Koryu Purists

“Though a cock may be brave in war
He strikes his claws in vain on a brazen falcon.
A cat is a lion in catching mice
But a mouse in combat with a lion.”
Sa’di (The Gulistan) 1258AD

“If a sufficient number of people wanted to stop war really did gather together, they would first begin by making war upon those who disagreed with them. And it is still more certain that they would make war on people who also want to stop wars but in another way.”
George Ivanovitch Gurdjiefff

“The strongest oak in the forest is not the one protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.”
Napolean Hill

Have you ever known that what you’re about to write or say is sooner or later going to come back and kick you in the butt? Well, this is one of those times. However, despite facing a potential backlash, endless debate, and a full out assault on my character--or lack of thereof--I think this is something that needs to be addressed. If for no other reason than my own peace of mind, since this issue has been irking me for a few months now, I feel compelled to write.

I have opened this essay with the quote from Sa’di because it reflects my opinion of people who choose to post their opinions and/or beliefs on message boards. People who apparently have nothing better to do than surf the Internet, and then make comments and assumptions about people they have never met in person, and most likely will never meet in person. People who make themselves feel superior by questioning others about their validity, or who throw the word “fraud” around like it can’t have future repercussions.



If I sound a little miffed, I am. These people, like the “cock” or the “cat”, rely on the fact that the Internet allows to interact anonymously. They will never come face to face with the “falcon” or the “lion.” They post things that they would never say in person to whomever they are writing about, since that would require a sense of decorum. They pose as experts without presenting their qualifications or expertise. They speak authoritatively, and treat those they are speaking about as if they were on trial.

Here in the US the presumption is someone is innocent until proven guilty: but not to these people. They unceasingly ask questions, yet fail to read the answers. Or should I say they fail to fully comprehend the answer that is given. Or worse yet, that they ignore what is written.

Then they become angered when one refuses to answer their allegations, although they seem to feel they have a right to be derogatory or obnoxious when demanding answers. Or they make snide comments. With a feeling of superiority, they truly believe others have the obligation to answer everything they ask, even if the question has been answered countless times.


Okay by now you’re wondering what all this angst is about. Well, a few months ago several members of an Internet site call E-budo.com found my web site and decided to attack the validity of my school’s history. Many called me an outright fraud.

Yes, the word fraud was used, which makes me wonder if these people understand what libel is. But I forget, their righteousness and quest for the truth afford them the right to speak to people in manner not even acceptable in a kindergarten classroom. Remember that was a period in life when we are all taught to treat others, as we want to be treated, and talk politely to others?

Then again, isn’t training in the martial arts suppose to instill the virtue of respect among it’s practitioners?


Now, I’m not defending the fact that the history of the school lacks validity. I’m also fully aware there were some things that were on the web site which were open for scrutiny, and could have been omitted or more clarified.

However, I’m not a fraud. The definition of fraud is:
fraud (frôd) n. 1. A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain. 2. A piece of trickery; a trick. 3.a. One that defrauds; a cheat. b. One who assumes a false pose; an impostor.

What have I gained? I can’t think of one person who has entered my school in the eleven years I’ve had one, who came because of the history, or more importantly stayed because of the history. No one has ever left due to the history, or should I say lack of history of the school either.

Since I’ve started teaching I’ve also been the first person to question the history of my teacher, and tell others I had my doubts about certain things. Didn’t anyone ever consider the fact that these questions were asked, debated, and discussed long before I had a web site or E-budo discovered it?

I’m not an imposter. I don’t claim to be a master, a guru, or even that I am privy to some special secret technique(s) that makes my style better than others No Tengus taught me my fighting skills on a mountainside, and I haven’t spent any time sitting under a waterfall in deep meditation searching for enlightenment. Though I did spend many a freezing morning knee deep in the ocean, since the beach was one of my teachers’ favorite places to train his son and I.

Since I don’t--and have never claimed to--have mystical, divine, or superior martial skills, all I can be accused of is claiming the following: I’m Gary Moro, a retired police officer, father of two, and husband to my wife Shirly.

