I really need some help

[swordsaint]

:) Hi everyone,

My first post and I would really appreciate your help, I have a question.

Would anyone be able to tell me what the main martial art that the Samurai would practice was?

Thanks in advance and be well.

[cxt]

I would guess that training with sword, bow, and jujutsu would have been fairly common.

What specifc schools of each kinda depends on where they were located.

Some would have been trained in horsemanship, gunnery, seigecraft, etc.

Does that help at all???

Chris Thomas

[Andrew S]

That would also depend on what period you're talking about - there was a time when the principal weapon of the samurai was considered to be the bow.
Certain warlords also encouraged specialists in spear and firearms, for example.
As for martial art... there's a topic I wouldn't care to touch apart from saying that from 1600 onwards, the sword would have been the primary weapon, often being more a badge of rank than something to reckon your differences with.

[swordsaint]

Thanks for your help so far guys, every bit of info I can find is great. Is there anyway to discover the main form of unarmed combat they would use, and are there any good websites on such subjects?

Thanks again to the replies so far

[kimiwane]

Thanks for your help so far guys, every bit of info I can find is great. Is there anyway to discover the main form of unarmed combat they would use, and are there any good websites on such subjects?

Thanks again to the replies so far

Your best bet is to get Donn Draegger's (sp?) series on Budo:

Classical Bujutsu
Classical Budo
Modern Budo and Bujutsu

Some people complain that he is not entirely accurate, but he was the only non-Japanese to get menkyo kaiden in katori shinto ryu, the oldest school of bujutsu in Japan. Those three books are probably the most complete and accurate source of information available in English.

Also, this is a good topic for the Koryu section of the board.

Best wishes,

[swordsaint]

Oooops double posted :rolleyes: :shot:

[cxt]

I would say that the main form of unarmed combat would be jujutsu.

Sometimes called yawara, kenpo, etc.

Problem is that are many, many, many ryu that taught "jujutsu."

Kind of an "umbrella" term.

www.koryu.com has a list of a quite a number of period arts.

You might start there.


Chris Thomas

[swordsaint]

Your best bet is to get Donn Draegger's (sp?) series on Budo:

Classical Bujutsu
Classical Budo
Modern Budo and Bujutsu

Some people complain that he is not entirely accurate, but he was the only non-Japanese to get menkyo kaiden in katori shinto ryu, the oldest school of bujutsu in Japan. Those three books are probably the most complete and accurate source of information available in English.

Also, this is a good topic for the Koryu section of the board.

Best wishes,

Thanks very much, I will go to amazon presently to order.

Again many thanks.

[swordsaint]

I would say that the main form of unarmed combat would be jujutsu.

Sometimes called yawara, kenpo, etc.

Problem is that are many, many, many ryu that taught "jujutsu."

Kind of an "umbrella" term.

www.koryu.com has a list of a quite a number of period arts.

You might start there.


Chris Thomas

Wow thanks, I will indeed start there.

I can't thank everyone enough for being so kind.

James

[pgsmith]

Would anyone be able to tell me what the main martial art that the Samurai would practice was?
I think you'll need to read some about Japanese history and narrow your question down to a specific time period. The samurai began to be recognized as a distinct social class somewhere around the 900s. They weren't abolished as a distinct class until the late 1800s. This means that the samurai were in existence for almost a thousand years. You can bet that things did NOT stay static during all of that time! :)

[Evan London]

James,

Depending upon where in England you are located, you may hve access to several Jinenkan Dojos in Wales and Chester. Please check my site for the links.

www.jinenkan-inazuma.com

Ev

[Light Samurai]

Ju-Jutsu, or Aiki-Jutsu.
Yari-jutsu,
Naginata-jutsu,
Kyu-jutsu, and alot of other things, including Kenjutsu, and Iai jutsu.

For example, you can look at www.koryu.com , and find at what dates what things were being practiced - At some times, some thigns were more preferable for certain schools.

Peace.

(Again, time period matters as well.)

[Brian Owens]

...Yari-jutsu
That would be sojutsu.

Just as the art of the bow (yumi) is kyujutsu rather than yumijutsu, so the art of the spear (yari) is sojutsu rather than yarijutsu.

[Brian Owens]

...Would anyone be able to tell me what the main martial art that the Samurai would practice was?
...Is there anyway to discover the main form of unarmed combat they would use, and are there any good websites on such subjects?
Your first question is a very good one, and opens up some lines of research that many might not have considered.

The bushi would have trained in several martial arts during the early feudal period, as befit professional soldiers.

Horsemanship, Swimming, Field fortification building, Signaling, Meteorology, etc., in addition to what we normally think of as martial arts: swordsmanship, archery, marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, etc.

Your second question narrowed it down a lot. As mentioned, the arts of jujutsu went by various names. Try using these keywords in a search, for starters: kumiuchi, yaroi kumiuchi, yawara, atemi, and kogusoku.

Also, please be aware that the rules here at E-Budo require you to sign your real name to all posts. (Most of us add a signature to our User CP so we don't have to do it manually all the time.) The administrator has said that a first initial and full last name is okay. Also, if your user name is your real name, like mine, you don't need it in a seperate signature.

HTH.

[GTO]

yaroi kumiuchi

That would be yoroi kumiuchi （鎧組討 if my kanji memory serves). :)

[Brian Owens]

That would be yoroi kumiuchi （鎧組討 if my kanji memory serves). :)
Yes, sorry about that. I was at work and wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was typing.

Yes, yoroi kumiuchi, grappling in armor.

[gendzwil]

Usually when this question gets asked, the person is trying to relate a modern martial art to what the bushi did but you can't do that. Each family had their own training methods, and trained in multiple weapons and grappling. This was the origin of the koryu people are talking about, they were simply family schools of fighting.

[kimiwane]

Donn Draegger...Some people complain that he is not entirely accurate, but he was the only non-Japanese to get menkyo kaiden in katori shinto ryu

Hmm. I guess I should have said Draegger was the "first" non-Japanese to get menkyo kaiden in katori shinto ryu.

And I may be wrong there as well, but I understand that he did get it as an occupying Marine right after WWII and that he trained and studied intellectually with some of the greatest surviving martial artists of that time. He did exhaustive study of the full martial history of Japan, culminating in the modern forms up to about the 1960s.

I understand that Phil Relnick, of Seattle, WA, is authorized to teach Katori Shinto Ryu in North America. So it sounds like he has the menkyo and I guess the other continental head teachers must also have it.