The school of Japanese sword Happó rjú

Happó ryū 八方流 is a style of an art of the Japanese sword, that I created mainly on the basis of Toyama ryū Morinaga-ha, which I practiced for years and reached 4th Dan in.

Alternative and "hidden" weapons (hibuki) of the style include, for example, shuriken, manriki gusari, hankyū, etc. Those are not part of the regular training program and are taught individually.

As the creator of the style and its official head master (Daihjó), I am responsible for the techniques of the style and after passing the required exams I grant technical degrees in it.

Kihon and kata were adopted from Toyama ryū. Some details, especially at the tenouchi level, were taken from other old styles (koryū).

Kata is the basic containing the principles of the style. By analyzing it, I abstracted suburi, which is practiced separately and its purpose is primarily to understand the principle of haragei, tenouchi and hasuji. These are then verified in the cutting test discipline called tameshigiri, in which the mastery of the cutting technique is verified on standardized material, most often tatami omotte mats. These offer the sword the same resistance as a human body.

Unlike other schools, Tameshigiri is often performed dynamically, directly from drawing the sword (nuki uchi), from walking, running....

The mastered technique is than verified in real time and space in free fencing with softened Gekiken swords, the rules of which allow, unlike in Kendo, to hit any part of the body to score points. Bogu armor is not used. Although the main training and competition weapon of Gekiken is the sword (gekikentó), alternative weapons are Yari (spear), Kodachi (short sword) or Tantó (dagger). In Gekiken, as well as in Tameshigiri or shuriken, Honbu Hakuzan dojo and approved shibu organize open competitions (taikai), in which adepts of other dojos, schools and styles often compete.

Kata, tameshigiri and Gekiken represent the three pillars of Happó ryu, and their unity is expressed by the symbol of the style, the triangle within a circle. The name of the style Happó rjú means "style of eight directions", in the figurative sense "style of all directions" and is derived, among other things, from the basic form of Happó nuki, that includes the basic principles of the style.