Kobukan - United States Shibu

09/14/2026

From cross-training last week. Erik Desmond Sensei demonstrates a Muso Dori variation from the ground.

09/10/2026

Welcome to the Kobukan, Austin.

We’re pleased to welcome our newest Kobukan Study Group, serving the Austin area and based in Dripping Springs, Texas.

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So, what is a Kobukan Study Group, and why do we have them?

The idea is simple: where you live shouldn’t be the only thing determining whether you have access to serious training.

Not everyone lives near an established Kobukan dojo or has the resources to commit to regular long-distance travel. Study Groups give people in those areas a way to connect with local training partners and begin training together as part of the larger Kobukan community.

They’re intentionally informal. There is no local instructor, and no one charges for training. Someone simply takes the initiative to organize a suitable place to practice, whether that’s a garage, a park, or another available space, and opens the door to finding others nearby who want to train.

The organizer remains an active Kobukan member and trains through the U.S. Shibu, either directly or through Kobukan University. Training, testing, and progression remain connected to the Shibu-cho.

As members progress, in-person training and evaluation become increasingly important. Progression beyond Shokyu requires more substantive hands-on review through the Shibu or an agreed-upon Kobukan instructor, with flexibility in how we make that possible based on location and circumstances.

Organizing a Study Group also doesn’t make someone a Kobukan instructor. Teaching authority comes later and is earned through demonstrated skill, safe practice, integrity, and commitment to the standards and mission of the organization.

For someone curious about Kobukan, a Study Group can be a simple way to get involved, find people to train with, and experience what our martial arts are about. For those who choose to go further, it can also become the beginning of something lasting: a local Kobukan community with deeper connections to the organization and, for qualified practitioners, a path toward greater responsibility.

That’s what Study Groups are really about: making meaningful training more accessible, bringing people together, and giving Kobukan communities an opportunity to grow where they might not otherwise exist.

No Kobukan near you? Maybe your community should be next.

09/09/2026

Congratulations to Erik Desmond on a successful Kobukan Gyokko Ryu Joryaku no Maki test!

Erik made the trip down from Long Island for a packed day of cross training, including kosshi-jutsu and bojutsu: as well as sharing his knowledge in BJJ.

Excellent day or training! Well done.

09/07/2026

As the third anniversary of Kobukan's official start approaches, I've been reflecting on what Kobukan was, what it is, and what it is becoming.

To me, saying the organization is only three years old has always felt a little odd.

Kobukan didn't spring up overnight. In many ways, it was decades in the making.

It was built on Kancho's decision to move to Japan and make training a central part of his life. Decades of hard training, hard conditioning, study, and learning, with multiple lineage branches leading back to Takamatsu Sensei.

And much of that happened quietly.

Kancho didn't build his reputation by chasing martial arts trends or continually promoting himself. His reputation grew largely among the people who met and trained with him. People spoke of his encyclopedic knowledge of the Takamatsu-den, the intensity of his technique, and his experiences applying what he had learned outside the dojo. Eventually, that reputation reached a wider audience, including being featured on the Discovery Channel.

I've been fortunate to know and train with Kancho from before Kobukan existed. Since Kobukan began, I've attended every seminar and Taikai he has taught and almost every online class.

I've experienced the intensity of his technique, the depth of his martial knowledge, the conditioning, and, thankfully, the humor that comes with all of it.

To me, those things help explain the core of what Kobukan is.

It isn't about chasing the latest martial arts fad, trend, or boom.

It isn't about unnecessarily guarding knowledge so that only a select few ever have access to it.

And it certainly isn't about martial LARPing.

It's about studying, preserving, training, and passing on the knowledge represented within the Takamatsu-den martial arts without feeling the need to continually reshape it around whatever the martial arts world happens to be excited about at the moment.

Our martial arts don't need us to manufacture their relevance.

That doesn't mean our training should never evolve. Of course it should. We should continue learning, asking difficult questions, improving how we teach, and finding better ways to develop the skills and understanding contained within these arts.

But there is a difference between allowing our training to evolve and continually redefining the arts themselves around whatever the market currently values.

To me, this is what Kobukan was and what Kobukan is.

So, what's next?

Because Kobukan is often associated with Ninpo, many people assume we're looking to grow primarily from the same group of Takamatsu-den enthusiasts who have been around these arts for decades.

That community has become smaller over the years. Some people have simply moved on. Others became tired of the politics, personalities, secrecy, and some of the directions these arts took during and after the boom years.

There will always be a place in Kobukan for experienced practitioners looking for a different, open approach.

But I don't believe our future is limited to that same group of people.

I believe there are people well outside the existing Takamatsu-den community who would find tremendous value in these arts if they were simply given the opportunity to experience them without all the baggage that has accumulated around them.

And we don't need to tell them what they're supposed to find valuable about these arts.

We can simply teach them.

Let them experience the Kata. The striking, grappling, throwing, controls, weapons, movement, strategy, and the relationships between them. Let them begin to understand the principles and ideas contained within the material.

Some will connect with it. Some won't. That's okay.

We're trying to understand what was transmitted, what it teaches, and how to train it honestly.

