Togun-ryu

[sven beulke]

Hi All!
I just ordered Kozô Kakus book "The Mysterious Power of KI". Mr. Kaku was not only a pupil of Morihei Ueshiba but is also 17th Soke of the Togô ryu. I did not found lot information about this style of kenjutsu. Anyone knows more?

Many Thanks and greetings form germany!

[Fred27]

Togo ryu yields only 9 google results..and in those cases they referr to an individual, not a kenjutsu school. Cant imagine Togo ryu is a very widespread school.

[Ellis Amdur]

It's Togun-ryu. I read the book some time ago. AS I recall, he makes the dubious claim that the Japanese independently developed the concept of Ki and, as his proof, claims that the Chinese only started using the term, qigong in the 1950's. Even if true, that makes about as much sense as saying the Brazilians started calling a certain joint lock an Americano in the 1950's, and this proves that the Japanese never had any joint locks in judo.
Best

[DDATFUS]

Is that the same Togun Ryu that Koranosuke Oishi and Minoru Hirai studied? I googled the characters for Togun Ryu (that is, if I got them right-- 東軍流 ), but there didn't seem to be much. I did find one website, http://www.geocities.jp/tougunryu/, but I find it a bit puzzling. The pictures on the website remind me somehow more of theatre than of normal koryu, and the uniforms that the students are wearing in the pictures are unique, to say the least. Is there anyone with better Japanese than mine who'd care to look at that webpage and tell me if this is supposed to be authentic Togun Ryu?

[sven beulke]

Hi all!
Yes it was Tôgun ryû not Tôgo ryû. Thank you for the correction Ellis! Mr. Kakus theory about the origin of "ki" sounds indeed very dubious.
Thanks