Zen Budokai East is one of several schools in the United States that teaches Zen Budo Ryu Ju-jitsu, which is a system that was created by Professor Duke Moore. Hanshi Moore compiled those techniques that he found most efffective in his studies of Ju-Jitsu, Judo and Karate with such martial arts masters as Ray Law, George Yoshida, Mas Oyama, Mitz Kimura, Richard Kim, Walter Todd, Yosh Ajari, and Kiyose Nakae. Far from being an unorganized mixed-bag of various techniques, our system is arranged in an fashion so as to promote our students' understanding of what techniques they are learning while instilling a growing sense of the principles that make the techniques effective in real self-defense situations.

Ju-Jitsu is a martial art that originated in Japan that emphasizes the concept of "ju"-- which translates as "flexible", "yielding" or "gentle". The classic axiom being, 'The willow does not break under the load of snow'*. In other words the effectiveness of the techniques lay in the ability for one to use the energy of one's attacker against them. The japanese arts utilizing this principle have fallen under many names including: 'yawara', 'aikijitsu', 'aiki-jujutsu','taijutsu', 'wajutsu', 'torite', 'kogusoku', 'kempo', 'hakuda', 'jiu-jitsu', 'jujutsu','kumiuchi', 'shubaku' and 'koshinomawari'. Kumiuchi was the name of the techniques used by the early samurai of early Japan when they were engaged in unarmed combat. Jiu-jitsu is typically the spelling accepted when referring to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which originated when Japanese workers began to teach the art to citizens in Brazil. There, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu pioneers shifted the focus to emphasize the strategy of subduing one's opponent on the ground. This variation on the art was made world famous by the wide success of the members of the Gracie family in such "no-holds-barred" and "mixed-martial arts" events as Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pride and vale tudo fights. The reason, in the various spellings, stems from the fact that each is an approximation of the Japanese pronunciation of the art.  Jujutsu is typically accepted as the closest to the actual pronunciation, while jiu-jitsu is generally acknowledged as a Brazilian-accented pronunciation of the art's name.