That's the future I see.

Not fighting over an ever-smaller piece of the same martial arts audience.

Not trying to recreate the boom years.

Not reshaping our arts to chase the next one.

But introducing them to people who may have never encountered them in the first place.

People who don't know or care about decades of organizational politics.

People who have never heard the term Takamatsu-den.

People who may not even think they're looking for "traditional martial arts."

They may simply be looking for serious martial arts.

And perhaps that's enough.

The goal isn't to reinvent our martial arts.

It's to understand them deeply, train them honestly, preserve what has been entrusted to us, and make sure the next generation receives something worthy of the effort that came before it.

No hype required.

09/03/2026

Earlier this week, we asked a simple question:
What does a Dan rank actually tell you?

The answer gets more interesting when we look at how Japanese martial arts actually developed.

Dan ranking existed before the Kodokan. Traditional Ryuha did not share a single universal licensing system. Terms such as Menkyo, Mokuroku, Shoden, Chuden, and Okuden could carry different meanings from one tradition to another. And Menkyo Kaiden, despite how the term is sometimes used today, did not automatically make someone the sole successor or head of a tradition. Nor did the absence of sole succession necessarily end a Menkyo Kaiden holder's transmission of the tradition. Multiple lines of transmission could continue, in some traditions developing into distinct branches.

This is why trying to convert a traditional license into a modern Dan rank misses the point. They answer different questions.

Rank tells us where someone stands within a grading system. Transmission tells us what was passed to them. Neither, by itself, tells us everything about mastery.

Our newest Kobukan Knowledge Base article looks at the history behind both systems, including the development of Dan-Kyu grading, how traditional licensing worked, what Menkyo Kaiden actually means, and why transmission, mastery, teaching authority, and succession should not be treated as interchangeable.

We also explain why Kobukan uses both approaches: Dan-Kyu to measure progressive development across our training environment, alongside Ryuha-specific study and transmission.

If you have ever wondered what a black belt, Dan rank, or Menkyo actually tells you, this is the deeper answer.

Read the full article:
https://kobukan.us/knowledge/history/menkyo-vs-dan-kyu/

Learn how Menkyo, Menkyo Kaiden, Kyu and Dan differ in Japanese martial arts, including their history, transmission, ranking and use in Kobukan.

09/01/2026

Someone can tell you they're a 1st Dan, 5th Dan, or 10th Dan (or even more).

But what does that number actually tell you?

Not as much as you might think.

A Dan rank has meaning within the system that awarded it. An organization or instructor determines the curriculum, standards, testing requirements, and ultimately what each rank represents.

You can keep adding numbers to a black belt. That doesn't necessarily tell us anything more about what was transmitted.

And that's where an important distinction in traditional Japanese martial arts often gets lost.

Kyu-Dan ranking and Menkyo are not simply modern and old versions of the same ranking system.

They serve different purposes.

Kyu-Dan provides a progressive way to measure a practitioner's skill and development within a training environment.

Menkyo concerns the transmission of knowledge within a tradition.

That means a high Dan rank can tell us where someone stands within a particular grading system, but the number alone doesn't tell us the depth of the traditional curriculum they received.

For that, we have to ask a different question:

What was actually transmitted?

This is particularly important when an instructor or organization claims to teach a traditional Ryuha. Rank tells us how that organization evaluates its practitioners. It does not, by itself, establish the depth of the underlying transmission on which its teaching is based.

Traditional licensing can help answer that question by documenting what was transmitted within a particular tradition.

Neither system, by itself, proves mastery.

And neither needs to replace the other.

The Kobukan uses both.

Kyu-Dan gives us a progressive way to measure a practitioner's development. Traditional Ryuha transmission documents and preserves the knowledge being passed from one generation to the next.

It's also why transferring an existing rank into Kobukan can be more complicated than it might seem.

Someone may come to us with a high Dan grade, an instructor title, or decades of experience. We respect that history, but we still have to understand what sits behind the credential.

What curriculum did they learn? What were the standards? What can they demonstrate? And, where traditional Ryuha are concerned, what was actually transmitted to them?

A number or title alone can't answer those questions.

In fact, rank can continue to measure development long after a body of knowledge has been transmitted.

But rank cannot create transmission that never occurred.

So when someone tells you their Dan rank, perhaps the number isn't the most important question.

Ask what it represents.

And if they teach a traditional Ryuha, ask what was actually transmitted.

Rank and transmission are related.

They are not the same thing.

08/31/2026

Some additional photos from training with our friends at Shadow Combatives & Self-Defense last Saturday.

3-hours of hard work and great training!

If you're in the DC/Virginia area, be sure to connect with them about training.

And, if you'd like to schedule a visit to train with the Kobukan US Shibu, or host us to come train with your group, reach out to start a discussion.

08/31/2026

Today is the final day of Standard Registration for the 2026 Kobukan U.S. Taikai.

In just a month and a half, martial artists from across the United States and Canada will gather for three days of training under James Wright Kancho.

This year's Taikai will explore a progressive cross-section of Kukishinden Happo Biken Daken Taijutsu, helping participants understand not only individual techniques, but how the system develops as a complete martial art.

