Hi my name's Steve and I'm based in London.

I don't really do Karatedo anymore, nowadays I train and teach koryu bujutsu (jujutsu, kenjutsu & iaijutsu).

I have been doing budo in some form or another for over 20 years and spent 9 1/2 years in Japan, working for various companies, while training in several ryuha.

Hi Steve

Glad to have you here!

What was it like in Japan? Anything like "Angry White Pyjamas"?


Tom.

Thanks for the welcome Tom.

Some of what is described by Bob Twigger in "Angry White Pyjamas" is kind of near the truth, but I lived mainly in the countryside outside of Tokyo and only commuted to train after work. It took a bit of getting used to being stared at all the time, since I was the only white guy in town for about a year. Kind of weird having 80 year old Japanese grannies goggle at you while you're buying the groceries. After a while, they got used to me and I got used to them.

My teachers were all very old school. No beating you with shinai or any silliness like that, but hard work. They'd teach you a technique and then have you go over it again and again and again until it was in your bones. Once you'd done every technique in that particular skill set, they'd have you do the entire set a few times. You'd spend anything from about 6-8 months to a year on each skill set roughly, learning it inside and out, having the sensei correct your posture, getting your footwork right, learning correct strike points & what they do to the human body and learning the correct angles to take someone down with a joint-lock or a throw, so that you'd control their skeletal structure. It was the same for any discipline in the school; jujutsu, kenjutsu, iaijutsu, the polearm weapons, etc.

The dojo's elder teachers were all former servicemen during WW2 and I expected them to be right nasty at first, but they were proper, well mannered, old school gentlemen. A real inspiration to train under.

Hi Steve

Welcome to the forum. We don't many koryu practitioners round here! What ryu do you practice (if you don't mind me asking)?

Mike

Mike,

I trained in two jujutsu schools; Tenjin Shinyo-ryu & Sosuishi-ryu (Which also has a large section of iai & kenjutsu techniques in it's syllabus) . I also trained in Araki-ryu Gunyo Kogusoku, which is a comprehensive system which focuses on iai, kenjutsu, sojutsu (spearmanship), nagamakijutsu (halberd), bojutsu, shurikenjutsu, kusarigamajutsu (sickle & chain) and chigirikijutsu (staff & chain). I have also trained in jodo, seitei iai, judo & did a bit of Tomiki aiki.

Impressive, sounds like your time in Japan was very busy!

Mike

Yes, and I still go back to Japan twice a year to touch base, keep up my training and to make sure that I'm teaching the correct way.