Why Japan Decided to Preserve Ancient Martial Arts that are Impractical Today

●Japan Kobudo Association Official Website ●Japan Kobudo Promotion Society ●Gendai Budo Nippon Budokan Today, Japanese BUDO martial arts are trained all over the world. You too might be currently training in or have trained in Karate, Kendo, or Judo etc. yourself. The Japanese martial arts that have become mainstream today are called “gendai-budo,“ and the former arts are called “ko-bujutsu,“ which are various methods of using weapons and fighting techniques that were practiced by samurai. However, even though ko-bujutsu and gendai-budo have the same roots, if you unravel their history, you will find that they differ greatly in content and purpose. So today, as a Japanese budoka living in Kyoto, I will explain about the history of ko-bujutsu in Japan and the 9 main kinds of skills. I will also talk about how gendai-budo was born from ko-bujutsu and the 9 martial arts included, as well as their differences. At