THE LITTLE KNOWN MARTIAL ART

Renbukai is a little known martial art in the United States due to the lack of English spoken in the Renbukai organization in Japan. In Renbukai you will see many martial arts and yet you are seeing one art. Renbukai transcends what the average person thinks of in the martial arts. You could say it was Karate, Judo, Kung-fu, Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, etc., for it resembles those arts and much more. It encompasses all martial arts.

Renbukai is one of the few schools in the United States that has text books, lesson plans and set guidelines to help any child or adult to develop themselves to the fullest and highest level, physically, mentally, emotionally and be able to defend oneself when all other options have been exhausted.

The principles our students past and present have followed. 1. Life, Defense of oneself, family and the weak. 2. Honor, truth and justice. 3. Country, preservation of one’s home and liberty.

Renbukai means literally "Training Martial Arts Association." is based on the traditional martial arts of Asia, it has grown and change to meet the challenges of the 21st century. To grow and develop Renbukai practises the old and adapts the "new."

Renbukai has no one single founder in its history. It was developed as an organization of martial artist by several masters of different martial arts into one all encompassing system.

The school was first known as Kanbukan, "Korean Martial Arts Place," founded in 1940, in Tokyo, Japan. The founder of the Kanbukan, was a Korean school teacher, Geka Yung. He was the first head of the school to become known later as Renbukai. The dojo "training hall" was a small gym where different martial artist went to practice and exchange thoughts. Geka Yung returned back to his homeland in 1949 to teach at a Korean University.

Another influential teacher in the development of Renbukai was Hiroyasu Tamae, born in 1906. Tamae was a student of the famous Shiroma Gusukuma, who himself was a direct student of Yasune Itosu, The famous Okinawan master of Shuri-te. Tamae also trained in Chinese Kempo in Peking, China before World War Two. He also trained at the Okinawan masters school, and trained in both Naha-Te and the Bo. These men all had a strong influence in the roots of a style evolved into becoming Renbukai.

In 1945 two young men, Norio Nakamura, a 4th degree in Kendo and a 2nd degree in Judo, and Miwaru Okamoto, a martial artist also became students at the Kanbukan. These two men later became leaders in the Renbukai movement. In 1948, Masayuki Koide, a Shotokan practitioner from Waseda University and a 2nd degree in Kendo joined the Kanbukan school. Koide went on to become the international director of Renbukai.

In 1950, under Norio Nakamura, the school became known as the Renbukan Nakamura went on to become the first director of Renbukan

It was not until 1964 , that the school took the name of Renbukai and became a style of its own. At that time, Renbukai joined Kyo-Kai, Wado-Ryu, Shito-Ryu, Goju-Kai and Rengo-Kai, in becoming the first six recognized schools as members of the Federation of All-Japan Karate-Do Organizations. Renbukai has over 500,000 practitioners in Japan alone.

Renbukai is one of the few school that practice fighting full contact with Bogu (protective gear). This is done during all training classes and tournaments to invoke realism. The first full contact tournament was held in 1954 in Tokyo, Japan.

 

Renbukai Karate-Do