Bruno@MT
Senior Master
About when: it depends. Genbukan ninpo and KJJR jujutsu are almost naturally complimentary. Genbukan ninpo and taekwando... much less.
Bujinkan v. Genbukan?
- Thread starter Hudson69
- Start date
About when: it depends. Genbukan ninpo and KJJR jujutsu are almost naturally complimentary. Genbukan ninpo and taekwando... much less.
True... I've often said the same thing about the Buj and Taekwondo. But I also think if you are studying two arts which are very similar in scope, while they may compliment each other and make you better at both... I question will it serve you best in the long run? It's in no way a bad thing... but to use a too common analogy: I have no qualms about having 2 sizes and weights of claw hammers in my toolbox, but I might be better prepared for that home repair project if I have a level or a screwdriver too...
Chris Parker
Grandmaster
Unfortunately, Cryo, that is a flawed analogy.
Having multiple tools at your conscious disposal is great for the home handiman, however it is rare that a home repair job will take place under highly adrenalised states, with major limitations on your ability to perform fine motor skills, form cogent sentences and thoughts, and leave you acting purely on reaction and unconscious trained responces. As a result, it is fine having a variety of tools requiring different skills for different situations.
When it comes to a martial art, there is a very different set of requirements. The skills are required to be applied under the above described adrenalised state, so having conflicting skill sets and strategies/tactics such as Tae Kwon Do and Taijutsu will cause one of two things. Either there will be a mental lockup as your unconscious tries to process which one to use, or (more commonly) you will come out with only one, the one you unconsciously believe is the strongest. That means that at least half of your training is straight out the window with no benefit at all, and that is really the best case scenario.
But to use your tools analogy, the spanner, screwdriver, and hammer are more representative not of different arts, but more the different applications of the one system. Only one punch is fine, but having a few kicks and some grappling skills (provided they are congruent with each other) is the ideal. But that does not mean cross training, as that can actually be detrimental.
DISCLAIMER: I have cross-trained myself in the past, and probably will in the future, but that is primarily to expand my education and understanding when a student comes in and says "I have done xxxx". So it certainly has it's place, it's just not what most people tend to think....
Having multiple tools at your conscious disposal is great for the home handiman, however it is rare that a home repair job will take place under highly adrenalised states, with major limitations on your ability to perform fine motor skills, form cogent sentences and thoughts, and leave you acting purely on reaction and unconscious trained responces. As a result, it is fine having a variety of tools requiring different skills for different situations.
When it comes to a martial art, there is a very different set of requirements. The skills are required to be applied under the above described adrenalised state, so having conflicting skill sets and strategies/tactics such as Tae Kwon Do and Taijutsu will cause one of two things. Either there will be a mental lockup as your unconscious tries to process which one to use, or (more commonly) you will come out with only one, the one you unconsciously believe is the strongest. That means that at least half of your training is straight out the window with no benefit at all, and that is really the best case scenario.
But to use your tools analogy, the spanner, screwdriver, and hammer are more representative not of different arts, but more the different applications of the one system. Only one punch is fine, but having a few kicks and some grappling skills (provided they are congruent with each other) is the ideal. But that does not mean cross training, as that can actually be detrimental.
DISCLAIMER: I have cross-trained myself in the past, and probably will in the future, but that is primarily to expand my education and understanding when a student comes in and says "I have done xxxx". So it certainly has it's place, it's just not what most people tend to think....
xJOHNx
Purple Belt
Cleared up alot of things!You can study other martial arts if you are a member of the Genbukan. However, you cannot study other ninpo/ninjutsu arts. As far as showing techniques to the public, you aren't supposed to teach people techniques who aren't members unless you have permission to do so, as in some type of seminar.
Everything you need to know about joining the Genbukan is located in the following links. The second link is for an Adobe version of the membership rules. I'd go by these before I'd go on hearsay.
http://www.genbukan.org/cgi-bin/site.pl?genbukan_join
http://www.genbukan.org/cgi-bin/site.pl?25&fileID=886
Thanks!
bwindussa
Yellow Belt
This is a most excellent thread. Lots of good information. I have been out of the MA scene for about 12 years due to a somewhat disfiguring knee injury and am just now returning. I had no idea that all of these changes had taken place. Thank you.
