What is “Kobudo?”

Hello everyone. Thank you for reading this article. I’m Shogo from Let’s ask Shogo, the interpreter of the online lessons and owner of this website.

The instructor who will be teaching you in our online lessons is the 22nd headmaster of Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu. But what does the word “Kobudo” mean? Why is there a Ko in front of the Budo? 

The Ko stands for “ancient” in Japanese, so Kobudo means “ancient-Budo.” But most Japanese Budo martial arts have quite a long history. Does that mean they are all Kobudo? The answer is no. Kobudo are specifically Budo that were born before the end of the Edo period, before Japan’s Westernization. In other words, anything that was actually trained by samurai is called a Kobudo, and anything made based on the martial arts that the samurai used to train are called Gendai-Budo, modern Budo. So famous Budo today like Kendo, Judo, Aikido, etc., are all categorized as Gendai-budo. Kobudo on the other hand, are martial arts like Iaijutsu, Kenjutsu, Sōjutsu (spear), Hōjutsu (matchlock), etc. There’s a website of the Kobudo association in Japan, so if you’re interested, you can check it out. https://www.nihonkobudokyoukai.org/martialarts/ https://www.nipponbudokan.or.jp/shinkoujigyou/kankeidantai_03

Gendai-Budo is more popular than Kobudo today because the martial arts samurai trained in were denied once during Westernization, the end of the samurai rule. Gendai-Budo was recently created in Japanese history to suit the new era. However, it would be a pity to continue to lose the precious legacies of the teachings from the samurai, so we are willing to do everything we can to protect, carry on, and grow our Ryuha, Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu.

So, how are Kobudo actually different from Gendai-Budo like Iaido? Please check out our online lessons or YouTube channel to find out more.