As for the martial arts, I know what I know, and teach the best I can. People who see the value of what I have to offer stay, others who don’t leave. Over the years I’ve sent many potential students away just because I knew they were looking for something else, and would be happier in another school. I’ve also kicked people out of my school just because they didn’t attend class often enough, even though they paid every month.

Furthermore, any one who knows me can affirm that I’ve always said I would rather teach one or two serious dedicated students, than a room full of people who were strictly hobbyists.

So I ask again: What have I gained? Show me, and those who read these posts, how this so called fraudulent endeavor of mine has profited me, especially if you’re going to have the gumption to make such an accusation in a public forum.

Besides being accused of being a fraud due to a lack of provable credentials, I can also see how some might have taken offense to certain things that were written on my web site, though there was never an intention to misrepresent what I teach, or claim affiliation to any other martial style. While their nitpicking on these types of issues was annoying, I can fully understand their concerns. Those concerns will also be addressed when the web page is updated.

While my students may feel that readdressing the issues discussed on E-budo.com “just dignifies their trolling,” and that I have already done enough to defend myself and lineage I guess I’m just too stubborn to let sleeping dogs lie.

Yes their advice is practical, and the right thing to do. A bigger forgiving man would do it. However, their conduct struck a nerve in me, and I just can’t close my mouth and pretend nothing happened.

So with that said lets discuss the main issues that were brought up, and I was scrutinized for. These issues were:
1 - The lack of historical validity
2 - The fact the term Koryu was used to describe the art
3 - That I call the school a “Ryu”

#1 - As far as the first concern, Spencer (one of my senior students) and I fully acknowledged and admitted there is a lack of provable facts regarding the history of the school right from the start. How much more clearly can that be stated?

My teacher, Yachigusa, Hiroshi, lived under an assumed name. Either out of necessity or delusion, he lived his life as if he were a fugitive from justice. He left no paper trail, and over the years I was with him only gave me tidbits of information regarding his past.

Whether what he told me was true or not is subjective. Yes, it is easy to dismiss what he said. If he could lie about his name he could be lying about anything. However, he had nothing to gain by doing so.

First of all, he had no initial desire to teach me at all. It took years to win his trust, and make him see I was serious about learning what he had to teach. Obviously, looking back, even though he decided to teach me techniques, I never won his trust completely enough to be privy to his real name or specific facts of his life. However, I’m sure Yachigusa Sensei never imagined I would one day open a school, nor that others would ever be interested in a man which considered himself so unworthy of such attention.

I’m also sure it always amazed him that some American was more interested and eager to be taught than his own children were. Simply put, I trained with my teacher by choice; his children had no decision in the matter.

Secondly, I never paid for classes, so there was never an issue of him profiting from my lessons. A strange fact when one considers that he had no discernable source of income, and lived in near poverty. Clearly, the potential to make some extra income teaching others like myself was there.

As far as I’m aware there was no one else teaching classical Japanese fighting arts in San Francisco at the time. Even today finding a teacher who teaches traditional Bujutsu in San Francisco is extremely hard.

Third, he never claimed to be a “samurai,” from a family of samurai, affiliated with any martial originations, trained or ranked in any other martial styles other than what his father and grandfather had taught him, or that he even had the capability to fully propagate what he had been taught.

All I can say for sure is that he did not teach me Karate or Judo, since after being exposed to both arts in college he was of the opinion that they had little martial value. He also didn’t care for Aikido; at the few demos we attended together all he could do was make comments about the performers lack of technical ability, and how the Aikido techniques presented were bastardized versions of older techniques. (Please note these were his opinions that I don’t necessarily share.)

Of course, in my thirty years of martial practice, I have also seen and trained in enough Karate, Judo and Aikido schools to know what I do is very different. The Aikido and Karate practitioners I know would be quick to concur.

Lastly, and most interestingly, is the fact his son didn’t know much more about Yachigusa Sensei’s past than I did. He was basically told the same information that I was, although he most likely understood things better than I did since he spoke Japanese.

If his daughter knew more than we did I can’t say. Since she was fifteen to twenty years older than me, and was busy with her own life and friends, we rarely if ever talked at length.


#2 – The “Koryu” issue. The major issue of them all, and the one that caused the most intense commentary.

