Bushin-ryu

This section of the curriculum has its roots in the Hōten Ryū school of battlefield combat and ascetic practices, which includes a multitude of various weapons and implements that were employed by Ashigaru (foot soldiers) and Samurai who were involved in guerrilla and front-line warfare of the time.

The Hōten Ryū was founded in the late Sengoku Jidai (warring states period 1467-1600), where large battlefield wars for the unification of Japan were fought in armour.
Although the primary weapons of the school are the sword and the spear, there are many other weapons which take collectively a large part of the curriculum. These weapons include Bō and Jō (various length of wooden or metal staff), Fundō-kusari (chain with weights at the extremities), Jō-kusari (sticks with chain), Himo-fundō (rope with weight at one end), Tessen (iron fan), Kusari-gama (sickle with chain), Tedori-satsumata (handheld Y-shaped metal implement to block and attack), Nage-bari (shuriken, throwing blades), and various other implements and combinations, many of which are collectively called Hi-buki (hidden weapons). Roughly the type of weapons can be divided in three major categories:

• Sharp weapons (swords, blades, etc.)
• Stick-like weapons (long and short staff, etc.)
• Flexible weapons (chain and rope-based implements, etc.)

The original curriculum is divided in ten sections, each including the study of a typology of weapons, tactics and other practices. The teachings of the school are strongly permeated by Shintō and Shugendō precepts of “laws of nature”. Traditionally the training is often carried outdoors to both connect with nature and learn how to deal with a more realistic combat terrain, the heritage of its battlefield heydays.

Arguably, the characteristics of the techniques and methods of these schools can appear deceivingly simple or crude, compared to forms of other schools, as the fundamentals were meant to be learned in a relatively short amount of time to quickly train new troops recruited among the villages where the front line would arrive. In that respect, most of the weapons are not “conventional”, but fashioned from common materials, such as tree branches, bamboo canes, and metal parts of utensils. Therefore, such implements do not have the appearance of a common battlefield weapon and the unique characteristics of the material, such as non-straight sticks made of branches, can aid an unorthodox typology of technique, which in turn can be rather deceiving for the opponent.

An important part of the studies involves the self-production of such weapons and advanced practitioners are expected to develop their own weapon variation and technique.