KASHIMA-SHINRYU 2003

Founded in the late fifteenth century and rooted in a legacy that traces back to the very beginning of the Japanese military tradition, the Kashima-Shinryu is one of the oldest samurai and most vigorous training organizations in Japan. The current (19^th generation) headmaster presides over more than a dozen branch schools and clubs (including several in Europe and North America) with a collective membership numbering in the hundreds of students.

One of the most interesting features of Kashima-Shinryu is its comprehensive and holistic nature. Although training focuses on the use of the sword, Kashima-Shinryu bugei, as practiced today, consists of twelve particularized military disciplines (bujutsu): Kenjutsu (swordsmanship); batto-jutsu (sword drawing); naginata-jutsu (use of the naginata, a kind of glaive or voulges); sojutsu (spearmanship); kenjutsu-tachiai (use of the sword against other weapons); shuriken-jutsu (use of throwing darts); jujutsu (grappling); kenpo (striking and kicking); bojutsu (use of the long staff); jojutsu (use of short staff); kaiken-jutsu or tanto-jutsu (use of knives and short swords); and tasuki-dori or hobaku-jutsu (tying and binding an opponent). These disciplines intertwine and co-exist as components of a single whole. Each contains all the others and is in turn contained by all the others. Each draws on the same principles of thought and movement, differentiated only by the interaction of these principles with the distinctive characteristics of the weapon around which it revolves. None is complete in and of itself. Kashima-Shinryu bugei, as an entity beyond a simple collection of tricks and strategies for fighting, materializes when taken in total, when all twelve bujutsu disciplines are melded into a single budo.

This course will introduce the variety and the holistic nature of this venerable art. The course will present a handful of fundamental and representative techniques for the kaiken and the yari and explore the way in which the same principles are applied to the use of both.

REQUIREMENTS: Participants will require loose clothing.

KARL FRIDAY

Karl Friday is an associate professor of Japanese History at the University of Georgia. He has studied Japanese military traditions for nearly two decades and has published extensively in this subject area. Dr. Friday is a twenty-year student of Japanese and Korean martial arts holding dan ranks in Tang Soo Do, Shotokan karate, Hapkido and cross training experience in several other modern disciplines. In 1978 he became one of the first foreigners to be admitted to Kashima-Shinryu in Japan. He currently holds the rank of shihan/menkyo kaiden within that organization and has served on the school's advisory council (sangi) since 1982. He has directed or helped instruct at Kashima-Shinryu schools and clubs at the University of Kansas, the University of San Diego, the Tsukuba University, the University of Tokyo and the Japanese Ministry of Education. He is also a founding member and vice president of the Kashima-Shinryu Federation of North America.

Last modified May 21, 2003 by Kim Taylor

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