I trained in a Togakure class in the misty past. Any recommendations on a class anyone has heard about in Utah? I'm ready to hit it again.
Or, maybe I'll just hit the 'search' button first.
I trained in a Togakure class in the misty past. Any recommendations on a class anyone has heard about in Utah? I'm ready to hit it again.
Or, maybe I'll just hit the 'search' button first.
OP
OP
Hudson69
Brown Belt
This is a most excellent thread. Lots of good information. I have been out of the MA scene for about 12 years due to a somewhat disfiguring knee injury and am just now returning. I had no idea that all of these changes had taken place. Thank you.
I trained in a Togakure class in the misty past. Any recommendations on a class anyone has heard about in Utah? I'm ready to hit it again.
Or, maybe I'll just hit the 'search' button first.
Depending upon where you are at in Utah it can differ. Coming from the same Ninjutsu instructor (at least at some point in time, maybe the same time?) I would like to name one but only if you are in the Ogden area. There is a Genbukan dojo with at least two persons who were also students of John Jensen's in attendance. It is the Haruka Dojo:
Haruka Dojo
[SIZE=-1]GWNBF/KJJR
Ronald Holt
2933 Jackson Avenue, Ogden, UT 84403
Tel: 801-394-1525
Fax: 801-626-8979
Email: [/SIZE][SIZE=-1][email protected][/SIZE]
OP
OP
Hudson69
Brown Belt
Not to argue but I have cross-trained in multiple disciplines and never felt a conflict in an attack/defense pattern, just flowed with the moment as best I could and this is from LEO experience with numerous unarmed meetings.
But this could be the reason why; I have been more fortunate(?) and have been in more total stranger (potential) H2H situations a fairly wide variety of situations than I think the average MA gets to be involved in.
bwindussa
Yellow Belt
Pleae forgive me if I'm wrong but on this discussion, I was taught that any technique that was useful could be incorporated, not just the ones I learned in my lesson plans. I was encouraged to look beyond the classroom into the world of man and in nature to"fill-out" the training.
I will probably say this badly so please don't be offended as I make this point. I feel that most if not all training is useful and that, once learned deeply, you will respond correctly to a situation regardless of where the knowledge is learned. Do you agree?
After all, isn't Ninjutsu a way of life where learning is something encouraged throughout? Regardless of where you learn the knowledge.
Am I reading this thread correctly or am I way off base? Normally for me it's the latter.
I will probably say this badly so please don't be offended as I make this point. I feel that most if not all training is useful and that, once learned deeply, you will respond correctly to a situation regardless of where the knowledge is learned. Do you agree?
After all, isn't Ninjutsu a way of life where learning is something encouraged throughout? Regardless of where you learn the knowledge.
Am I reading this thread correctly or am I way off base? Normally for me it's the latter.
Chris Parker
Grandmaster
You are forgiven...
No, it is not a case of "just using whatever techniques work in a situation". It is a matter of adapting the principles of the art to a situation. And the principles of the art, it's guiding philosophy, will proclude you from a number of techniques, for example roundhouse kicks and axe kicks go against the principles of Ninjutsu. However, they work perfectly for Tae kwon Do. In that art, though, Ninjutsu's postures are all wrong.
The point here is that the underlying principles, or the guiding philosophy of an art, give it it tactics, strategies, power source, and more. You just can't use an Aikido power source and expect it to be effective with a Tae Kwon Do attack, and vice versa. I once had a "discussion" with a person (who trained in a bogus ninjutsu school here in Melbourne) who was telling me that roundhouse kicks and three-sectional staves were perfectly fine to use in ninjutsu because ninjutsu is whatever a ninja uses... kinda missed the point on that one. A ninja is not just a guy in black pajamas and a hood, you know...
And Hudson69, provided you could congruently combine the different techniques under one principle, then yes, you could get benefits out of cross training the way you say. However, most people cross train as they believe they have a lack in one or more areas in their current training, so they go to a very different type of school to cover that gap. And that honestly just doesn't work. MMA training, for example, I have said a number of times is not really "Mixed" Martial Art training. It is a single system with a single guiding philosophy which works with multiple ranges, which grew out of disparate arts.
