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We teach traditional Japanese weapons as well as a modern
self-defense system using sticks, called 'Seitei Tanjo', to adults and children at the Kissaki-Kai Karate dojo in Marlton, Southern New Jersey, USA. This kobudo is representing the Dokuritsu Budo Renmei and is affiliated with Sensei Mike Finn in London, UK: www.elite-int.com
A BRIEF HISTORY:
Kobudo is training with predominantly wooden weapons which easily blended in with agricultural tools of rustic medieval Japan: Sticks, handles, cutting implements, horse reigns or paddles to name just a few.
Kobudo originally comes from the Ryukyu Islands located to the south of mainland Japan. The main island is called Okinawa.
Through centuries of trade with other Asian nations, Okinawa became a melting pot of cultures and developed its unique fighting systems now famous throughout the world.
Research suggests that these methods of civil defence have been around for centuries and used to be passed on - often in secret - from master to student and lineages can often be traced back as far as the mid 1800s. (see ‘Unante’ by John Sells, Hawley Publications, California 1995)
At the turn of the 20th century most Okinawan martial arts were introduced to Japan, where they were overhauled to suit a mass market and a lot of the original meaning was lost.
Through very small classes, personal attention and focus on the unique properties of each weapon and the strategies employed, our Kobudo training tries to recreate the feeling of what it means to ‘master a weapon’.
The training is pair-form based. The initial basics practice will provide students with the necessary control and a variety of single form kata demonstrate a range of techniques and differences of styles.
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