A couple of weeks ago I did some kumijo with one of us using a bo. Certainly the jo vs. Someday I hope to be able to afford a practice juken and yari, just to expand on my understanding of jo. Warning: Do not bend, fold or otherwise abuse Good reasons! Thanks guys. John's Musashi story is the historical reason.
The Bo had to be shortened to counter the quicker strike of a bokken. The shorrter length also lets the Jo be swung like a bokken. Larry Feldman wrote:. The Bo had to be shortened to counter the quicker strike of a bokken.. George S. Ledyard Visit George S. Ledyard's AikiBlog. All times are GMT The time now is AM. AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.
Follow us on. Jo vs. User Name. Remember Me? Mark Forums Read. Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb , the world's most active online Aikido community!
This site is home to over 22, aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history, humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more. If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced features available, you will need to register first.
Registration is absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today! The practice of using a long staff as a weapon quickly evolved and became quite popular throughout Japan. A variation of the Bo staff was most likely used by the simple farmhands and residents on the small island of Okinawa, Japan during the Satsuma Clan invasion, which took place around the fifteenth century.
The people living in Okinawa used whatever simple tools they had available, including the long staves of farming equipment, to fend off the invading samurai. The staffs that developed were either rounded, squared, or hexagonal in shape. Depending on the height and skill level of the user, a Bo staff may be as tall as 9 feet. You can imagine the quiet intimidation exuding from the ancient warriors who used these weapons in combat. Bojutsu, the art of brandishing a Japanese Bo, is the most common form of martial arts in which a staff is used as the main weapon.
The techniques used during Bojutsu today probably originated from a group of Chinese monks who had perfected the use of the Bo. The different kinds of strikes, thrusts, and swings used during Bojutsu may seem oddly fluid. Bojutsu techniques focus primarily on the use of a staff as an extension of the body itself. The result is an incredible display of martial arts that looks seemingly effortless; however, nothing could be farther from the truth.
The ability to use a Bo well takes years of practice. The power in a Bo attack originates from the back of the staff and the attack is guided by the front hand for precision. The body remains erect with only twists of the torso for each strike. Firmly gripped in both hands and poised for a rotation, block, or strike, the Bo is a weapon that can cause significant injury to an opponent. Even though there is no standard for the length of a Jo staff, most of these weapons fall within the range of 4 feet, measured 1.
The Jo is very simple and unassuming in appearance with no ornamentation - a humble but effective weapon. In martial arts, a warrior who specializes in wielding the Jo is considered a jojutsu or jodo master. The Jo staff may also be used to display akido techniques in a form of martial arts called aiki-jo. Interestingly, the Jo continues to be a weapon of choice by some police force members in Japan.
A popular legend indicates that the Jo was first created and used as a weapon of battle by a warrior called Katsuyoshi. Katsuyoshi experienced defeat after defeat using other traditional weapons, and finally withdrew into isolation to meditate for nearly 40 days. Supposedly, he experienced a vision from the gods which spurred him to create and use a short staff in battle.
He then challenged his famous opponent Musashi to a rematch and, of course, won. The classic tale of an underdog overcoming the foe, this legend lives on as one of the most incredible battles in all of Japanese history. If you are not the type to believe in legends, you may be interested in a more factual explanation of how the Jo was invented. The evolution of the Jo as a weapon is nearly as simple as its frame.
Peoples of prehistoric eras used a staff carved from rock called an ishibo. Making new ishibo staffs must have been a meticulous, painstaking task during prehistoric times.
Obviously, the solid-stone weapon was quite heavy and very difficult to lift. Little agility or skill could be poured into the use of an ishibo due to the clumsy nature of the weapon; it was most likely used as a brute-force method of hunting and killing animals for food and skins. The weapon was somewhat fragile and often broke upon impact.
Several of them are very similar to, and inform, the entire body of jo techniques. Together with the hiden gokui the highest level teachings, which are shown only to a person who receives a menkyo kaiden, "license of total transmission" , they form the technical base on which the ryu rests. Shinto Muso-ryu is now called a "jo" style, but it was originally referred to as bojutsu. Something to think about The Katori Shinto-ryu and Yagyu Shingan-ryu include the bo and other weapons in their training, as do the Araki-ryu and Kiraku-ryu.
This is on the assumption that, although the sword was the warrior's weapon of choice, he might not always have one available or he might face an enemy who was armed with a bo. Thus it behooved him to learn something of what it did and how it was used. Nowadays we call it cross-training.
Toda-ha Buko-ryu bo and Tendo-ryu jo techniques are based on the idea that one's naginata has broken in the midst of combat on the battlefield, so one must make do with the piece of haft that is left. A battlefield expedient, these techniques reflect the naginata waza , differing only in that one must now strike the enemy rather than cut him or pierce him with the blade.
This economy of movement allows trainees to adapt movements they've already practised to fit these conditions. All that remains, then, is for them to learn those applications that are most appropriate for their new circumstances. Jojutsu includes what I suppose you can call a subset called tanjojutsu short stick art. Relatively few schools of tanjo have been established as separate entities. Indeed, the only one that I can think of is the Uchida-ryu.
It is comprised of twelve techniques and is subsumed within the Shinto Muso-ryu. It is a Meiji period system and is essentially a self-defense art, as opposed to a combat art, that uses a gentleman's cane or walking stick as its primary weapon. Its techniques consist of evasive movements to avoid a sudden attack and a variety of simple counterstrikes, thrusts, pinning or locking techniques to subdue the opponent.
All of these techniques are practised against an attacker armed with a sword, but would be equally effective against either a knife or an unarmed assault. Kukishin-ryu uses both a full-length staff and a shorter one, called a hanbo lit. The waza for the short staff stick seem to concentrate on defenses against an unarmed attack, though they are equally effective against weapons such as the sword or dagger; long staff techniques generally face a sword.
The Hontai Yoshin-ryu, a jujutsu school now centered in the Kansai area, subsumes one line of Kukishin-ryu bojutsu in its curriculum. The Hontai Yoshin-ryu techniques are interesting for their lightness of movement and a very adroit--and unusual, if I may say so--sort of skipping movement exponents make when they are attacking their opponent with the hanbo. The other lines of Kukishin-ryu, particularly the techniques for short stick, are notable for their painful effectiveness.
The techniques require that one train right to the edge, but too much of that sort of extreme injures both body and spirit. According to one senior teacher, practising for more than a half-hour or so, twice a week, is about as much as one would, or should, want to do. Other variants of standard staff or stick arts include chigirikijutsu a weighted chain, attached to a haft some four shaku in length, which is used as a flail and the shikomizue a walking stick containing a concealed sword blade, rather like a sword cane.
Chigirikijutsu was more widely practised in the past, but presently only the Araki-ryu and Kiraku-ryu seem to have preserved the art. Interestingly, both of these ryu are centered in Gumma Prefecture. These ryu display obvious signs of influencing each other's techniques and training methods in a number of ways, but why they are the only ones still training with a flail is rather puzzling. The chigiriki kata pre-arranged forms of the Araki-ryu and Kiraku-ryu make great use of both trapping the opponent's weapons as he strikes and of wrapping the chain around his foot and throwing him down on the ground so he can be more easily dispatched.
The operator in the kata stays more or less in one place. However, to really be effective with this weapon depends on the ability to keep moving, disrupting the opponent's maai , and using suki momentary openings in the opponent's defense to attack him with either the flail or the haft. The weighted chain is ver-r-ry effective.
0コメント