A few words about the CRB ( BUDO RESEARCH CENTER )

This non-profit organization was created in 1974. It still functions like a ryu ( school ) – it is under the direct and only mastership of Sensei Habersetzer ( 8th Dan from Japan ) but it has voluntarily reduced its audience and activities to a few dojos and selected instructors ( KarateDo, Ko-Budo, Tai-Chi, Tai-Jitsu). Joining the organization is now difficult.

The CRB brings together dojos in France and abroad: Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Russia. We strongly fight for the defense of the traditional values of martial arts, refusing for instance any competitve trend, and staying outside any "official" federation.

If you’re at the head of a dojo and really want to join us because you have made the same choices, could you please indicate ( C.V. in martial arts ), the dojo concerned, the number of members and your motivations. Please enclose a stamped envelope for correspondence.

Affiliations as "active member" run from September to September and they work on a two-level basis: first that of the dojo who is keen on being taught by Sensei Habersetzer, second, the compulsory affiliations of all the members of the aforementioned dojo, WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTION. Affiliation on a personal basis is not possible. The executive committee of the CRB reserves the right to refuse applications if we think they are no longer in accordance with the code of ethics which the organization believes in.

 

 

THE BUDO RESEARCH CENTER: How and why.

This is what Ludovic Mauchien wrote about the CRB, in the March 2000 issue of the Karaté Bushido magazine:

" Roland Habersetzer’s Budo Research Center ( CRB ), herald of Tradition…

Roland Habersetzer created the CRB in 1974 because he had been disappointed by the competitive turn karate was taking. The CRB was meant to teach martial arts as a way of life, and nowadays, it numbers 22 clubs from 6 different countries.

" The CRB is an association created so that all the budokas concerned by the spiritual future of budos ( threatened by the exclusively competitive trend they have lately developed ) can have a meeting point where they are able to evolve on a regular basis, as far as technique and traditional values are concerned." Those few sentences accurately sum up the battle which the creator of the CRB has always been waging.

In 1974, Roland Habersetzer, who was once a student of Henry Plée at the dojo from the rue de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève during the years 1956-1957, and was one of the first French black belts ( 1961 ), decided to sever the links which tied him to the federal institutions. He explains: " I realized that the federation had become a huge business, and that we were paying the price for becoming a mass institution. That is still my belief today."

He is against competition because "it develops everything that is bad in man", and that was the reason why he decided to created the CRB 26 years ago. Absolutely separated from the French Federation, the organization now numbers 22 affiliated clubs, "going from Quebec to Russia" as he likes to specify. " Each dojo is independent, except from the teaching methods, he explains. If a dojo wants to be part of the CRB, it has to apply for it ( applications are renewed every year). If it does not stick to our ethics, we do not keep it."

 

 

THE CRB numbers more than 800 members.

Ethics are the absence of competition and a traditional and cultural approach to Budo. " The CRB is not a sect, it is a traditional school, says its president and founder. The exams for black belts, for instance, include cultural questions. But of course we do not expect candidates to have an encyclopaedic knowledge, only to know the names of ancient styles, old masters…" Another example of this traditional way chosen by Roland Habersetzer: to be allowed to take the exam to become a black belt, the candidate’s teacher must have agreed to it I nthe first place, "old-fashioned like, so to speak". I never compromise with an exam, he assures, I am adamant on this point. This is what I criticize in sports. One must not mix up everything and give dans to those who only want to score points in competitions. Nowadays, there are 5th dan black belts who are unable to explain what the spirit means to their students."

Author of 63 books in 30 years, among which the " Marabout guide to Karate" published in 1969, that was later translated in several other languages, Roland Habersetzer has always been a fierce adversary to the idea of competition, through all these years. Of course, the CRB is the result of this fight. 26 years after its creation, even if he sounds more diplomatic, R. Habersetzer remains faithful to his options: "We do not fight anybody, he says. We do not run down anyone. We are simply about "something else". Competitive karate is a different logic, a particular approach to karate, but there is something else behind it, an evolution. In a way, I compliment one who becomes world or olympic champion in karate, but it is not really a scale of values. Competition is not a fight for life. The stakes are non-existent; we must therefore relativize what it means."