Join The Movement

What makes us different?

The following was written by Master Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, on the topic of true Japanese martial arts:

The martial arts, in the true sense of why the martial arts were developed over a thousand years ago in Japan, have been totally distorted and perverted today.  Foreign students don’t know any better because they believe in what the oriental teachers tell them.  Everything has been turned into a sport, an overly regimented or complicated abstract form, or into a false system of violent talk that would have no effectiveness at all on the street.

I do not mean to defile the Japanese martial arts with these comments.  That is not my purpose.  However, I do want people to know the true histories of where the martial arts came from.  Judo, Karate, Aikido – these are all wonderful arts, and I hold teaching licenses in all of them.  They have many desirable aspects that have attracted millions of students all over the world.  I have experienced all of the popular Japanese martial arts, but wanted to find a true fighting art.  I was searching for an art unlimited by any rules.  There is nothing more dreadful and horrifying than a rule that says there are no rules.  I had to go through many martial arts, but I finally made it to where I am now.  My stand based on the training that was handed down to me, is that Bugei, the warrior arts, should be recognized more as actual arts.  As arts, these martial methods are an embodiment of peaceful intentions.  The martial arts are a manifestation of your intentions to live your life as it should be lived as a total human being.  That is what flows as the basis of the authentic historical martial arts.