Yushinkai and RyuKyu Kobujutsu is a martial arts that originates from the Ryukyu islands of Okinawa where for hundreds of years, islanders were subjected to Chinese and Japanese domination. Because they were not allowed to carry weapons, the islanders developed a very high degree of skill in using farm implements, which they integrated into their empty hand martial arts practice. The style is divided into Karate – empty hand arts ; Emono Jutsu (weapon arts).

The founder Taira Shinken Sensei from Okinawa who passed on his knowledge to Mtokatsu Inoue O’Sensei. Inoue Sensei spent his life learning and mastering a number of traditional martial arts forms that were under threat of disappearing. The ethos of Kobujutsu is contained in what he said once, “The warrior must be a scholar and the scholar a warrior. The pen and the sword are not separate. We train to educate the mind and a healthy mind will in turn teach the body. This is a lesson of balance.”

Many of the weapons – bo (staff), sai, tonfa, nunchaka can be seen as farm implements that were adapted. By learning empty hand (including aikojutsu), weapon training one develops a holistic approach to martial arts through kokoro (heart, mind and spirit). The style is different from many more popular forms of modern martial arts around the world in that it stresses the practice of traditional Okinawan martial arts and does not promote competitions or contact forms.