I’ve never once described what I teach as Koryu. The man who designed my web page put that term there. He did so since he believed it was appropriate based on the fact he had grown up in Japan, and his knowledge of Japanese history and culture. I didn’t have him change it, since it really didn’t matter to me, and I didn’t think it was such a major issue.

To be honest until I went to a Diato Ryu seminar about ten years ago I had never heard the word, “Koryu,” before. Even after that it wasn’t until a few years ago I was informed what it meant or more importantly what it is supposed to signify.

Even now, with all the various definitions of the word on the Internet, I’m still not sure what the term fully means or what qualifications--besides the date of existence--make an art worthy of such a title.

I’m still unclear as to who makes the decision (governing body) if a school is Koryu or not or what criteria they use to make this determination. Lastly, and maybe most important of all by what authority, by whose authority, do they the right to make such decisions?

Given the current political atmosphere of martial arts, and the egos of many martial art instructors, I can see how some styles could be excluded simply due to personal/philosophical differences, political agendas, or similar to my case in recent years an unwillingness to be part of a lager political body.

No one on E-budo made any mention on these details, though I’m fully aware there are organizations throughout Japan that validate the authenticity of traditional martial ryu.

For now, based on my research I will use the following definitions to define the word “Koryu.” These definitions are:

“By "koryu" (literally, "old schools") we are referring to those Japanese combative arts which originated before the end of the feudal era in Japan, ca. 1867. In a broader sense, these are arts meant for use on the battlefield, which were practiced by and intended for the professional warrior class. They are distinguished from the more modern Japanese budo forms with which most of you are doubtless more familiar: judo, karate-do, kendo, aikido, and so on. These koryu are, in the strictest sense, true "martial arts." That is, they were the province of the military class. Commoners had no use for them and would have had very, very limited access to the traditions that taught them.”
Sighting the Grizzly
Understanding Abuses of Japan's Classical Martial Traditions
by Dave Lowry

“Koryu is a Japanese word that translates literally as "old school" or "old tradition". It refers to schools of martial arts that predate the Meiji Restoration, a political event that precipitated Japan's modernization. While arts post dating this event (gendai budo such as judo, kendo, iaido and aikido) are valued either as sports or arts for self-improvement, the koryu are the teachings of a feudal military culture. Koryu styles often contain both armed fighting with several different weapons and unarmed techniques.”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course based on these definitions my teacher could have been teaching a Koryu system. His family existed prior to 1867. According to Yachigusa Sensei his family ancestry went back to the 1600’s, and they had been passing on a family martial art system from one generation to the next uninterrupted during all those years.

Just because they did not operate a “commercial” dojo, doesn’t make their art any less valid. It just makes it less known.

Additionally, my teacher’s grandfather was most likely a low ranking yoriki / doshin (police officer), based on everything I was told about him.

He would have had the necessity to know how to fight, and restrain other people. From all the stories I know about him, he sounded like a real ruffian, who didn’t hesitate to use his skills at the slightest provocation.

Yoriki and Doshin, as far as I can tell from my research were samurai.
“The constabulary consisted of two levels of officials, yoriki and doshin. The yoriki were essentially the officer class of police, with some bureaucratic duties as well, sort of like police detectives in the U.S. The doshin, who were directly under the yoriki, were constables. Both posts were filled, often father to son, by members of the very lowest stratum of the samurai class.”
IN THE GOOD (?) OLD DAYS
by Richard Cleaver

