Owari Kan Ryu

My introduction to Owari Kan Ryu was seeing a group of practitioners walk onto stage with almost 12 foot yari (spears). I thought to myself "how in the world do they control them?" Their demonstration of their sojutsu (spear art) soon showed me how much control they had over their weapons.

Owari Kan Ryu is a yari based koryu (traditional system) based primarily in Aichi. A number of different yari are used including a tube yari, in which the the shaft of the yari slides through a tube or sleeve. This sleeve reduces friction and the speed, power and control that can be demonstrated is awesome. The system also incorporates some Shinkage Ryu sword work.

The demonstration I watched was excellent and I am looking forward to seeing more of this system while I am in Japan.

Martial Arts in Japan

Living in Japan has given me the opportunity to see a great number of arts that are not commonly seen in the West.

I recently attended an martial arts demonstration at a shrine that was truly amazing. Arts demonstrated in the 5 hour extravaganza included Hozoin Ryu, Owari Kan Ryu, Ryukyu Kobujutsu, Shinto Muso Ryu, Tendo Ryu and Yagyu Shinkage Ryu.

In future posts I will explain more about some of these arts and include some more photos of the demonstrations.