The 国際武術文化連盟 Kokusai Bujutsu Bunka Renmei or International Martial Arts • Culture Federation (™) - IMCF was founded in 1985 by Masashi YOKOYAMA Sensei (10th dan jujutsu, 15th Soke of Mondo-ryu Heiho). Its Honorary Advisors are Doct Shigeo OOMAE ex-Vice Minister of Defence, Doct Takemoto NAOKAZU member of the Japanese Parliament, and its Chief Director is Kazuko INABA Sensei 6th dan jujutsu.
The Federation is a NPO official organization wich received authorization by the Japanese government. It was born with the goal to preserve the Mondo-ryu Bugei and all the old-style martial arts, but it is also opened to the modern martial arts styles that have link with the oldest ones, such as: Jujutsu, Kenjutsu, Iaido, Nihon Kenpo, Karate, Judo, Kendo, Aikido, etc. The Federation is also interested in preserving traditional Japanese culture as: calligraphy, traditional painting, poetry, etc. and it organizes international art exhibitions at the Japanese museum. For this purpose the Federation includes 2 divisions for martial arts schools: Division of Koryu Bujutsu and Division of Gendai Budo, plus one Division of Bunka (ie the traditional Japanese culture).
It has Honbu in Osaka and many authorized dojo all around the world.
Sensei (Kobe 06/02/1954) was born in a family of martial arts experts. At a young age he was taught a very traditional Japanese martial arts which came from the Banshu Region of Japan. This martial arts is called 門同流兵法 Mondo-ryu Heiho, which consists of the study of Jujutsu, Kenjutsu, etc. It was originally consigned to the group of the vanguard Samurai during the civil war era, as it was valued for its efficiency in battle. Now, he is the 15th Soke of Mondo-ryu Heiho. He also practiced Shitoryu Karate and Chinese martial arts.
When he was young he had some dangerous experiences, so he used his experience in traditional martial arts to defend himself.
Using his experiences in training and in real life, he developed his own system of self defence, a marriage between efficiency and simplicity, which he called Koroho (it is trademark); this word can be translated as "to continue to move forward with a pure soul". He has desire to improve martial art techniques by adapting them to reality, it is based on human instinct through the acquisition of simple techniques.
He had been in many foreign countries (South-east Asia, China and Europe) for the promotion of the international exchange, so this contemporary method of self-defense quickly came to the attention of the police forces in many different countries, many of whom asked Yokoyama Sensei to come and teach seminars in his style. Now he teaches:
- Mondoryu Heiho (family Jujutsu, Kenjutsu, Battodo)
- Armored Samurai Battle system (battle techniques of the 16th Century war era)
- Koroho (™) modern self defence system.
© Masashi Yokoyama - 2023/24