Jujutsu


Jujutsu (English: ; 柔術 jūjutsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a method of close unarmed or with a minor weapon combat which can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more opponents which are unarmed or with minor weapons. A subset of techniques from certain styles of Japanese jujutsu were used to develop modern martial arts and combat sports, such as Judo, Sambo, ARB, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts.

Characteristics

":wikt:柔|Jū" can be translated to mean "gentle, soft, supple, flexible, pliable, or yielding". ":wikt:術|Jutsu" can be translated to mean "art" or "technique" and represents manipulating the opponent's force against themselves rather than confronting it with one's own force. Jujutsu developed to combat the samurai of feudal Japan as a method for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon, or only a short weapon. Because striking against an armored opponent proved ineffective, practitioners learned that the most efficient methods for neutralizing an enemy took the form of pins, joint locks, and throws. These techniques were developed around the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.
There are many variations of the art, which leads to a diversity of approaches. Jujutsu schools may utilize all forms of grappling techniques to some degree. In addition to jujutsu, many schools teach the use of weapons. Today, Jujutsu is practiced in both traditional self-defense oriented and modern sports forms. Derived sport forms include the Olympic sport and martial art of Judo, which was developed by Kanō Jigorō in the late 19th century from several traditional styles of jujutsu, and Sambo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which were derived from earlier versions of Kodokan Judo that had more emphasis on ground fighting.

Etymology

Jujutsu, the standard spelling, is derived using the Hepburn romanization system. Before the first half of the 20th century, however, jiu-Jitsu and ju-jitsu were preferred, even though the romanization of the second kanji as Jitsu is unfaithful to the standard Japanese pronunciation. It was a non-standardized spelling resulting from how English-speakers heard the second short u in the word, which is pronounced /ɯ/ and therefore close to a short English i. Since Japanese martial arts first became widely known of in the West in that time period, these earlier spellings are still common in many places. Ju-jitsu is still a common spelling in France, Canada, and the United Kingdom while jiu-jitsu is most widely used in Germany and Brazil.
Some define jujutsu and similar arts rather narrowly as "unarmed" close combat systems used to defeat or control an enemy who is similarly unarmed. Basic methods of attack include hitting or striking, thrusting or punching, kicking, throwing, pinning or immobilizing, strangling, and joint locking. Great pains were also taken by the bushi to develop effective methods of defense, including parrying or blocking strikes, thrusts and kicks, receiving throws or joint locking techniques, releasing oneself from an enemy's grasp, and changing or shifting one's position to evade or neutralize an attack. As jujutsu is a collective term, some schools or ryu adopted the principle of ju more than others.
From a broader point of view, based on the curricula of many of the classical Japanese arts themselves, however, these arts may perhaps be more accurately defined as unarmed methods of dealing with an enemy who was armed, together with methods of using minor weapons such as the jutte, tantō, or kakushi buki, such as the ryofundo kusari or the bankokuchoki, to defeat both armed or unarmed opponents.
Furthermore, the term jujutsu was also sometimes used to refer to tactics for infighting used with the warrior's major weapons: katana or tachi, yari, naginata, jō, and bō. These close combat methods were an important part of the different martial systems that were developed for use on the battlefield. They can be generally characterized as either Sengoku period katchu bu Jutsu or yoroi kumiuchi, or Edo period suhada bu Jutsu.
The first Chinese character of jujutsu is the same as the first one in judo. The second Chinese character of jujutsu is the same as the second one in.

