When famed martial artist Bruce Lee created jeet kune do (JKD) in the late '60s, the martial arts world was fractured. Karate was here, kung fu was there, and there seemed to be no room for collaboration. With its emphasis on non-traditional structures and dynamic training, JKD shook the dust off of these old forms, inspiring a generation of martial artists in the process.

Since then, heralded instructors such as Paul Vunak have shaped JKD, incorporating different styles and techniques before ceremoniously kicking the new art form to the next generation. As one of Vunak's students—not to mention a heritage of samurai—Makoto Kabayama blended the form's emphasis on innovation with his own understanding of tradition. Nowadays, he continues to train his JKD Concepts by passing techniques down to their students at JKD Concepts. Although JKD Concepts has absorbed aspects of Brazilian jujitsu, muay Thai, karate, and ninjutsu throughout the years, Kabayama's students still walk away with an understanding of the form's four basic principles: awareness, avoidance, de-escalation, and functional self-defense.