Koryu
(古流)
Glossary Entry
A Japanese term meaning “old tradition” or “old school,” commonly used in the martial arts to describe traditions originating before Japan’s modern martial era, particularly those established before the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
MEANING & ETYMOLOGY
古
(ko)
Old, ancient, former.
流
(ryū)
Flow, current, style, school, tradition, or lineage.
Term Type
Japanese martial arts classification
lITERAL SENSE
Koryū literally combines ko (古), “old,” with ryū (流), “flow,” “school,” or “tradition,” giving the general sense of an “old tradition” or “old school.”
In modern Japanese martial arts scholarship and English-language discussion, koryū is commonly used for martial traditions originating before the modernization of Japan. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 is frequently used as a practical dividing line between koryū and later martial traditions, although the historical distinction is more nuanced than a simple date cutoff.
A koryū is also more than a collection of old techniques. Historically transmitted schools could preserve their own curricula, strategies, terminology, weapons, organizational structures, licenses, teachings, and methods of transmission. For this reason, the age of an individual technique does not by itself establish that the system teaching it is a koryū.
See Also
References
Friday, Karl F. (1997). Legacies of the Sword: The Kashima-Shinryū and Samurai Martial Culture. University of Hawai‘i Press.
Hurst III, G. Cameron (1998). Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery. Yale University Press.
Hall, David A. (2012). The Encyclopedia of Japanese Martial Arts. Kodansha USA.
Skoss, Diane, ed. (1997). Koryu Bujutsu: Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan. Koryu Books.
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