Ryu

When Nakanishi became the headmaster of his own ryu, in the later 1700s, he began looking for a way to make swordsmanship less hazardous, concentrating on the improvement of practice equipment.

In these ways, the ryu system differed little from the European custom of apprenticeship. The Japanese ryu were distinctive, however, in that an imparting of the mechanics of the craft, the shoden and chuden (“first and second stages of teachings”), were considered to be only a partial aspect of a student’s education. What really mattered was the sensei’s careful transmission of the metaphysical principles of his ryu to his most promising disciples.

Dave notes that the only people capable of such precise destruction were bone-breakers from an ancient Japanese ryu.

Numerous instructors have trained in a traditional Japanese ryu, but few have progressed to the oku level—they may not even be aware of the existence of such a thing.

In today’s Japan, to receive this title, you must have the rank of godan or above in that ryu. Many people claim this title, but very few have actually received it from a traditional Japanese ryu.

In an ironic twist of fate, many of the Japanese ryu went underground themselves during the Menji Restoration period in the 1880’s and all of them again, including judo, karate and kendo as entire entities in 1945 at the close of World War II.

The 22nd Soke, Momochi Kobei, was related to Momochi Sandayu, who was the Soke of the Momochi Ryu, Gyokko Ryu and Koto Ryu (the last two ryu are also part of the Bujinkan).

Professor Kano analyzed these two ryu carefully, identifying their strong points and compensating in areas where they were lacking by studying other jujutsu schools.