Jujutsu History and Philosophy
Jujutsu
Jujutsu, literally meaning the “art of softness”, or “way of yielding” is a collective name for Japanese martial art styles consisting of grappling and striking techniques. Jujutsu evolved among the samurai of feudal Japan as a method for dispatching an armed and armored opponent in situations where the use of weapons was impractical or forbidden. Due to the difficulty of dispatching an armored opponent with striking techniques, 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, and came to be known as jujutsu.
Judo History and Philosophy
Jigoro Kano
Early life of the founder
The early history of judo is inseparable from its founder, Japanese polymath and educator Kano Jigoro (Kano Jigoro, 1860-1938). Kano was born into a well-to-do Japanese family. His grandfather was a self-made man: a sake brewer from Shiga prefecture in central Japan. However, Kano’s father was not the eldest son and therefore did not inherit the business. Instead, he became a Shinto priest and government official, with enough influence for his son to enter the second incoming class of Tokyo Imperial University.
Founder pursues jujutsu
Kano was a small, frail boy, who, even in his twenties, did not weigh more than a hundred pounds (45 kg), and was often picked on by bullies. He first started pursuing jujutsu, at that time a dying art, at the age of 17, but met with little success. This was in part due to difficulties finding a teacher who would take him on as a student. When he went to university to study literature at the age of 18, he continued his martial arts studies, eventually gaining a referral to Fukuda Hachinosuke (1828-1880), a master of the Tenjin Shin’yo-ryu and grandfather of Keiko Fukuda (born 1913), who is Kano’s only surviving student, and the highest-ranking female judoka in the world. Fukuda Hachinosuke is said to have emphasized technique over formal exercise, sowing the seeds of Kano’s emphasis of free practice (randori) in judo.
Aikido History
Morihei Ueshiba, founder of aikido.
Aikido was created by Morihei Ueshiba (14 December 1883-26 April 1969), referred to by some aikido practitioners as O sensei (“Great Teacher”). Ueshiba envisioned aikido not only as the synthesis of his martial training, but also an expression of his personal philosophy of universal peace and reconciliation. During Ueshiba’s lifetime and continuing today, aikido has evolved from the koryu (old-style martial arts) that Ueshiba studied into a wide variety of expressions by martial artists throughout the world.
Initial development
Ueshiba developed aikido primarily during the late 1920s through the 1930s through the synthesis of the older martial arts that he had studied. The core martial art from which aikido derives is Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu, which Ueshiba studied directly with Takeda Sokaku, the revivor of that art. Additionally, Ueshiba is known to have studied Tenjin Shin’yo-ryu with Tozawa Tokusaburo in Tokyo in 1901, Gotoha Yagyu Shingan-ryu under Nakai Masakatsu in Sakai from 1903 to 1908, and judo with Kiyoichi Takagi (Takagi Kiyoichi, 1894-1972) in Tanabe in 1911.
The art of Daito-ryu is the primary technical influence on aikido. Along with empty-handed throwing and joint-locking techniques, Ueshiba incorporated training movements with weapons, such as those for the spear (yari), short staff (jo), and perhaps the bayonet (juken). However, aikido derives much of its technical structure from the art of swordsmanship (kenjutsu).
