Looking for a Japanese karate instructor in UK

[Kusotare]

Kusotare, he knows his stuff!! Thank you for all that you do here, Kusotare!!

You are welcome, but believe me, compared many others, I know next to nothing on the subject!

K.

[CredoTe]

Agreed Okinawan Kobudo / Tii / Tode, even when practiced and transmitted by the nobility and royal families of the Ryukyuan monarchy, was more for civil defense than for the battlefield, and were done mainly in secrecy. Thus, formal recording of such arts weren't conducted because a "paper trail" would lead to discovery by authority figures. Certain arts were used on the battlefield, mainly Kobudo, but only in time of desperation, and not by a "formal army".

Good discussion... Thanks for the additional details of "Koryu"...

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to suggest that the teaching of Koryu schools was a public affair, far from it. They were actually quite secretive, with members often having to take a keppan or blood oath swearing never to divulge the teachings to anyone (amongst other things).

The mokuroku or catalogue of techniques was kept very secret and often in code - known only to members of the ryuha!

All this was there to support the transmission of the tradition from master to student on a perpetual basis.

This was quite different to the ways of the okinawan traditions.

K.

I think we're running into each other on account of our own ambiguities... I'm not trying to suggest that Koryu were publicly taught, either. Only that, while, yes, the Okinawans were a little more peaceful and laid-back than mainland Japanese, they still had just as much necessity for secrecy. Although, I believe Okinawans' reasons for secrecy were a little different than the Japanese Koryu. From what I've read on the matter, and please correct if I'm off , Koryu were trained/taught in secrecy more for the preservation of honor and pedigree of family/clan than for civilian survival, which was the Okinawans' motivation for secrecy.