Hajimemashite, welcome to The North Lakes Jujutsu Association Myspace page.
We are a not for profit association based in the Northern English city of Carlisle. We teach the Japanese martial art of Jujutsu and hold regular classes in Carlisle.
We are dedicated to the practice of a Nihon Koryu Jujutsu and practice a tradition called Hontai Yoshin Ryu (or in english a Japanese Classical Jujutsu style)
In Japan a government sponsored organisation called Nippon Budokan recognises authentic Japanese martial arts.
They define a koryu art as originating before the MEIJI era (1868).
With over 400 recognised martial arts styles in Japan there are about 80 that are accepted as Koryu and only recognised styles with a clear lineage traceable to the founder of their Ryu are admitted.
We are the only Hontai Yoshin Ryu club in the North of England and to our knowledge we are also the only "Koryu Jujutsu" club in the North of England.
We are members of the UK branch of Hontai Yoshin Ryu which is based in London, and students of Sensei Mike McClure, the UK Hontai Yoshin Ryu Branch Chief.
In practice our training in Hontai Yoshin Ryu is very different to modern Jujitsu styles and in reality most modern "Ju Jitsu" styles practiced in the UK have no connection to Japan at all, and bear little relation to the Japanese art of Jujutsu.
With the notable exception of MMA and Ju-Jitsu systems such as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu which developed from Meiji Era Jujutsu and in turn developed as a system in Brazil, adopting it's own national image many Ju-Jitsu sytems being taught today in the UK are made up by westerners who pretend that their arts are Japanese.
In almost all of these styles Japanese titles for their leaders and they adopt the technique names from the Budo arts of Karate, Judo and Aikido". In most cases the students have no idea and truly believe that they are practicing a traditional Japanese art.
As far as techniques are concerned the difference between many modern Ju Jitsu systems and our teaching is that where modern systems are simply a a collection of "self defence tricks" or "a merging of modern Budo arts"
Hontai Yoshin Ryu is a training system which develops technical Jujutsu skills.
