History of Kobudo
Ko Old Bu Stop Do Road Ahead
The acient way of stopping war, to make peace
There are many different stories of how Kobudo originated on the island of Okinawa but weapons training is thousands of years old. One of the commonly believed stories and what I was told as a student learning the art is when the Satsuma Samurai Clan travelled to Okinawa they placed a ban on weapons to be carried or used by the farmers so they evolved thier farming tools to use in defence otherwise they would have been defenceless against the Samurai, others say that Kobudo was a weapons based martial art that was practiced in secret with chinese based roots and that is why the weapons used today not only look like farming tools that would have been used as improvised weapons but also look similar to there Chinese pre-dated adaptions. The real truth is nobody knows the true history but I would like to think that Kobudo was used by the Okinawan farmers with there tools. Kobudo and Karate go hand in hand in the farmers training, using the tools that he had to hand for defence but using empty hand techniques if there was nothing available. Hence why lots of Karate dojo's today use the odd weapon and can adapt empty hand katas to weapons based katas. On the following page I have listed the weapons and an idea of what it would have been originally.
History of Bukido
Bu Warrior Ki Spirit Do Road Ahead
It’s meaning is no matter how small or weak you may be, never be scared and use the spirit within to overcome.
Myself and my father started our martial arts training together back in 1984 under our Sensei Ronnie Boss and Sensei Roy Stanhope with U.K.A.S.K.O studying Shukokai Karate. In 1990 we then started to study Kobudo under Professor Dave Stretton under the A.O.F.A.
In 1990 Sensei Ronnie Boss decided to leave the arts and my father took over the club so it would not close, together we continued to teach Shukokai and trained in Kobudo. This is when the club name Bukido was formed.
In 1998 Professor Dave Stretton passed away again leaving the club with no sensei so we took the club under the Bukido banner and contiued to pass both Shukokai Karate and Kobudo on to others. On Professors death a large box of hand written notes was passed to my father to continue the teachings of Fudoshin Kobudo.
We continued to train under both arts for many more years, attending many competitions, courses, lectures teaching many 100's of pupils until my father started to struggle with his health around 2003, at this point we decided it would be best to continue teaching just the Kobudo and we continued our training in Shukokai together at the Shogun Dojo run by Sensei Mark Conlon.
In 2009 my father passed away leaving myself the Bukido dojo, along with notes left by Professor Dave Stretton and several folders of notes made by my father. At this point I then started to look into the history of the Kobudo dojo that Professor Dave Stretton used to run and wanted to further my own knowledge.
I managed to get hold of Sensei Darren Ball in Australia who's father Soke Tony Ball had trained with Soke Bob Lawrence and passed me onto one of the only remaining people who had trained in Fudoshin Kobudo Shihan Kevin King. We worked together to convert our syllabuses to the old teachings of Professor Dave Stretton and Soke Bob Lawrence.
We are affiliated to the British Fudoshin Association and the World Fudoshin Association and follow a syllabus set down by the late Professor Dave Stretton and Soke Robert Lawrence.
History of Fudoshin
Fu Non Do Movement Shin Spirit
The Fudoshin system prides itself on the mind closing itself and blocking out any worries outside the dojo and giving 100% in all your training.
Professor Dave Stretton started his training back in the 50's in the forces training in Boxing, Wrestling and Judo whilst posted down south. He then met up with Sensei Jack McKeown when travelling and started to train in Karate Ju-Jitsu and Kobudo training in a style called A.O.F.A (Association Oriental Fighting Arts) Fudoshin which is later changed to (Association Oriental Fudoshin Arts).
They continued to train together in many styles, swapping information and creating an art which combined bits of all the traditional arts. Once leaving the forces Professor Dave Stretton moved to Bolton, near Manchester and started to teach in Salford in the late 60's.
The founder of the Fudoshin style 'Soke' Bob Lawrence used to travel from Essex regular to teach and train passing on information to both Dave and Jack and in turn they would travel to compete in competitions and train in weekend courses. The Fudoshin style was created in 1968.
In the mid 70's the 'Martial Arts Commission' was formed in Liverpool by Professor Bob Clark which Dave and Jack decided to join and was invited to also train with Master Sken who had just started to teach. They then decided to open there own style called 'Tai-Jutsu' (body science) back in 1975 afer many years of training together which included the close throws of Ju-Jitsu, punching power of Karate, the strong kicks of Thai-Boxing and the weapons training of Kobudo. Jack became the 'Chief Instructor' and Dave the 'Headmaster' due to the age diference of the new style
The dojo was modern for the time, open 24/7 for training, 2 fully matted areas and weights gym.
In 1978 the A.O.F.A. was redeveloped to become the B.F.A (British Fudoshin Association)
They continued to teach together until the mid 80's the they parted company and Dave went into retirement until 1990 and a knock came at his door by one of the longest standing pupils of the club Arthur Ryan asking Dave to come out of retirement and teach a select few in the art of Kobudo, the select few was Arthur, Myself, my father Dave and William Southern and the club was formed.
Professor Dave had kept contact with Soke Bob Lawrence during his break who was now training in Australia with Soke Tony Ball and Bob invited him to join the Fudoshin Association which he accepted and started in Kobudo training but not in the other arts.
In Febuary 1998 Professor Dave Stretton passed away, leaving the small Bolton club, and then in 2003 Soke Bob Lawrence. Jim McAllister became head of the B.F.A. Soke Tony Ball became head of the A.O.F.A and to keep everything uniform the W.F.A (World Fudoshin Association) was born.
In 2009 both Jack McKeown and Dave Macintyre both passed away leaving only a hand full of people who have trained with the formed masters Professor Dave Stretton, Soke Bob Lawrence and Soke Jack McKeown.
