In the history of

Japanese martial arts Japanese martial arts refers to the variety of martial arts native to the country of Japan. At least three Japanese terms (''budō'', ''bujutsu'', and ''bugei'') are used interchangeably with the English phrase Japanese martial arts. The usage ...

, , also known as or as "dojo storming" in English, is the action of visiting a rival martial arts school in order to challenge its members. This usually led to , a fight between the visitor and a member of the school, usually its head or a fighter chosen for the challenge, where the superiority of their respective fighting styles would be tested. The losing side would also lose its martial prestige and in many cases, its apprentices would abandon it for the winner's school. The one who ends victorious in the stand off receives its rivals battle awards.

History

Since ancient times, dojoyaburi was an established way for Japanese martial arts organizations to gain popularity and students. It was practiced by schools of

kenjutsu is an umbrella term for all ('' ko-budō'') schools of Japanese swordsmanship, in particular those that predate the Meiji Restoration. Some modern styles of kendo and iaido that were established in the 20th century also included modern forms o ...

jujutsu Jujutsu ( , or ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu (both ), is a Japanese martial art and a system of close combat that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more weaponless or armed and armored opponent ...

, and other styles and it was sometimes associated with musha shugyo and the

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

lifestyle. Its usage fell with the prohibition of taryujiai, which limited martial arts competitions to the bounds of every school, but it blossomed again when the ban was lifted during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. Modern examples exist as well. In the 19th century, the

Kodokan The , or ''Kōdōkan'' (講道館), is the headquarters of the worldwide judo community. The ''kōdōkan'' was founded in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo, and is now an eight-story building in Tokyo. Etymology Literally, ''kō'' ...

school of

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

was particularly known for its intense dojoyaburi activity, caused by the opposition of other jujutsu styles. During the 1950s,

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

master Teruo Hayashi also was infamous for performing dojoyaburi among the schools of

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

. The custom gained controversy in 1970 when a man died in a dojo storm performed by

Count Dante Count Juan Raphael Dante (born John Timothy Keehan; February 2, 1939 – May 25, 1975) was an American martial artist figure during the 1960s and 1970s who claimed he could do extraordinary feats such as Dim Mak. Early career Keehan was born in ...

and his students on the rival Green Dragon Society's Black Cobra Hall. Dante was ultimately acquitted. A practice similar to dojoyaburi happened in

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

, where legitimate grapplers like

Yoshiaki Fujiwara is a Japanese professional wrestler, trainer and wrestling promoter. He is famous for his long career in wrestling, having worked in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE (ZERO-ONE), and the two incarnations of shoot style pro ...

became famous for engaging and defeating martial artists that came to challenge his promotion. The history of

vale tudo Vale Tudo or vale-tudo (; ), also known as No Holds Barred (NHB) in the United States, is an unarmed, full-contact combat sport with relatively few Regulation of sport, rules. It became popular in Brazil during the 20th century and would eventua ...

and

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

also contained several instances of dojo storms, most notoriously those performed by the

Gracie family The Gracie family () is a family of martial artists originally from Belém, state of Pará, Brazil, whose ancestors came from Paisley, Scotland. They are known for promoting the self-defense martial arts system of Gracie jiu-jitsu, commonly kn ...

as part of their promotional story for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which led to the creation of

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter (entertainment), promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor ( ...

References

{{Reflist Japanese martial arts terminology

History

See also

References