Further more per Don Cunningham:
“To handle day-to-day affairs and the general police duties of their office, the machi-bugyoh had assistant magistrates called yoriki. Although they were the Edo magistrate's primary subordinates, yoriki were also victims of a rather unique class prejudice. As samurai, their social rank was far above the townsmen in which they held daily contact.
On the other hand, they were shunned by their samurai contemporaries and discriminated against by their superiors because of their connections to death through the execution of criminals. Although the yoriki did not usually perform actual criminal executions, they were still barred from many things, such as entering the castle, for fear of possible contamination.
The yoriki developed their own individual style of dress, with neatly groomed hair and a uniform consisting of hakama (wide-leg skirt-like trousers), haori (overcoat), and daisho, the two swords which marked them as members of the samurai class. The yoriki were primarily section managers, responsible for directing the daily activities of their assistants, the doshin
Actual police patrol duties were performed by low-grade samurai called doshin. The doshin had their own distinctive uniform, wearing only one sword and tight-fitting trousers instead of the traditional hakama, even for ceremonial occasions. As the lowest ranking police officers, there were three groups of doshin, called sanmawari or the three patrols. Like uniformed police today, the jomawari-doshin and rinjimawari-doshin made no attempt to conceal their identities, patrolling the streets of Edo with their Jutte, the badge of their office, prominently displayed. The third group, the onmitsumawari-doshin, would often investigate criminal activities in disguises.”
Don Cunningham --- Ebudokai.com

If my teacher’s grandfather had been a yoriki/doshin is it possible that my teacher’s family may have been a victim of such prejudice? Maybe their status precluded them from consideration when it came time to select arts were to be listed as Koryu and others were not.

Of course given everything I know about my teacher’s family, especially his grandfather, I really believe that if some authoritative group of martial artists had come to “legitimize” the martial art system of his family he would have told them to get lost. He would have seen no need for this, and considered the matter closed.

My teacher’s grandfather was clearly not happy with the social, political, and cultural changes of his time period, and was very weary of authority figures in general. He instilled these values in my teacher, which led to my teacher’s eventual estrangement from his family.

Naturally these assertions leave room for further questions that can’t be answered, as well as the debate whether the Japanese had “family based martial art systems.”

It should also be noted that I also don’t, and never have claimed that any of these assertions are factual.

In the end, I could care less if the term Koryu is removed from my web page. It most likely will. Not because of the fuss, we were already discussing the issue, but because I don’t teach in a manner attributed to a true Koryu art, and I have a lot of respect for true Koryu systems.



#3 – My usage of the term “Ryu.”
“Ryu” defined is:
“The classical martial arts centered on the ryu or ryuha, a Japanese institution often glossed as "school" or "style" but which might better be thought of as a tradition, a reified or incorporated body of techniques, customs, behaviors, beliefs and teachings embodied in a group of people engaged in martial training.”
Meik Skoss “Classical Martial Arts &Ways: Who, What, When….?”

Is my school a Ryu? I think it is. My teacher learned from his father who was taught by his father, who was taught by his father. If this is true, and I believe it is, then there is a definite tradition of martial training present.

If nothing else Yachighusa Sensei past his tradition onto me, and I am now passing them on to others.

To be honest I think this point is extremely petty.

Well this entry is a lot longer than I anticipated. If you’re still reading, thanks for reading my rant.

In closing, I want to make it clear that not everyone on message boards, even E-budo.com are arrogant, self righteous individuals, out on a “witch hunt.” If Spencer is correct over 1,000 people read the posts. Less than 10% wrote something, and only a small percentage of those people were rude, argumentative, and/or obnoxious.

However, I’m not the first individual they have done this to, and in one case there is pending legal action against them. Whether they do this to me, or a 100 other people still doesn’t make it right or acceptable behavior.

My rant, or my anger towards these individuals is simple. In my opinion I’m harming no one. They would disagree. They have the right. However, they went about it the wrong way. Debates are fine, but baiting conversations, trying to invoke hostility, and accusing people of criminal behavior (fraud is a crime) is wrong, especially on an open forum where these things can be read by anyone.

I have no time for people who don’t have the common sense to be civil. I also have no respect for people like that.

Simply put, these people have never met me. They have no idea what I know, what I teach, or who I am. They read a web page. I’m more than a web page. Meet me in person, watch me teach, exchange ideas, methodologies, and then form an opinion.

Lastly, and this fascinated me, was that most of the “rude” people who posted have no affiliations with a Koryu system. Why do they care? What business is it of theirs? My students believe it’s a case of jealously and spite. A case of Koryu purism and superiority fostered by the likes of Dave Lowry.

My answer is that if Koryu means so much to them, they should pack their bags, and move to a city where a legitimate fully documented Koryu School exists. Then maybe they will spend more time training then sitting behind a computer posting messages.