kansai University in 1926 and its law program in 1929. Takanashi states in the magazine Wakaraku that he began free sparring with classmates on the grounds of the Tarumi shrine in Suita. Sawayama and Tsuchiya write in 1968 that he was inspired to train in armor by the development of kendo from kata and kumitachi to the armor of men, kote, shinai and do. According to a text taken over by Nippon Kempo Kai, he first introduced yakusoku kumite, jiyu kumite and shinken kumite without armor, with strikes stopped before the target, and only then had prototypes of armor made in a specialist shop. Japanese Wikipedia places the start of training in armor in 1934 and the founding of a section at Kwansei Gakuin University in 1935. According to Nippon Kempo Kai, Sawayama was drafted into the army in February 1940, returned in May 1946 and in 1953 organized the first public demonstration in Tokyo. In 1954 he became a lecturer in nippon kempo within compulsory physical education at Kansai University, used the title soke from then on and died on 27 September 1977.
How it differs
Sawayama and Tsuchiya distinguish nippon kempo in 1968 from the older Asian kempo by saying that those were mostly kempo of kata, whereas they call nippon kempo the first ran kempo with free fighting in armour. Hosoda points out in Number Web that the nippon kempo karate-do of Yamada Tatsuo also bears the same name, but it is a different school from the nippon kempo of Sawayama. The Japanese Wikipedia describes differences between two organizations. According to it, Nippon Kempo Kai allows full-force kicks to the mask and has fighters go barefoot, whereas Nippon Kempo Kyokai trains in footwear and only suggests kicks to the mask. Per the same source, Nippon Kempo Kai plays to three ippon like kendo, while Nippon Kempo Kyokai uses a points system.
Technique
Tsuchiya, Sawayama and Kaneyoshi in 1976 call strikes, blows and kicks collectively hakugi and describe nippon kempo as a combined practice of hakugi, throws and joint locks. According to a 2010 study by Watanabe and colleagues, measured within the Kobukan organization, about six out of ten decisive techniques are punches to the head, and concussion is therefore the problem. Takanashi states in the magazine Wakaraku that low kicks are forbidden because nippon kempo does not permit attacks on places without armor. According to Takanashi, ippon is given for a clean hit to the face or torso or for controlling the opponent with a lock, a throw alone did not score unless followed by a strike or a lock, and as mochiage ippon lifting the opponent counts. The internal rules of the All Japan Nippon Kempo Federation state that from an advantageous position over a pinned opponent, a correctly executed strike stopped before the target gives ippon immediately on the first attempt. A hit to the back of the head is, according to them, called as men and to the back as do.
Training
Sawayama and Tsuchiya described three kinds of practice in 1968, ran-geiko in armor, kuran-geiko without armor with strikes stopped before the target, and soran-geiko against an imagined opponent. As parts of the armor they designed, they name men, do made up of do-ate and soto-do, mata-ate and gloves. Watanabe and colleagues described in 2010 at the Kobukan organization three types of head protectors, a light one weighing 0.8 kg, the so-called Russian one weighing 1 kg and a heavy one weighing 3 kg with a steel grille 8 mm in diameter. According to Nippon Kempo Kai, one's own armor costs roughly 84,000 yen for an adult and 45,000 yen for a child. Takanashi states in the magazine Wakaraku that the armor allows full contact with relatively little damage to the body, and is therefore suited to systematic training. Waseda University writes that most members of its club start only at university. In the 1976 survey by Tsuchiya and colleagues among 328 practitioners, the most common source of enjoyment was improving techniques at 29.6% and the most common difficulty was lack of physical strength at 39.0%.
Ranks and progression
The examination regulations of the Nippon Kempo National Federation, valid from 1 April 2016, set the minimum age for dan from fifteen for 1st dan to fifty for 8th dan. Waiting periods for a regular examination are three months after 1st kyu for 1st dan, six months for 2nd dan, a year for 3rd and 4th dan, two years for 5th dan, three years for 6th dan and ten years for 7th and 8th dan, and the regulations set conditions for 9th and 10th dan separately. The examination consists of a bout in armor, kata, kuran-geki or soran-geki, a skill assessment and a written test. Under the same regulations, dan is approved by a committee of representatives of three headquarters, Nippon Kempo Kai, Chubu Nippon honbu and Nippon Kempo Renmei, and the diploma fee ranges from 10,000 yen for 1st dan to 150,000 yen for 8th dan. The internal rules of the All Japan Nippon Kempo Federation require a competitor to retie the belt before continuing the bout.
Competition
Takanashi writes in Wakaraku magazine that a match is won by whoever first scores two ippon, while the Japanese Wikipedia says that Nippon Kempo Kai plays to three ippon. The internal rules of the All Japan Nippon Kempo Federation permit only approved clothing and armour, and a necklace, earring or bracelet risks disqualification. The rules forbid violently twisting the opponent's mask because it damages the cervical spine, and they punish pushing an opponent out of the fighting area with a warning, unless it happens in a clinch on the boundary line. The Japanese Wikipedia states that Matsunaga Shunji of Kansai University won the Japanese individual championship nine times in a row from 1962 to 1970 and again in 1975. According to VareseNews, the first European championship took place on 28 November 2009 in Malnate with delegations from England, France, Switzerland and Italy. Gaceta UNAM calls the Japanese championship in Osaka on 27 September 2026 the most important nippon kempo competition in the world.
Today
Waseda University and Takanashi in the magazine Wakaraku state that nippon kempo took over the arrest techniques of the police and the combat training of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, and according to Takanashi toshu-jutsu derives from it. Japanese Wikipedia adds that Mori Yoshinosuke took part in the unarmed combat system of the Self-Defense Forces, which is based on the kempo of the Nippon Kempo Kyokai, judo and Tomiki aikido. Nippon Kempo Kai lists an affiliated organization, Nippon Kempo Jieitai Renmei, with unit clubs in Kasugai, Imazu and Fukuchiyama. Nippon Kempo Kai writes about itself that it transferred the organization of competitions to the All Japan Nippon Kempo Federation and, in part, dan examinations to the Nippon Kempo National Federation. According to Japanese Wikipedia, nippon kempo is practiced in 66 university and 40 high school clubs, but is not a discipline of the national sports games. The same Wikipedia describes a split in Nippon Kempo Kai after the chairman elections in February 2021, after which a group around Yamamoto Ryuzo founded the Nippon Kempo Nishi-Nihon Renmei.
Did you know
In 1968 Sawayama named ran-geiko after a sentence from Sun Tzu's chapter Bing shi, according to which a fight appears to be chaos, but its principle is not chaotic. Japanese Wikipedia states that Sawayama described nippon kempo as the ancient pankration made safe by armor and rules. In 2021 Zakko Tetsuo published a study in the journal Kansai University, according to whose title the highest of the eight characters of the nippon kempo emblem is the character 心, that is, heart or mind. A 1976 survey by Tsuchiya and colleagues found that 66.6 % of 328 respondents regard nippon kempo as a kind of sport.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded nippon kempo?
Nippon kempo was founded by Muneomi Sawayama, whose personal name was Masaru. According to the 1968 article, in which he took part himself, it arose in 1932, and the 1976 article gives Osaka as the place of origin.
Are strikes to the head allowed in nippon kempo?
Yes. Nippon Kempo Kai states that the armor permits full-power strikes and kicks, including strikes to the head, and according to a 2010 study roughly six out of ten decisive techniques are punches to the head.
How many dan grades does nippon kempo have?
The examination rules of the Nippon Kempo National Federation list dan grades up to 10th dan. They set the minimum age at fifteen for 1st dan and fifty for 8th dan.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.