History

Origins

The written history of Jujutsu first began during the Nara period combining early forms of Sumo and various Japanese martial arts which were used on the battlefield for close combat. The oldest known styles of Jujutsu are Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu dated at AD 780-1200, Shinden Fudo-ryū, Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, and Takenouchi-ryū, which was founded in 1532. Many jujutsu forms also extensively taught parrying and counterattacking long weapons such as swords or spears via a dagger or other small weapons. In contrast to the neighbouring nations of China and Okinawa whose martial arts with a few exceptions were centered on striking techniques, Japanese hand-to-hand combat forms focused heavily upon throwing, immobilizing, joint locks, choking, strangulation, and to lesser extent ground fighting.
In the early 17th century during the Edo period, jujutsu would continue to evolve due to the strict laws which were imposed by the Tokugawa shogunate to reduce war as influenced by the Chinese social philosophy of Neo-Confucianism which was obtained during Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea and spread throughout Japan via scholars such as Fujiwara Seika. During this new ideology, weapons and armor became unused decorative items, so hand-to-hand combat flourished as a form of self-defense and new techniques were created to adapt to the changing situation of unarmored opponents. This included the development of various striking techniques in jujutsu which expanded upon the limited striking previously found in jujutsu which targeted vital areas above the shoulders such as the eyes, throat, and back of the neck. However towards the 18th century the number of striking techniques was severely reduced as they were considered less effective and exert too much energy; instead striking in jujutsu primarily became used as a way to distract the opponent or to unbalance him in the lead up to a joint lock, strangle or throw.
During the same period the numerous jujutsu schools would challenge each other to duels which became a popular pastime for warriors under a peaceful unified government, from these challenges randori was created to practice without risk of breaking the law and the various styles of each school evolved from combating each other without intention to kill.
The term jūjutsu was not coined until the 17th century, after which time it became a blanket term for a wide variety of grappling-related disciplines and techniques. Prior to that time, these skills had names such as "short sword grappling", "grappling", "body art", "softness", "art of harmony", "catching hand", and even the "way of softness".
Today, the systems of unarmed combat that were developed and practiced during the Muromachi period are referred to collectively as Japanese old-style jujutsu. At this period in history, the systems practiced were not systems of unarmed combat, but rather means for an unarmed or lightly armed warrior to fight a heavily armed and armored enemy on the battlefield. In battle, it was often impossible for a samurai to use his long sword or polearm, and would, therefore, be forced to rely on his short sword, dagger, or bare hands. When fully armored, the effective use of such "minor" weapons necessitated the employment of grappling skills.
Methods of combat included striking, various takedowns, trips, throwing, restraining and weaponry. Defensive tactics included blocking, evading, off-balancing, blending and escaping. Minor weapons such as the tantō, ryofundo kusari, kabuto wari, and Kaku shi buki were almost always included in Sengoku jujutsu.

Development

In later times, other ko-ryū developed into systems more familiar to the practitioners of Nihon jujutsu commonly seen today. These are correctly classified as Edo jūjutsu : they are generally designed to deal with opponents neither wearing armor nor in a battlefield environment but instead utilize grips and holds on opponent's clothing. Most systems of Edo jujutsu include extensive use of atemi waza, which would be of little use against an armored opponent on a battlefield. They would, however, be quite valuable in confronting an enemy or opponent during peacetime dressed in normal street attire. Occasionally, inconspicuous weapons such as tantō or tessen were included in the curriculum of Edo jūjutsu.
Another seldom-seen historical side is a series of techniques originally included in both Sengoku and Edo jujutsu systems. Referred to as Hojo waza, it involves the use of a hojo cord, to restrain or strangle an attacker. These techniques have for the most part faded from use in modern times, but Tokyo police units still train in their use and continue to carry a hojo cord in addition to handcuffs. The very old Takenouchi-ryu is one of the better-recognized systems that continue extensive training in hojo waza. Since the establishment of the Meiji period with the abolishment of the Samurai and the wearing of swords, the ancient tradition of Yagyū Shingan-ryū has focused much towards the Jujutsu contained in its syllabus.
Many other legitimate Nihon jujutsu Ryu exist but are not considered koryu. These are called either Gendai Jujutsu or modern jujutsu. Modern jujutsu traditions were founded after or towards the end of the Tokugawa period when more than 2000 schools of jūjutsu existed. Various supposedly traditional ryu and ryuha that are commonly thought of as koryu jujutsu are actually gendai Jūjutsu. Although modern in formation, very few gendai Jujutsu systems have direct historical links to ancient traditions and are incorrectly referred to as traditional martial systems or koryu. Their curriculum reflects an obvious bias towards techniques from Judo and Edo Jūjutsu systems, and sometimes have little to no emphasis on standing armlocks and joint-locking throws that were common Koryu styles. They also usually don't teach usage of traditional weapons as opposed to the Sengoku jūjutsu systems that did. The improbability of confronting an armor-clad attacker and using traditional weapons is the reason for this bias.
Over time, Gendai jujutsu has been embraced by law enforcement officials worldwide and continues to be the foundation for many specialized systems used by police. Perhaps the most famous of these specialized police systems is the Keisatsujutsu Taiho jutsu system formulated and employed by the Tokyo Police Department.
Jujutsu techniques have been the basis for many military unarmed combat techniques for many years. Since the early 1900s, every military service in the world has an unarmed combat course that has been founded on the principal teachings of Jujutsu.
There are many forms of sports Jujutsu, the original and most popular being Judo, now an Olympic sport. One of the most common is mixed-style competitions, where competitors apply a variety of strikes, throws, and holds to score points. There are also kata competitions, where competitors of the same style perform techniques and are judged on their performance. There are also freestyle competitions, where competitors take turns attacking each other, and the defender is judged on performance. Another more recent form of competition growing much more popular in Europe is the Random Attack form of competition, which is similar to Randori but more formalized.

