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CHANBARA (チャンバラ), or “sword fighting” is a dramatic action-packed choreographed performance, such as in samurai movies, that is staged for the audiences’ viewing pleasure.

Kota Kobayashi, former BUJA president (2008-2009) suggested starting CHANBARA. CHANBARA first began as an all BUJA e-board member performance group with help of a few friends. Eventually, CHANBARA became known as one of the traditional staple performances for Japan Night, held by the Binghamton University Japanese Association (BUJA).

CHANBARA was unofficially founded by Jeong Min Han and Daniel Puthawala in Fall 2010 as a sub-performance-group of BUJA when it was first opened to general members of BUJA that were not e-board members. In order to have more flexibility to ensure an efficient performance and to counteract the unavailability of BUJA e-board members, the decision was made to allow general members to join.

In addition to BUJA’s purpose to promote Japanese Culture and Language in Binghamton University, CHANBARA’s purpose is to help BUJA to help promote the aspect of Japanese Culture through traditional performances, while BUJA handles other aspects of cultural awareness.

As the school year approaches, join CHANBARA and become involved! Don’t just swing swords! Come make new friends, learn about the basic history of samurais, the Japanese culture, and come support us!