Bujutsu in Transition
The institutional transformation of swordsmanship across the bakumatsu–Meiji transition. Where the Koryū History project follows lineage, kata and their densho, this one steps out to the cross-school setting in which those swordsmen carried kenjutsu and jūjutsu into modern kendō, jūdō and beyond.
Essays and Articles
June 2026
Examining the Kashima Shin-ryū of Kunii Zen'ya. Early influences, Shintō education, military contributions, martial reputation and memorial tributes provide a rich view of this important budōka.
June 2026
How the nativist undertow inside Edo Sinophilia grew through kokugaku — Motoori Norinaga and Hirata Atsutane — into the kokutai/Kōdō ideology of Imaizumi Sadasuke and the early-Shōwa nationalist milieu of the Ketsumeidan Incident that the budō world brushed against.
June 2026
One thread that affects multiple articles here, whether on kobudō or Japanese religion, is the early Edo importance of Ming Dynasty culture in Japan as being desirable as an influence and the mid-to-late Edo scorn for Qing Dynasty China. This is only amplified in Meiji and beyond.
June 2026
We discuss details surrounding the martial arts and competitive practices of Matsuzaki Namishirō, master of Katōda Shinkage-ryū kenjutsu.
October 2025
We examine some features of armed and unarmed grappling and small weapon styles from the medieval period to modernity and draw some parallels and distinctions between them, especially as related to combat sport and contemporary military practices.