If you have managed (as MMA coaches have) to bring everything together congruently, then it can work. But you will find that you are not really using multiple arts, when it comes down to it, you are using a base system (probably Kempo for yourself, although not necessarily) as your guide, and simply adapting the other techniques to that first arts concepts. So bringing in ideas from other arts is not in itself bad, provided you can make it work in your original art. As said, a spinning tornado kick won't work within Ninjutsu, but groundwork (adapted from BJJ or similar) can.
The reason I say you will adapt it to a single art which may or may not be Kempo for you, is that the art you will naturally go to in a high stress or high adrenalin situation will be the one you unconsciously believe is the strongest, and that may or may not be the one you have spent the most time training in. It could be the one that most closely resembles what you see as powerful (say, from movies), or could be an art you haven't studied for years or more, but you had a very powerful experience in which has never left you. Hope this has made sense...
No, it is not a case of "just using whatever techniques work in a situation". It is a matter of adapting the principles of the art to a situation. And the principles of the art, it's guiding philosophy, will proclude you from a number of techniques, for example roundhouse kicks and axe kicks go against the principles of Ninjutsu. However, they work perfectly for Tae kwon Do. In that art, though, Ninjutsu's postures are all wrong.
The point here is that the underlying principles, or the guiding philosophy of an art, give it it tactics, strategies, power source, and more. You just can't use an Aikido power source and expect it to be effective with a Tae Kwon Do attack, and vice versa. I once had a "discussion" with a person (who trained in a bogus ninjutsu school here in Melbourne) who was telling me that roundhouse kicks and three-sectional staves were perfectly fine to use in ninjutsu because ninjutsu is whatever a ninja uses... kinda missed the point on that one. A ninja is not just a guy in black pajamas and a hood, you know...
And Hudson69, provided you could congruently combine the different techniques under one principle, then yes, you could get benefits out of cross training the way you say. However, most people cross train as they believe they have a lack in one or more areas in their current training, so they go to a very different type of school to cover that gap. And that honestly just doesn't work. MMA training, for example, I have said a number of times is not really "Mixed" Martial Art training. It is a single system with a single guiding philosophy which works with multiple ranges, which grew out of disparate arts.
If you have managed (as MMA coaches have) to bring everything together congruently, then it can work. But you will find that you are not really using multiple arts, when it comes down to it, you are using a base system (probably Kempo for yourself, although not necessarily) as your guide, and simply adapting the other techniques to that first arts concepts. So bringing in ideas from other arts is not in itself bad, provided you can make it work in your original art. As said, a spinning tornado kick won't work within Ninjutsu, but groundwork (adapted from BJJ or similar) can.
The reason I say you will adapt it to a single art which may or may not be Kempo for you, is that the art you will naturally go to in a high stress or high adrenalin situation will be the one you unconsciously believe is the strongest, and that may or may not be the one you have spent the most time training in. It could be the one that most closely resembles what you see as powerful (say, from movies), or could be an art you haven't studied for years or more, but you had a very powerful experience in which has never left you. Hope this has made sense...
bwindussa
Yellow Belt
OK, that makes good sense. I agree that in a stress situation one will go with the techniques one feels are best. I also agree that Ninjutsu is far and away the most practical art that I have studied and I would naturally fall back on it in almost every situation. The principles taught are useful in every aspect of life, not just for combat.
I still have this nagging thought that says if I find a useful and practical technique and I add it to my training, that it can help me be a better prepared person overall. Then again, if it was practical and useful it's probably already in the training somewhere.
I think I see what you mean when you say you can't use an Aikido power source and expect it to work with a TKD attack. Because each art draws friom diffrent principles and if they don't come from a common ground then one is just doing themselves harm. The difference would be just too much and would cause internal confusion.
Is this correct?
I still have this nagging thought that says if I find a useful and practical technique and I add it to my training, that it can help me be a better prepared person overall. Then again, if it was practical and useful it's probably already in the training somewhere.
I think I see what you mean when you say you can't use an Aikido power source and expect it to work with a TKD attack. Because each art draws friom diffrent principles and if they don't come from a common ground then one is just doing themselves harm. The difference would be just too much and would cause internal confusion.
Is this correct?
