Bugei Ryuha Daijiten

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bugei Ryuha Daijiten is a catalog of acceptable koryu practiced by martial artists. These various schools were chronicled by Japanese writers, who used the Meiji Restoration as a cutoff for new school and old school martial training.

The designation reflects the difference between martial arts training or sport, and budo, or Japanese warrior codes.

The book provides details of hundreds, if not thousands, of koryu styles, with brief descriptions of the most popular methods, and commentary on numerous styles. It also provides some lists of sensei successions for various koryu.

Sometimes the koryu are referred to as ryuha, or schools of thought and practice.

[edit] Usage

The book is commonly used as a measuring stick for schools of martial arts and their legitimacy as koryu, due to the meticulousness of the authors in their documentation.

The book was written in Japanese by Watatani Kiyoshi and Yamada Tadashi. It was last published in 1979. The Tokyo Koppi Shuppanbu publicated version is 974 pages, and is a hardbound volume. English and other translations are not known.