History

Originally inside of traditional schools like Takeda Ryu the Menkyo system exist only. (Menkyo = licence)Therefore Takeda Ryu offers the Menkyo Joden, Menkyo Okuden and Menkyo Kaiden.
The reason for that is obvious. Regularly the knowledge of a school only was transmitted in the inner circle of students. They are called “uchi-deshi” and lived in the masters home.Also only the Soke (=headmaster) of a school was allowed to promote students.Todays Soke Nakamura Hisashi also was educated that way.

End of the 19th century  Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, opened his first dojo in Tokyo, the Kodokan. He absorbed a graduations system from the Edo period, which was used for hierarchic order of Go-Players. (the famous Chinese board game). Honinbo Dosaku, the best Go Player ever, divided professional and amateur player in DAN and KYU grades.This system Jigoro Kano used for his first ever promoted DAN Grades to Shiro Saigo and Tsunejiro Tomita in 1883. The influence of Kano to japanese society was enormous. Therefore later in any school in Japan Kendo and Judo was taught. So this system became natural to Japanese citizen over the decades. But also that this martial arts are mainly for sportive purposes and not for Warfare anymore. Therefore today these graduations indicate the Sports competition. e.g. some level of DAN Grades are allowed to participate in national tournaments, others in international.

The Europeans followed this Graduation System without any knowledge of the traditional und cultural background beginning at the 20th century. Why should they? All martial art, which came to Europe this time had not been older than 100 years, therefore cultural background was no major topic.

The real Ryu´s have not been opened for “Gaijin” (= Foreigners ). After the 2nd World War this old schools went through a hard time.  First of all the Americans prohibit any practice of traditional martial art and secondly all headmaster stood against the occupation of America. This meant that illegal groups where formed to fight against this people in the underground. But after the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese soul was shattered. So therefore also the support within the Japanese people to fight the foreigners was lost. Nobody wanted Bujutsu anymore. It seemed to be lost in the shadows of the past.The reactivation of interest mainly came from Jigoro Kano, who found a way to combine sports activities with martial arts in teaching Judo and Kendo in each school class in Japan after he became Minister of Sports in Japan. So the acceptation of martial arts grew again in Japan.But it needed another 50 years until the old Ryus had been found again in the official registers.

When Soke Nakamura registered his school “Takeda Ryu Nakamura Ha” in 1973, he understood that the system of “Uchi-Deshi” was over in Japan. In cooperation with Sofue Sensei, todays only Kaiden Shihan (= Menkyo Kaiden), they found a new system, which served both, the modern requirements of society and the very old traditional style of assessment.This system therefore does not only consist of Grades and licenses. No, primarily who wants to become Shihan has to master the physiological, psychological and mental requirements.

Conclusion: Real mastership only can be found in walking the path of the masters.

My experience shows that the European way of thinking now starts to paint in black and white. Like, ”if you do not want to become a master the way is not worth to go it.” But this is wrong. Only people, who do not practice are thinking this way. Why? A lot of people, especially today simply do not have the time for that kind of training. They have jobs, families and so on.  So in their spare time their well-being is priority number one. And that is good. The Masters only trained Takeda Ryu and nothing else. They know a lot about their privations. So this people shall get our highest respect for keeping a very old tradition alive. But they are also experienced enough NOT to want all their students going this way. This is not their level of expectation. Far from it, they are astonished if someone tells them to try it. They never push their students to go for it.

Because of this knowledge Soke Nakamura and his closest advisers and mentors Sofue Sensei, Morita Sensei and Toyoshima Sensei, agreed for some graduations in the 1980ties and 1990ties in Europe for Joden Shihan and Okuden Shihan. They knew that without this people Takeda Ryu would not have been survived in Europe. As a compliment and support for work to come Soke Nakamura gave this graduations to some people.But for sure not because they have reached the technical skills of the specific level. For that the people trained too short. This people thanked it Soke in nearly immediately leaving the school and opening their own Ryus including calling themselves Sokes or headmasters. They split the contact to the Japanese school so their knowledge is very limited. You need to study their CVs then you will find out that Takeda Ryu was studied very shortly.

