Koryu Budo online vs. real world

[atgm]

I wonder what the ratio is of gendai budo to koryu budo in Japan?
I would not be surprised if it's astronomically greater than the Bay Area.

Gendai most likely wins, hands down. Consider that basically every junior high, senior high, and any kind of tertiary educational institution will have at the least, a judo club. Probably kendo and kyuudo. Possibly karate. Possibly aikido.

[rjhartu]

My school only has kendo, no judo.

Koryu in Japan is very difficult to find more so than you would think. Every town no matter how small have karate, judo or kendo.
Koryu is unfortunately dying out. If someone tells you they study koryu... there should always be a paper trail that leads directly to Japan. If it doesn't then most likely the person that supposedly trains in Koryu is probably lying.

There aren't that many foreigners that do train in koryu, and most that do, don't have all that much time spent doing it at the source.
Gendai sports are far more accessible for everyone, that's including Japan.

[Josh Reyer]

I live in Nagoya, the fourth largest city in Japan. I can't throw a stick without hitting some koryu. Off the top of my head, there are three (maybe four) separate lines of Yagyu Shinkage-ryu, Hozoin-ryu and Owari Kan-ryu sojutsu, and Shinto Muso-ryu Jo, all in the city alone. Neighboring Mie has Shingyoto-ryu kenjutsu, neighboring Gifu has Sekiguchi-ryu iai, and neighboring Shizuoka has Toda-ha Buko-ryu Naginata. If you live in Aichi, Gifu, or Shizuoka, koryu is easy to find. It could be that the Tokai area, and specifically Aichi, is unique, but I daresay this is true of most areas.

[Kent Enfield]

Even out in the boonies where I was, there was plenty of koryu. Any individual koryu might be hard to find, but within about 45-minute's travel there were two different lines of Yagyu Shingan Ryu, Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu, and Muso Shinden Ryu, Ono-ha Itto Ryu, and another line of Itto Ryu that was only taught by that one group. If you expanded travel time to 1.5 hours to get to Sendai (less if you drove on the expressway), you added several more groups of iaido of multiple and rare flavors, two more lines of Yagyu Shingan Ryu, Morishige Ryu hojutsu, Jikishinkage Ryu naginatajutsu, and two separate lines of Shinto Muso Ryu. Then there were koryu-esque gendai budo: Toyama Ryu, Daito Ryu, Hakko Ryu, etc. And that's just the stuff I had seen or heard about.

[Are2]

...and neighboring Shizuoka has Toda-ha Buko-ryu Naginata.

And, most importantly, the honbu of Suio-ryu.

[rjhartu]

It's a difference of scale. Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya... really big cities will have more dojos. If you pick any given town you aren't going to find that many koryu there. You have to travel a bit, in comparison for Karate, Judo, kendo, aikido, you don't have to travel anywhere.

Shinto muso ryu is everywhere, muso shinden ryu is everywhere, mostly due to kendo and the jo.

Compare a koryu dojo with maybe an average of 4-10 people in it and, then compare it to a kendo or judo dojo with 40-60 people in it give or take the area.

Koryu isn't that popular and is kind of dying out. Everyone I see in the koryu dojos are in the 50s I don't see that many younger students.

[Josh Reyer]

It's a difference of scale. Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya... really big cities will have more dojos. If you pick any given town you aren't going to find that many koryu there. You have to travel a bit, in comparison for Karate, Judo, kendo, aikido, you don't have to travel anywhere.

Very true. But that doesn't mean koryu is hard to find. Rather, it's pretty easy to find.

Shinto muso ryu is everywhere, muso shinden ryu is everywhere, mostly due to kendo and the jo.

Which again, points out that it's pretty easy to find.

Compare a koryu dojo with maybe an average of 4-10 people in it and, then compare it to a kendo or judo dojo with 40-60 people in it give or take the area.

My koryu dojo has 30-35 regulars.

Koryu isn't that popular and is kind of dying out. Everyone I see in the koryu dojos are in the 50s I don't see that many younger students.

Any one ryuha is certain in a more precarious position than, say, kendo. But koryu as a whole are doing well enough. Two major organizations representing over 70 ryuha, multiple embukai throughout the year, many ryuha registered as Intangible Cultural Assets... Koryu are doing better now than they were in the Meiji period. The embu taikai I've attended have always featured many younger practitioners in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Even some kids, depending on the ryuha. Shinto Muso-ryu, Owari-kan-ryu, and Yakumaru Jigen-ryu being three in particular that have children practitioners.

Koryu being small is a desired feature, not an unfortunate bug.