Hi all,
Here's a question I was wondering about, I hope I'm posting in the correct forum. I've read in a lot of posts here and in some of the essays on koryu.com about how the term ryu is much more complex than just "style", and encompasses a much larger social structure. What about gendai budo though? There's toyama ryu, and I believe some iaido schools using this term, as well as a number of karate schools (e.g. shito ryu, wado ryu, goju ryu) etc. that don't seem to meet this classical definition, and are, in fact, simply "styles". Is it simply understood from knowing the history of a particular art, or is there some other subtle delineation that I'm not aware of?
thanks,
Jason