Question on Style

[Jiwei]

I was wondering if anyone out there could help me out. I'm currently studying Suisha Ryu kenjutsu, which I know means waterwheel style. I just want to know a little more about the style, but I haven't been able to find anything about it on the internet. The teachers are great and I'm learning a great deal, but I don't want to grill them on the history of the art and sound like I'm accusing them of making stuff up.

Any suggestions?

[Gunyo Kogusoku]

I did a simple ryu search through the usual books (Bugei ryuha daijiten & others) this morning before work, looking for this Suisha ryu. There appears to be no such tradition of swordsmanship recorded.

The only way that you are going to find out about the ryuha you are studying is to do some detective work and ask questions pertaining to history. If this really is a classical tradition of swordsmanship (a koryu) , then the teachers would be actually proud of the history of the ryuha and wouldn't really be secretive about it. If they have something to hide, then that's a red flag in my book.

regards

[Charles Mahan]

Have you checked http://www.koryu.com ?

[splice]

Have you checked http://www.koryu.com ?

Have YOU? It's definitely not there :). In fact, a google search for just "suisha ryu" brings up nothing at all. Definitely not much information on it.　

I also just did a search on "suisharyuu kenjutsu" in japanese. No matches either.

With nothing on the net, nothing in the bugei ryuha daijiten and all that, there's not much chance that it's koryu. The only thing you can do now is ask your teachers about the lineage.

If they aren't honest about where an art comes from, then there's a problem. It doesn't have to be hundreds of years old, but if it's an invention of the teachers, they should have no problem saying so. Anything else is dishonest and reeks of appealing to authority (our style is good because it comes from a long lineage, etc.).

I'd be interested in hearing what develops, if anything.

[Charles Mahan]

Yes I have checked Koryu.com, and I didn't find it. That's why I suggested that the person who was asking about it do the same. I wasn't asking you to check Koryu.com.

[Gunyo Kogusoku]

LOL why didn't you just post that there wasn't anything related to Suisha ryu instead of wasting all of this band width and enerrgy in typing? :rolleyes:

[Charles Mahan]

Because sometimes people should learn things for themselves.

[Ewok85]

Dont mind me, i made a mistake :S