Etymology:

The term Kobudo comes from Ko which means ancient, bu meaning the war, and do the way of. The modern acceptance of the term covers the practices of weapons associated to the Japanese martial arts. The Japanese martial arts known as Budo have appeared between the middle of the XIXth century and the middle of the XXth century. The most known Budo in the West are Judo, Karate and Aikido. We thus speak of kobudo to indicate the practice of the weapons in Aikido.

History:

By the middle of the XIXth century, some people (particularly, Morihei Ueshiba and Gichin Funakoshi) became aware that, far from having become useless, the warrior techniques still had an educational role and international promotion. And so jutsu techniques became do ways: kenjutsu (fencing) left its place to kendo; jujutsu (techniques of flexibility) gave birth to Judo and to Aikido, and the boxing techniques of Okinawa gave way to karate …

Two (2) current principles are distinguished: on one hand is that of the martial arts practiced on the main island of Honshu, and on the other hand that of the island martial arts stemming from the archipelago of Okinawa and from the islands Ryu-Kyu.