Excerpted from 20th Century Ju-Jitsu by Russ St. Hilaire. Reproduced here by permission of the author.
The system that has come to be known as Zen Budokai stems from the genius of one man - Hanshi Raymond "Duke" Moore. Duke Moore began his training with Ray Law - a student of Seishiro Okazaki of the Danzan Ryu. Duke Moore began in the early 1940's and has studied and received senior black belt ranks in Kyokushin Karate from Mas Oyama, Judo from George Yoshida, Danzan-Ryu Jujutsu from Ray Law and Bud Estes, Kempo Karate and Aikijutsu from Richard Kim, and Jujutsu from Kiyose Nakae. He founded his system, a combination of the best of all of his knowledge in the early 60's. He opened the now famous Market Street Dojo in San Francisco, CA, and then oversaw over 10 dojo in Northern California for many years. He was awarded, in the early 80's the title of Hanshi and the rank of Judan, 10th degree blackbelt by a board of senior blackbelts from many different martial arts. In the early 80's he also founded ATAMA, American Teachers Association of the Martial Arts. Today this is a worldwide organization that credentials martial arts instructors by a rigid set of standards. Because of the reputation of his various schools, the system is today referred to as the ZenBudo-Ryu. His school was named the Zen Budokai. At 80 years of age, he is still a Jujutsu and Karate practitioner. He has assigned a successor to the ZenBudo-Ryu - Tim Delgman -8th Dan.