We'll also spend time applying those principles through randori and Tanto Sabaki, bridging the gap between traditional Kata and dynamic practice.

If you've been thinking about joining us, today is your last opportunity to register at the Standard Registration rate.

Whether you're a long-time Kobukan member or simply have an interest in traditional Japanese martial arts, we'd be honored to have you train with us.

Registration:
https://kobukankobudo.com/2026-kobukan-taikai-delaware-usa/

We look forward to welcoming everyone to Maryland this October.

Traditional. Practical. Community.

2026 Kobukan USA Taikai October 16 - 18, 2026 | Elkton, Maryland Join Us for the 2nd Kobukan Taikai in the U.S. – 3 Days of Training with James Wright Kancho! James Wright Kancho Returns James Wright Kancho will be returning to the United States, October 2026 for another amazing training experienc...

08/30/2026

Today we shared in great training with old and new friends from northern Virginia. Thank you to Shadow Combatives & Self-Defense for making the trip.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again soon!

08/25/2026

Influence Is Not Expertise

There has never been more martial arts information at our fingertips.

There has also never been a lower barrier to creating it.

Anyone with a phone can publish a historical claim, technical explanation, lineage story, or opinion and potentially put it in front of thousands of people before anyone stops to ask a simple question:

Is it true?

When content gets enough views, shares, and repetition, something interesting can happen:

Influence begins to look like expertise.

But they aren't the same thing.

Someone can become influential because they're an excellent communicator, a charismatic teacher, a successful school owner, a talented martial artist, a prolific content creator, or simply very good at getting people's attention.

They may also be an expert. But their influence isn't what makes them one.

• An exceptional martial artist isn't automatically a historian.

• A respected instructor isn't automatically an expert in Japanese language or culture.

• Being part of a legitimate lineage doesn't make every historical claim correct.

• A large following doesn't turn an interpretation into fact.

Different claims require different kinds of expertise and evidence.

There is another uncomfortable reality.

Followers can be bought. Likes and comments can be bought.

Traditional martial arts make this problem even more complicated.

Secrecy, gatekeeping, and a culture of keeping knowledge within small circles mean that some deeply knowledgeable practitioners rarely participate in public conversations at all.

Sometimes that restraint is entirely appropriate. Not everything needs to become content. There is something admirable about people who don't feel compelled to demonstrate what they know to strangers online.

But silence has a consequence.

It leaves the public conversation to the people willing to have it.

Someone with decades of specialized knowledge may discuss a subject privately with ten people, while someone with a fraction of that understanding presents a confident explanation to 100,000.

To someone encountering the subject for the first time, the second person may appear to be the authority simply because they're the authority the public can see.

And when experts withdraw from the public conversation, influencers can become the default representatives of the traditions those experts hold in such high regard.

The public doesn't know about the deeper conversations happening behind closed doors. It can only evaluate what it can see.

Eventually, the most visible version of an art can become the version the public believes is the art.

Social media magnifies this problem because engagement rewards ideas that spread.

It doesn't necessarily reward ideas that are true.

The confident answer often travels farther than the qualified one. The exciting story may travel farther than the complicated history.

And once enough people repeat something, repetition itself can begin to look like corroboration.

But a claim repeated a thousand times may still trace back to one unsupported claim.

That doesn't mean the quiet practitioner is necessarily right either.

Silence isn't evidence of expertise any more than popularity is.

We still have to evaluate the claim.

• Who originally said it?

• What are they actually qualified to speak about?

• Where did the information come from?

• Is it documented history, oral transmission, interpretation, or personal philosophy?

• Can it be independently corroborated?

• Are we willing to change our position when better evidence appears?

There is nothing disrespectful about asking those questions.

In fact, taking our martial traditions seriously enough to examine what we believe about them may be one of the greatest forms of respect we can show them.

It is also one reason the Kobukan tries to remain as transparent as reasonably possible about what we teach, where it comes from, and what we actually know.

Publicly, there will always be limits. Some teachings belong within the context of training, and not every detail of a living martial tradition needs to be placed on social media.

But if we believe an art is worth preserving, perhaps some of our knowledge about it is also worth sharing.

• When we make factual or historical claims publicly, we should be willing to explain where those claims come from.

• When something is documented, we should identify the evidence.

• When something comes from oral transmission, we should say so.

• When something is interpretation, we should call it interpretation.

• And when we genuinely don't know, “we don't know” is better than filling the gap with a good story.

Internally, we believe in even greater transparency.

Students should understand the provenance of what they're learning, the distinction between written and oral transmission, where interpretation enters the discussion, and where legitimate questions remain.

Preserving a tradition shouldn't require pretending that every question has already been answered.

There will always be things we choose not to publish.

But there should be very little that we are afraid to examine.

If those who possess better information never make it accessible, we shouldn't be surprised when poorer information fills the vacuum.

Influence tells us who is being heard.

Expertise tells us what someone may be qualified to speak about.

Evidence helps us determine whether the claim is true.

Know the difference.

Because in an age when almost anyone can reach thousands of people from a phone, 1,000 shares still isn't a source.