By the way this practice is also very common in Japan. Also there a lot of people got Menkyos for their work for the society and school. But not like the European way of thinking this people would never put themselves on the same technical level of someone, who went through the whole time period in becoming a master. Maybe it was this habit also, which made me believe to follow the way of the real masters and dedicate my life for that.

The System

Also KYU and DAN Grades exist in the Takeda school. In each discipline you start with the 8th KYU. Followed by the 7th until the 1st KYU. DAN level starts at the 1st DAN and ends at the 8th DAN. This kind of qualification shall be a guideline for the student him/herself.
E.g. until the 4th DAN three fights have to be done in each discipline. After minimum winning two and one draw the participant goes on to the KATA Test. So if you lose one fight you have to wait for the next possibility.What is the meaning behind that?This shall be a preparation for what is to come. A real 4th DAN is a quite high graduation in Takeda Ryu. Soke told me personally that the fifth DAN is a kind of border. The fifth DAN allows you the get prepared for the first important Menkyo. The Joden Menkyo.

Licenses

4-3-2 (Aikijutsu, Iaijutsu, Jojutsu) = Shoden Menkyo First assistant grade. Supports the master in the daily dojo work.Reachable after 8-10 years of constantly training.

5-4-3 (Aikijutsu, Iaijutsu, Jojutsu) = Chuden Menkyo Second assistant grade. Supports the master in the daily dojo work.Reachable after 10-15 years of constantly training.
 

MENKYO JODEN

The first master degree is the Menkyo Joden
(6-5-4-3)  (Aikijutsu, Iaijutsu, Jojutsu, Jukempo)
This grade allows to open a dojo and to educate assistants.
Reachable after 20-25 years of constant training.

MENKYO OKUDEN

The second master degree is the Menkyo Okuden
(7-6-5-4-3)  (Aikijutsu, Iaijutsu, Jojutsu, Jukempo, Kenjutsu)
“Oku” means deep inside.
Reachable after 30-35 years of constantly training and having a dojo for more then 10-15 years. Only Soke can give this certificate. After more than 60 years with Soke Nakamura only about 8 Okuden Shihan exist in Japan today. A proof how rarely this graduation was given to real masters.

The differences in timeframes exist because it of course depends on the will of the student how fast he/she reaches the level. But anyway there are time borders made by the masters, because of their experience. This is essential to understand the system of Takeda Ryu.The knowledge is in direct relationship to bodily experience. But this feeling can only grow after long time. So only to learn the names by heart and to remember the steps is definitely not enough. In traditional schools the inner experience is most important. Therefore it needs minimum 20-25 years of constant training.  The feeling for your own body grows. This lead to one of the biggest missunderstanding  in Europe. The first 20-25 years there are no secrets to be taught. The students makes deeper experiences so that sometime he/she feels of finding a secret but in fact it is none.  It is just another level of inner awareness. It is like in ZEN, where it is called the “secret of practice”. Only someone who practices very long and constantly will understand the meaning.Therefore minimum after 20 years the first level of the Master can be graduated.

Nobody in Europe ever trained constantly with the Japanese masters for that long period of time.

MENKYO KAIDEN

The last master degree is the Menkyo Kaiden.
“Kai” means everything transferred. No DAN limits are valid anymore. Only the Soke can give this certificate.
Reachable after 35 years. Usually this certificate is only promoted once in a traditional school. The owner of the Kaiden Menkyo shall be the next Soke.  Therefore never a non Japanese person can get this certificate. Also in Takeda Ryu the tradition is very hard. Soke Nakamura transferred his full knowledge to only three people. They are Kaiden Shihan Sofue, Okuden Shihan Morita and Okuden Shihan Toyoshima. But only one is Kaiden Shihan.