It is our belief that the education of a budoka (modern practicioner of a martial art) should be historical and emotional as well as the obvious physical. Our aim is to promote good practice in the training of martial disciplines. It is our mission to help promote awareness of different disciplines, so they can complement and improve the strengths and quality of each one. We want to do this by giving easy access to the history and heritage that gave rise to the martial arts forms that we know today. You may find it hard to believe that most of the martial arts and ways practised today are not as old as you think.

We feel that it is a shame that, through the trauma of history, the Martial Arts of Japan, both classical and the modern, have either been misunderstood, are inaccurately practised, or have become sports.

We shall be discussing the subjects and the catalysts of change in the hope that more people will be proud of their chosen art, understand where it fits in the grand scheme of things, and, perhaps, even go so far as to change the name of their practice to save those cultural arts that exist the inconvenience of being labelled with another form that, although has many merits of its own, is not the art it has become labelled.

To quote Takeuchi Ryu jujutsu instructor Wayne Muromoto,

"Be wary, for example, of a school that claims to teach jujutsu, the older form of judo, if the teacher can't tell you what ryu (lineage) they are associated with.

Imagine meeting someone who claims to hold a Masters Degree in Science, when asked what branch of science he or she majored in they claim that their degree is in science."

If the instructor is able to identify which Japanese martial art or way they are teaching then great they are probably teaching under the guidance of a soke (head of style), in which case ask them who their soke is.

For example, you may meet somebody who claims to teach Aiki Ju Jutsu or Aiki Jutsu. If when you ask them the name of the school they do not answer something along the lines of Daito Ryu Aiki Ju Jutsu; then chances are, the instructor has taken the techniques of aikido, added a few components of judo, karate and anything else they can muster up and named their style after a classical Japanese martial art.

We do not discredit any instructor of any fighting art; we just feel that there is a need to distinguish between those that practice an authentic ryuha or an official style from those that practice a more hybrid style. More than that, we want you to understand why.

Hopefully the information in this site should help your study regardless of the budo you study.

Should you want to discuss any information presented on this site, maybe you agree or disagree, or maybe you notice something that is incorrect then please contact me or sign up on the forum where we can debate issues in a members only section.

I look forward to hearing from you and taking onboard your thoughts and ideas.

Lawrence Fisher.