Description

The word Jujutsu can be broken down into two parts. "Ju" is a concept. The idea behind this meaning of Ju is "to be gentle", "to give way", "to yield", "to blend", "to move out of harm's way". "Jutsu" is the principle or "the action" part of Ju-Jutsu. In Japanese this word means science or art.
Japanese jujutsu systems typically put more emphasis on throwing, pinning, and joint-locking techniques as compared with martial arts such as karate, which rely more on striking techniques. Striking techniques were seen as less important in most older Japanese systems because of the protection of samurai body armor and because they were considered less effective than throws and grappling so were mostly used as set-ups for their grappling techniques and throws, although some styles, such as Yōshin-ryū, Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū and Kyushin-ryū had more emphasis on striking. However, many modern-day jujutsu schools include striking, both as a set-up for further techniques or as a stand-alone action.
In jujutsu, practitioners train in the use of many potentially fatal or crippling moves, such as joint-locking throws. However, because students mostly train in a non-competitive environment, the risk is minimized. Students are taught break falling skills to allow them to safely practice otherwise dangerous throws.

Old schools and derivations

As jujutsu has so many facets, it has become the foundation for a variety of styles and derivations today. As each instructor incorporated new techniques and tactics into what was taught to him originally, he codified and developed his own ryu or Federation to help other instructors, schools, and clubs. Some of these schools modified the source material enough that they no longer considered themselves a style of jujutsu. Arguments and discussions amongst the martial arts fraternity have evoked to the topic of whether specific methods are in fact not jujitsu at all. Tracing the history of a specific school can be cumbersome and impossible in some circumstances.
Around the year 1600 there were over 2000 jujutsu ko-ryū styles, most with at least some common descent, characteristics, and shared techniques. Specific technical characteristics, list of techniques, and the way techniques were performed varied from school to school. Many of the generalizations noted above do not hold true for some schools of jujutsu. Schools of jujutsu with long lineages include:
is a modern martial art developed primarily during the late 1920s through the 1930s by Morihei Ueshiba from the system of Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu. Ueshiba was an accomplished student of Takeda Sokaku with aikido being a systemic refinement of defensive techniques from Aiki-Jujutsu in ways that are intended to prevent harm to either the attacker or the defender. Aikido changed much during Ueshiba's lifetime, so earlier styles are more like the original Aiki-Jujutsu than ones that more resemble the techniques and philosophy that Ueshiba stressed towards the end of his life.

Bartitsu

Jujutsu was first introduced to Europe in 1898 by Edward William Barton-Wright, who had studied Tenjin Shinyō-ryū and Shinden Fudo-ryū in Yokohama and Kobe. He also trained briefly at the Kodokan in Tokyo. Upon returning to England he folded the basics of all of these styles, as well as boxing, savate, and forms of stick fighting, into an eclectic self-defence system called Bartitsu.

Judo

Modern Judo is the classic example of a sport that derived from Jujutsu. Many who study judo believe as Kanō did, that judo is not a sport but a self-defense system creating a pathway towards peace and universal harmony. Another layer removed, some popular arts had instructors who studied one of these jujutsu derivatives and later made their own derivative succeed in competition. This created an extensive family of martial arts and sports that can trace their lineage to jujutsu in some part.
The way an opponent is dealt with also depends on the teacher's philosophy with regard to combat. This translates also in different styles or schools of jujutsu.
Not all jujutsu was used in sporting contests, but the practical use in the samurai world ended circa 1890. Techniques like hair-pulling, eye-poking, and groin attacks were and are not considered acceptable in sport, thus, they are excluded from judo competitions or randori. However, Judo did preserve some more lethal, dangerous techniques in its kata. The kata were intended to be practised by students of all grades but now are mostly practised formally as complete set-routines for performance, kata competition and grading, rather than as individual self-defense techniques in class. However, judo retained the full set of choking and strangling techniques for its sporting form and all manner of joint locks. Even judo's pinning techniques have pain-generating, spine-and-rib-squeezing and smothering aspects. A submission induced by a legal pin is considered a legitimate win. Kanō viewed the safe "contest" aspect of judo as an important part of learning how to control an opponent's body in a real fight. Kanō always considered judo a form of, and development of, jujutsu.
A judo technique starts with gripping the opponent, followed by off-balancing them and using their momentum against them, and then applying the technique. Kuzushi is also used in jujutsu, whereby an opponent's attack is deflected using their momentum against them in order to arrest their movements then throw them or pin them with a technique — thus controlling the opponent. It is known in both systems that Kuzushi is essential in order to use as little energy as possible. Jujutsu differs from judo in a number of ways. In some circumstances, judoka generate kuzushi by striking one's opponent along his weak line. Other methods of generating kuzushi include grabbing, twisting, poking or striking areas of the body known as atemi points or pressure points to unbalance opponent and set up throws.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu

