On Seibukan Jujutsu

Seibukan Jujutsu was founded by Julio Toribio, shortly after leaving Hakko-Ryu Jujutsu.  As politics is no stranger to martial arts, Kancho Toribio was the first the leave the Hakko-Ryu system, and create his own path by forging Seibukan.  Others soon followed suit, forming Hakko Denshin Ryu and other separate political organizations.

If you haven’t read Kancho Toribio’s martial history, I encourage you to do so.  Very impressive.  When he founded Seibukan, he was a yondan (fourth degree black belt) in Aikikai Aikido under Shihan Frank Doran, and had received his Kaiden Shihan San Dai Kichu (seventh degree black belt) in Hakko-Ryu, the highest possible level.  At that time, he was the fourth American to complete Hakko-Ryu. 

Seibukan kata is based largely on the Hakko-Ryu kata.  Names have changed, but they’re almost identical.  He added movement and application exercises to get students more familiar with using those techniques outside of a kata context.  Tai sabaki teaches you to get off the line of attack from a variety of angled strikes.  Reversals, gun takeaways, jo takeaways, knife defenses, etc… these are all very useful in bridging the gap between kata and free form application.

In my opinion, Seibukan Jujutsu combines the fluidity of Aikido movement and flow with the technical base of Hakko-Ryu.  Plus, it has an element of spontaneity that encourages the student to be creative and make a solution if their first attempt fails.  “Keep going!” is one of Kancho’s favorite sayings.  And it works, imparting a courage to try that extends beyond the mat.

But like all martial systems, it has drawbacks and limitations.