Okinawa, Japan, is the birthplace of karate and kobudō. Kōburyū is a modern style of traditional Okinawan karate and kobudō (weapons of ancient Okinawa) emphasizing efficient and powerful use of the human body.

How can a karate style be both modern and traditional at the same time? Most karate masters of today are content to simply pass on exactly what was taught to them in exactly the way that it was taught to them. This is not true to the history of the fighting arts of Okinawa.

Historically, the fighting arts of ancient Okinawa were never static. Okinawa was a land of seafarers. Ideas from Japan, Korea and the many fighting arts of Southeast Asia were incorporated into the native Okinawan fighting art called te (ti in the Okinawan dialect). As a protectorate of the powerful Ming Dynasty of China, Okinawan fighting arts were especially influenced by Chinese kung fu. The effectiveness of the Okinawan fighting arts derived from this great melting pot of ideas and methodologies.

Sōke Kaichō Kinjō, founder of Kōburyū, believes that karate should continue to be an evolving art. Like the karate masters of old, he has continued to analyze and incorporate new ways to generate power and effectiveness while remaining true to the roots of karate.

Sōke Kaichō Kinjō spent much of his karate career studying and teaching in the Uechi Ryū family of Okinawan karate. After over 40 years of in-depth analysis, Sōke Kaichō Kaichō’s movement and techniques had taken a different path. That difference became Kōburyū, a practical style of modern karate emphasizing efficient and powerful use of the human body.

From the beginning of his karate career, Sōke Kaichō Kinjō also practiced the Matayoshi style of kobudō, the use of the weapons of ancient Okinawa. He came to believe that karate and kobudō are inseparable, like two halves of the same coin. Therefore he created Kōburyū to include both karate and kobudō under one unified theory of movement.

Sōke Kaichō KinjōTakashi
Founder of Kōburyū
President of Okinawa Kōburyū Karateō Kobudō Kōbukai