Jodo – so beautiful – the real Martial art

Jodo – the art of the stick – (Japanese:杖道), or Jojutsu (Japanese:杖術), is a Japanese martial art using staves (jo), similar to bojutsu, in defense against the Japanese sword.

The jo staff is usually about 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 m) long, about the average length of a walking stick. However the art was not used, as one might fancifully imagine, by travelers to ward off aggressive bandits or swordsmen, but was the province of professional warriors.

The founder of jo is said to be the only one who never lost against the great swordsman Musashi.

I have practised jodo, but not so much, around a year. I was thaught that the jo is a slight bit longer than a sword and to learn to take advantage of that bit is an important part of the jodo-practise.

There is at least two different schools of jodo, one of them is close connected with Aikido.

From Wikipedia:
Shinto Muso-ryu Jodo , (formerly Shinto Muso-ryu Jojutsu), is reputed to have been invented by the great swordsman Muso Gonnosuke about 400 years ago, after a bout won by the legendary Miyamoto Musashi.

According to this tradition, Gonnosuke challenged Musashi using a bo, or long staff, a weapon he was said to wield with great skill.

Although there are no records of the duel outside of the oral tradition of the Shinto Muso Ryu, it is believed that Musashi caught Gonnosuke’s bo in a two sword “X” block (juji dome). Once in this position, Gonnosuke could not prevent Musashi from delivering a counterattack, and Musashi elected to spare his life.

Gonnosuke then withdrew to a Shinto shrine to meditate. After a period of purification, meditation, and training, Gonnosuke claimed to have received a divine vision. By shortening the length of the bo staff from roughly 185 cm to 128 cm (or, in the Japanese measurements, four shaku, two sun and one bu), he could increase the versatility of the weapon, giving him the ability to use techniques created for the long staff, spearfighting and swordsmanship.

The length of the new weapon was longer than the tachi long sword of the period, but short enough to allow the reversal of the striking end of the jo in much tighter quarters than a bo staff.

Gonnosuke could alter the techniques he used with the jo stick, depending on the opponent he faced, to provide himself with many different options of attack. He named his style Shintō Musō-ryū and challenged Musashi again.

This time, when Musashi attempted to use the juji dome block on the jo staff, Gonnosuke was able to wheel around the other end of the staff (because of the reduced length), forcing Musashi into a position where he had to concede defeat.

Returning the courtesy he received during their previous duel, Gonnosuke spared Musashi’s life. This may be a fabricated origin of the creation of jojutsu, as the oral tradition of the Shinto Muso-Ryu is the only mention of this duel, or for that matter, a person defeating Musashi in combat.

Witness accounts of Musashi’s life, as well as his own writings, insist he retired from dueling undefeated. What is known, however, is that Gonnosuke eventually became the martial arts instructor for the Kuroda clan of northern KyÅ«shÅ«, where Jojutsu remained an exclusive art of the clan until the early 1900s, when the artform was taught to the general public.

Here a video with Moriteru Ueshiba, the grandson of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, demonstrating jodo. I love this circle movements, they are so strong but not stiff, just using the opponents force. Thats what martial art is about. For me.

Here another, video not the same style, but also very skilled Jodokas.
achiotoshi is the first kata of the series “Gohon no Midare”, created by Shimizu Sensei. This kata is performed by Vicente and Addo at the Sei Ryu Kai Gasshuku May ‘06 lead by Nishioka Sensei.

Andra bloggar om: jodo, kampkonst, kampsport, stav, japansk, stridskonst, svärdskonst, budo