was developed after Mitsuyo Maeda brought judo to Brazil in 1914. Maeda agreed to teach the art to Luiz França, Jacintho Ferro and Carlos Gracie, son of his friend, businessman and politician Gastão Gracie. Luiz França went on to teach it to Oswaldo Fadda. After Carlos learned the art from Ferro and Maeda, he passed his knowledge to his brothers Oswaldo, Gastão Jr., and George. Meanwhile, Hélio Gracie would peek in and practise the techniques, although he was told he was too young to practise. At the time, Judo was still commonly called Kanō jiu-jitsu, which is why this derivative of judo is called Brazilian jiu-jitsu rather than Brazilian judo.
Its emphasis shifted to ground fighting because the Gracie family thought that it was easier to learn than throws and standup grappling, more efficient and much more practical. Carlos and Helio helped the development by promoting fights, competitions and experimenting throughout decades of intense training. BJJ dominated the first large modern mixed martial arts competitions in the United States, causing the emerging field to adopt many of its practices. Less-practised stand-up techniques in Gracie Jiu Jitsu survive in some BJJ clubs from its Judo and Jujutsu heritage.

Sambo

Sambo was an early Soviet martial art, a direct descendant of Judo, developed in the 1920s by Viktor Spiridonov, the Dynamo Sports Society Jujutsu instructor, and Russo-Japanese War veteran. As it was developed largely for police purposes, a special emphasis in Samoz was placed on the standing armlocks and grappling-counters in order to free oneself from hold, apprehend and escort a suspect without taking him down, Samoz utilized throws mainly as a defensive counter in case of a surprise attack from behind. Instead of takedowns, it used shakedowns to outbalance the opponent without actually dropping him down, while self still maintaining a steady balance. It was in essence a standing arm-wrestling, armlock mastery-type of martial art, which utilized a variety of different types of armlocks, knots and compression-holds applied to the opponent's fingers, thumbs, wrist, forearm, elbow, biceps, shoulder, and neck, coupled with finger pressure on various trigger points of human body, particularly sensitive to painful pressure, as well as manipulating the opponent's sleeve and collar to immobilize his upper body, extremities, and subdue him. Samoz encompassed Jujutsu with wrestling, boxing, and savate techniques for extreme street situations. Later, in the late 1930s it was methodized by Spiridonov's trainee Vladislav Volkov to be taught at military and police academies, and eventually combined with the Judo-based wrestling technique developed by Vasili Oshchepkov, who was the third foreigner to learn Judo in Japan and earned a second-degree black belt awarded by Kanō Jigorō himself, encompassing traditional Central Asian styles of folk wrestling researched by Oshchepkov's disciple Anatoly Kharlampiyev to create Sambo. As Spiridonov and Oshchepkov disliked each other very much, and both opposed vehemently to unify their effort, it took their disciples to settle the differences and produce a combined system. Modern sports Sambo is similar to sport Judo or sport Brazilian jiu-jitsu with differences including use of a Sambovka jacket and shorts rather than a full Keikogi, and a special emphasis on leglocks and holds, but with much less emphasis on guard and chokes.

Modern schools

After the transplantation of traditional Japanese Jujutsu to the West, many of these more traditional styles underwent a process of adaptation at the hands of Western practitioners, molding the arts of Jujutsu to suit western culture in its myriad varieties. There are today many distinctly westernized styles of jujutsu, that stick to their Japanese roots to varying degrees.
Some of the largest post-reformation gendai jujutsu schools include :
There are many types of sport jujutsu. One version of sport jujutsu is known as "JJIF Rules Sport Ju-Jitsu", organized by Ju-Jitsu International Federation and has been recognized as an official sport of the World Games.
Sport jujutsu comes in three main variants. In Duo, both the tori and the uke come from the same team and demonstrate self-defense techniques. In this variant, there is a special system named Random Attacks, focusing on instilling quick reaction times against any given attack by defending and countering. The tori and the uke are also from the same team but here they don't know what the attack will be, which is given to the tori by the judges, without the uke's knowledge.
The second variant is the Fighting System where competitors combine striking, grappling and submissions under rules which emphasise safety. Many of the potentially dangerous techniques such as scissor takedowns, necklocks and digital choking and locking are prohibited in Sport Jujutsu. There are a number of other styles of sport jujutsu with varying rules.
The third variant is the Japanese/Ne Waza system in which competitors start standing up and work for a submission. Striking is not allowed.

Heritage and philosophy

Japanese culture and religion have become intertwined into the martial arts. Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism and Confucian philosophy co-exist in Japan, and people generally mix and match to suit. This reflects the variety of outlook one finds in the different schools.
Jujutsu expresses the philosophy of yielding to an opponent's force rather than trying to oppose force with force. Manipulating an opponent's attack using his force and direction allows jujutsuka to control the balance of their opponent and hence prevent the opponent from resisting the counterattack.