The image of a samurai warrior conjures visions of the katana, that iconic curved blade that came to symbolise the martial prowess of medieval Japan. Yet long before the sword became the primary weapon of choice, the bow—yumi—reigned supreme on the Japanese battlefield. Kyujutsu, the martial art of Japanese archery, was not merely a combat […]
He left England as a ship’s navigator and ended up as a feudal lord in Japan. The true story of William Adams is stranger — and more moving — than any fiction. Picture the scene. It’s April 1600, and a battered Dutch ship crawls into a harbour on the coast of Japan. The crew are […]
The samurai of Japan’s Sengoku period (1467–1615) and early Edo era were among the most formidably armed warriors in human history. Far from the romanticised image of a lone swordsman, the battlefield samurai was a versatile fighter equipped with a sophisticated arsenal — one that evolved rapidly in response to the chaos of near-constant civil […]
A Practical Guide for Attendees What are Multi Instructor Events? A multi-instructor event brings together practitioners from different clubs, lineages, and interpretive traditions for a concentrated period of shared training — typically one to three days. Attendees move between sessions taught by different instructors, each bringing their own source material, interpretive approach, and teaching style. […]
