Bon-dage Ryu is an unconventional martial art featuring a variety of unusual techniques and weapons seldom seen in other arts. Although plentiful, the Bon-dageka tend to train in secret, although they frequently give demonstrations in certain inner city night clubs. During the course of this research, I attended a training seminar given by one such school.
HISTORY
Little is known about the origins of Bon-dage, however it seems to be practiced in almost every nation in the world. Depictions of the art appear on ancient Greek urns, inside Egyptian pyramids and through Aztec figurines, suggesting that it may have spontaneously evolved in more than one location.
There is some speculation within the martial arts community that several other arts including Seido Karate and the sword teachings of Masamune influenced the development of this style.
STRUCTURE
Unlike most martial arts, Bon-dage appears not to have any specific known “Sensei” or other patriarchal figures that are considered on the whole to be leaders within the organisations. However, each Dojo appears to have a large number of graded masters. How they obtain this qualification is unclear, but they are addressed by subordinates according to this term. Women who have been graded to this rank tend to be referred to as “Mistresses”.
This reporter has not been able to establish whether or not there is any central administrative body or organisation to which the Bon-dage dojos are affiliated.
WEAPONS
Although unarmed training is definitely present in Bon-dage, weapons make up the greater portion of the art.
Various types of whip are perhaps the most common weapon of the style. Flowing flogging motions are commonly used.
Flat club like weapons referred to as “Paddles” also appear on a regular basis.
For reasons unknown the Bon-dageka tend to focus on low lethality areas of the body such as the buttocks rather than the more deadly regions such as the throat or temples favoured by most fighting arts.
Although some practicality can be seen with the first two weapons, this reporter is at a loss to understand the combative applications of the battery powered vibrating nipple clamps.
TECHNIQUES
Unarmed striking techniques seem to be based around open handed slapping actions referred to by practitioners as “Spank-zuki”. This once again has a strong buttock focus.
The bulk of the art appears to be focussed on ground based grappling, but is very different to any other grappling style that this reporter has seen before. Certainly there a lot of restraint techniques similar to those used by law enforcement and military organisations throughout the world and the conventional Brazilian Ju-Jitsu guard position is well represented.
But most of their grappling techniques are very unusual. A prime example of this is what they refer to as the “Ride 'em cowboy”. Here the Bon-dageka clambers atop his or her opponent (after manipulating them into an all-fours position) and proceeds to strike their bottom whilst yelling “Yeeehhaaaa!”.
UNIFORMS
The uniforms common to Bon-dageka are a far cry from the Dogi common to Japanese and Korean arts or the traditional dress of Chinese martial forms. It is even further distanced from the outfits worn in the best training establishments: Ripped shorts and a grimey old torn t-shirts. The Bon-dage practitioners tend to wear minimalistic leather or rubber attire.
When queried, one of the members explained the choice of clothing as follows “The tight fitting clothing offers an opponent minimal grip, thus making it difficult for them to action many conventional throws and grappling techniques”.
When asked what function the studded collars served, no answer was forthcoming.
Possible association with Ninjitsu is implied by the wearing of black masks on ceremonial occasions.
The purpose of the occasionally worn French maids outfit and school uniform are still beyond my understanding, but I believe they have some deep cultural significance only understood by senior members of the art.
TRAINING METHODS
Here we have a mixed bag as well. Many of todays martial arts establishments suffer from a lack of good, hard contact. They breed soft, pathetic, point sparring based “fighters” who couldn’t scrap their way out of a paper bag. The Bon-dageka use good, hard blows in their training, often prompting their uke to beg for mercy.
A problem akin to that which is so common in the Bujinkan does present itself: Over compliant training partners.
We all know that when teaching a specific technique to beginners, it is important that the uke not resist, otherwise the beginner will not learn the full motion. But we all know full well that once a student has a basic understanding of the mechanics, fully resistant training must take precedance. It is here that Bon-dage training falls down. It appears that the senior students (masters or mistresses in their terminology) do the bulk of the striking and grappling work whilst the junior students act as a compliant uke.
DISCLAIMER
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