Chris Parker
Grandmaster
Well, yes, but a few things need to be understood. In a high stress/high adrenaline situation, the higher functions of your brain will simply shut down, leaving only the more survival-orientated functions to be utilised. The functions lost include the ability to form complex sentences, and perform complicated techniques (without a huge amount of repetitive training with the correct approach). Another thing it will do is shut down your conscious minds ability to critique and make decisions the way you can do right now (as you read this).
A few threads recently have given very good examples of this, one (The Destroyer Style) speaks very strongly to this at the end. The stories of a number of incidents where the ability to consciously make decisions cost people's lives, as they followed procedure designed to make cleanup in a shooting gallery easier.
So if you think you will be able to consciously "choose" what techniques/tactics you will employ, or whether your BJJ is the best, or Tae Kwon Do, or Aikido, realise that that very decision-making ability will be one of the first things you will lose. That leaves us wondering, in a lot of cases, what will come out? If we train in a variety of arts, each with their own different power source, movement style, strategic base, tactical approach, and more, which will come out? Well, that will be the one that you unconsciously beileve is the most powerful.
I'll say that again. It will be the one that you unconsciously believe will be the most powerful.
And that will have nothing to do with what you rationally, consciously, logically think or believe it is. It is, instead, whichever your unconscious believes. Now, the unconscious mind is an interesting place. It is the storage place for every experience you have ever had, as well as where your beliefs, values, and behaviours come from (you act the way you do because of your unconscious mind, not due to any conscious decision. This is what we refer to as our "personalities"). By and large, the values and beliefs that determine our behaviours are pretty much set by the time we are 7 years old, with a bit of tweaking until we are about 15 or 16. The only ways to change this after that are traumatic experiences (hence the term "life-changing" experience), or therapy (usually quite intense). The only other variant to this is if there was no previous value installed, in other words, if you have no experience at something, and no experience to relate it to, then a new value and belief can be created from a new experience.
Training can be traumatic, but really falls under the category here of "therapy". It is therapy because it is an undertaking to alter your behaviours, which is achieved by giving new experiences to "replace" previous beliefs and values, which then give you your new behaviours. But the experience needs to be powerful enough to replace any previously existing beliefs. I'll explain.
Say you saw a movie when you were young. Let's call it The Karate Kid... In this (hypothetical!) movie, there was a protagonist who has distinct disadvantages, he is smaller than the other kids, has less ability, and is constantly bullied and beat up. He discovers a local martial art master, who teaches him (in a rather unorthodox, and honestly ineffective way, only giving physical movements without the necessary context and appropriate mindset for the actions to be utilised... but I digress...) the skills of a particular martial art. Using this new skill, he takes on the bullies, and wins the girl, a trophy, and his self respect. And he did this using an exotic-style technique (a rather telegraphed action which announces it's intention ["I'm going to kick!"]) from this martial art.
Now let's say that you saw this film when you were quite young. In fact, this was your first real experience seeing martial arts (and relating what they are, in terms of handling violence and life's obstacles). Now the only experience you have in terms of martial arts are this film. So, with your unconscious mind being unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality, the only reference it has to create a belief about martial arts, and to give them a value, is this piece of hollywood. The belief could go a number of ways, but we'll take it as a high value experience, which means that your belief about martial arts are that they look like what you saw in the movie (they all look like karate, lot's of striking and kicking, little grappling, forward facing aggressive postures etc), this is what works, this is what is powerful, and it is the exotic, different techniques (like the single-legged crane-kick) that are needed to be successful (as a side note, if you see kids play fighting, they will often go to these "movie" poses, as they are percieved to be more powerful. They will almost never go to a boxer's pose, nor an Aikido Hanmi, nor any other. What is in the movie's are powerful...).
So a few years later, you take up a martial art. You may take up Tae Kwon Do, or Karate, as that looks like what you personally believe to be powerful... but you may not. You may take up something entirely different, such as Aikido, WIng Chun, or Ninjutsu, for conscious belief reasons. But if the training is not sufficiently designed to replace your previous beliefs, then you may find that, despite a number of years training in a completely different type of system to karate (let's say Aikido, yeah?), when you are put in a high stress/high adrenaline situation you are likely to respond with a version of the karate your unconscious mind believes to be more powerful. The conscious mind really doesn't enter into it.
