Ryū (流, mainly used as a suffix, meaning style, type, form, manner, system, school, used here in the sense of ryūha (流派, a school or a school of thought)) is the Japanese term referring to a school in any discipline. The kanji itself is commonly used as a suffix. In English, the word is frequently used to refer to schools of Japanese martial art, although it can also be found used in other disciplines (for example Nihon-koryū and Sōgetsu-ryū in ikebana, Kantei-ryū in calligraphy, etc.).