But if the training is done well, or is geared in such a way to convince you that it is more powerful than the karate you have seen or trained in, then a new belief takes the place of the old one, giving new values (Aikido I have trained in is more powerful that karate from movies), and that changes your behaviours (Aikido comes out, rather than karate). This could happen a number of ways, most often the art being "proved" to you, being on the recieving end can do that.
Just remember that if you have trained in both systems over time, your unconscious mind will choose whatever it believes is the best of the different options, not switch between them. So if you trained karate when you were 6 through to 9, and had it's power instilled in you, and Aikido from 22 through to 29, but never had it sufficiently demonstrated to you that Aikido was stronger, you will probably still find the karate making an appearance under stress.
Hopefully that helps you understand the psychology behind this (and the training ideas). This is why cross-training and taking bits of this and bits of that because they "seem to work" is really actually to be discouraged, unless it is able to be congruently adapted to an existing base. Otherwise you are honestly wasting a lot of your time...
A few threads recently have given very good examples of this, one (The Destroyer Style) speaks very strongly to this at the end. The stories of a number of incidents where the ability to consciously make decisions cost people's lives, as they followed procedure designed to make cleanup in a shooting gallery easier.
So if you think you will be able to consciously "choose" what techniques/tactics you will employ, or whether your BJJ is the best, or Tae Kwon Do, or Aikido, realise that that very decision-making ability will be one of the first things you will lose. That leaves us wondering, in a lot of cases, what will come out? If we train in a variety of arts, each with their own different power source, movement style, strategic base, tactical approach, and more, which will come out? Well, that will be the one that you unconsciously beileve is the most powerful.
I'll say that again. It will be the one that you unconsciously believe will be the most powerful.
And that will have nothing to do with what you rationally, consciously, logically think or believe it is. It is, instead, whichever your unconscious believes. Now, the unconscious mind is an interesting place. It is the storage place for every experience you have ever had, as well as where your beliefs, values, and behaviours come from (you act the way you do because of your unconscious mind, not due to any conscious decision. This is what we refer to as our "personalities"). By and large, the values and beliefs that determine our behaviours are pretty much set by the time we are 7 years old, with a bit of tweaking until we are about 15 or 16. The only ways to change this after that are traumatic experiences (hence the term "life-changing" experience), or therapy (usually quite intense). The only other variant to this is if there was no previous value installed, in other words, if you have no experience at something, and no experience to relate it to, then a new value and belief can be created from a new experience.
Training can be traumatic, but really falls under the category here of "therapy". It is therapy because it is an undertaking to alter your behaviours, which is achieved by giving new experiences to "replace" previous beliefs and values, which then give you your new behaviours. But the experience needs to be powerful enough to replace any previously existing beliefs. I'll explain.
Say you saw a movie when you were young. Let's call it The Karate Kid... In this (hypothetical!) movie, there was a protagonist who has distinct disadvantages, he is smaller than the other kids, has less ability, and is constantly bullied and beat up. He discovers a local martial art master, who teaches him (in a rather unorthodox, and honestly ineffective way, only giving physical movements without the necessary context and appropriate mindset for the actions to be utilised... but I digress...) the skills of a particular martial art. Using this new skill, he takes on the bullies, and wins the girl, a trophy, and his self respect. And he did this using an exotic-style technique (a rather telegraphed action which announces it's intention ["I'm going to kick!"]) from this martial art.
Now let's say that you saw this film when you were quite young. In fact, this was your first real experience seeing martial arts (and relating what they are, in terms of handling violence and life's obstacles). Now the only experience you have in terms of martial arts are this film. So, with your unconscious mind being unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality, the only reference it has to create a belief about martial arts, and to give them a value, is this piece of hollywood. The belief could go a number of ways, but we'll take it as a high value experience, which means that your belief about martial arts are that they look like what you saw in the movie (they all look like karate, lot's of striking and kicking, little grappling, forward facing aggressive postures etc), this is what works, this is what is powerful, and it is the exotic, different techniques (like the single-legged crane-kick) that are needed to be successful (as a side note, if you see kids play fighting, they will often go to these "movie" poses, as they are percieved to be more powerful. They will almost never go to a boxer's pose, nor an Aikido Hanmi, nor any other. What is in the movie's are powerful...).
So a few years later, you take up a martial art. You may take up Tae Kwon Do, or Karate, as that looks like what you personally believe to be powerful... but you may not. You may take up something entirely different, such as Aikido, WIng Chun, or Ninjutsu, for conscious belief reasons. But if the training is not sufficiently designed to replace your previous beliefs, then you may find that, despite a number of years training in a completely different type of system to karate (let's say Aikido, yeah?), when you are put in a high stress/high adrenaline situation you are likely to respond with a version of the karate your unconscious mind believes to be more powerful. The conscious mind really doesn't enter into it.
But if the training is done well, or is geared in such a way to convince you that it is more powerful than the karate you have seen or trained in, then a new belief takes the place of the old one, giving new values (Aikido I have trained in is more powerful that karate from movies), and that changes your behaviours (Aikido comes out, rather than karate). This could happen a number of ways, most often the art being "proved" to you, being on the recieving end can do that.
Just remember that if you have trained in both systems over time, your unconscious mind will choose whatever it believes is the best of the different options, not switch between them. So if you trained karate when you were 6 through to 9, and had it's power instilled in you, and Aikido from 22 through to 29, but never had it sufficiently demonstrated to you that Aikido was stronger, you will probably still find the karate making an appearance under stress.
Hopefully that helps you understand the psychology behind this (and the training ideas). This is why cross-training and taking bits of this and bits of that because they "seem to work" is really actually to be discouraged, unless it is able to be congruently adapted to an existing base. Otherwise you are honestly wasting a lot of your time...
bwindussa
Yellow Belt
OK, I believe I get it now. I appreciate your patience, mine is a thick skull that sometimes needs repeated bashings with a simple idea.
Actually this makes more and more sense. I remember many occasions in the classroom, during intense training sessions, students (including myself) would shut down, regress to something they "learned" in their past, or start looking for a weapon instead of using the techniques they had been taught.
I remember consiously wondering about this and even mentioning it in the classroom. Something like "why is it after all these years of learning to fight unarmed every time it gets tense do I go looking for a weapon?" It got a laugh at the time but now it makes sense that at the time we unconsiously didn't believe in the power of the training. Is that correct?
Dang, I have such a long way to go. It's really too bad we don't live an extra hundred years or so, that way us slower learners would have more time to understand the "simple stuff".
Thanks for the clarification.
Brad
Actually this makes more and more sense. I remember many occasions in the classroom, during intense training sessions, students (including myself) would shut down, regress to something they "learned" in their past, or start looking for a weapon instead of using the techniques they had been taught.
I remember consiously wondering about this and even mentioning it in the classroom. Something like "why is it after all these years of learning to fight unarmed every time it gets tense do I go looking for a weapon?" It got a laugh at the time but now it makes sense that at the time we unconsiously didn't believe in the power of the training. Is that correct?
Dang, I have such a long way to go. It's really too bad we don't live an extra hundred years or so, that way us slower learners would have more time to understand the "simple stuff".
Thanks for the clarification.
Brad
Chris Parker
Grandmaster
The "looking for a weapon" thing is basically your unconscious recognising danger, and looking for the strongest responce possible, regardless of whether or not it is appropriate. This is how we end up with police shootings and the like, as the first instinct of the unconscious is to go to the most powerful option, and that sees officers drawing a sidearm sometimes prematurely or inappropriately. It is not a fault of theirs, just something that really should be addressed in their training (and from what I have seen is being addressed more and more, thankfully). But everytime you hear about a police officer shooting someone who "is armed only with a knife", or is mistakenly thought to be armed, or similar, realise that it is just the same mechanism in operation.
bwindussa
Yellow Belt
I've seen that same scenario with the police here in the US. When I was attending Utah's "police academy" we actually had several students who asked why we really needed to learn H2H and baton when we all carried guns. Not kidding. That was back in the mid 1980's and i sincerely hope we have higher standards for officers now.
Getting sort of back on topic though, why is it that the x-kans are mutually exclusive? Why would one club not allow one to train if you were a member of another group?
Getting sort of back on topic though, why is it that the x-kans are mutually exclusive? Why would one club not allow one to train if you were a member of another group?
Chris Parker
Grandmaster
Well, the short version would be "That is what the heads of the various organisations decided".
Essentially, each different organisation teaches the same thing in different ways, so to be training in both the Bujinkan and the Genbukan (for example) you would be essentially saying to each teacher "I don't believe you are teaching me everything I would need to know" (from a Japanese perspective). It's really a question of respect for your teacher/chosen organisation and the respective head of that group (Hatsumi Sensei, Tanemura Sensei, Manaka Sensei). If you truly have faith in your teacher, then there is no reason to go to another.
Essentially, each different organisation teaches the same thing in different ways, so to be training in both the Bujinkan and the Genbukan (for example) you would be essentially saying to each teacher "I don't believe you are teaching me everything I would need to know" (from a Japanese perspective). It's really a question of respect for your teacher/chosen organisation and the respective head of that group (Hatsumi Sensei, Tanemura Sensei, Manaka Sensei). If you truly have faith in your teacher, then there is no reason to go to another.
Bruno@MT
Senior Master
Part of the reason we are not allowed to crosstrain is no doubt political. But the other reason is that each organization has a very different approach to learning MA, which each of the founders thinks is better than the others. Bujinkan focuses on the underlying principles and strategy. Genbukan focuses on the technical aspect, making sure that for each test / grade, you know a certain amount of tehniques, and you know them very well. Jinenkan focuses on the basics until they are ingrained for good.
So while the systems of each org are made up of similar ryuha, they have different ways of teaching said system, and different ways of running their organization. And each of the founders probably wants their students to learn the art the way they think is best, and not the way 'the other one' thinks is best. And as Chris said, if you look at it from a Japanese perspective, then training the same art under another sensei is like saying 'I don't think that you can teach me everything I need to know'. And that is also why cross training in a -different- art is not a big issue.
So while the systems of each org are made up of similar ryuha, they have different ways of teaching said system, and different ways of running their organization. And each of the founders probably wants their students to learn the art the way they think is best, and not the way 'the other one' thinks is best. And as Chris said, if you look at it from a Japanese perspective, then training the same art under another sensei is like saying 'I don't think that you can teach me everything I need to know'. And that is also why cross training in a -different- art is not a big issue.
Chris Parker
Grandmaster
For that I would refer you to the first page of this thread... but to add to it, the most number of schools/systems, therefore the largest technical curriculuum, belong to the Genbukan/KJJR (Kokusei Jujutsu Renmei), followed by the Bujinkan (with a much smaller emphasis on such things), then the Jinenkan after the others. Each has their benefits, for example systems such as Bokuden Ryu, Asayama Ichiden Ryu, Tenshin Koryu will be taught in the KJJR, although Hatsumi Sensei learnt these systems and brings them out from time to time. And the Jinenkan has the Jinen Ryu, created by Manaka Sensei, primarily based on weaponry, specifically sword, two sword, and Jutte.
Bruno@MT
Senior Master
Personally (I am in Genbukan) I don't worry about how many schools there are in my system or which organization teaches which details. The contents of each system are similar and cover many the same things. They just go about teaching in different ways.
Also, the fact that Genbukan allows you to learn traditional schools, and allows you to receive licensure in the traditional ways is a moot point for most people. Most people will never get to the point where they are allowed to test for those licenses, since you have to be 3d dan (that will take about12 to 16 years) before you can request to study a specific school beyond the basics that are taught at taikai.
Rather, make a choice for the system that 'feels' right to you.
For me personally, I like the Genbukan way of doing things. It is very structured and I think it is most suitable for me. It also enables me to study jujutsu under the same sensei, which is what drew me to Genbukan in the first place.
Also, the fact that Genbukan allows you to learn traditional schools, and allows you to receive licensure in the traditional ways is a moot point for most people. Most people will never get to the point where they are allowed to test for those licenses, since you have to be 3d dan (that will take about12 to 16 years) before you can request to study a specific school beyond the basics that are taught at taikai.
Rather, make a choice for the system that 'feels' right to you.
For me personally, I like the Genbukan way of doing things. It is very structured and I think it is most suitable for me. It also enables me to study jujutsu under the same sensei, which is what drew me to Genbukan in the first place.
