Grading, Belts and Dans

In old Japan there were only 2 belts (white and black). Beginners started with white belts, and when instructors felt that they had earned respect, the black belt was awarded. From then on there are higher grades. Old schools called these higher levels Den grades. In more modern times, the Dan system has been adopted. In many schools (but not in all), there are 5 Dan grades that test upon technical content of the system, and 4 Dan grades that are given in recognition of service to the school and for development of a system. ShoDan is awarded for attaining black belt 1st degree; some schools have ShoDan Ho (black belt) before grading to 1st degree and gaining the title of sensei (teacher).

Traditionally there is a minimum time period between each degree of black belt before a black belt can be considered for grading to the next level, 1st to 2nd Dan two years, 2nd to 3rd Dan three years, 3rd to 4th Dan four years and so on. An Adult black belt is in most martial arts are minimum age of 16 years. To reach 5th Dan Master would take a further 14 years from 1st Dan making them a minimum age of 30 years for a Master grade and a further 40 years to reach 10th Dan at 70 years of age as a minimum.

1st Dan to 5th Dan is technical gradings and 6th Dan to 9th Dan is awarded for services to the school or development of the system. 10th Dan is awarded posthumously and usually for the founder of a system.

In many systems, 5th Dan is the last rank you can learn a syllabus and sit a grading for. Obviously there may be exceptions, there always are. Some systems award 10th Dan to their instructors erroneously. It should be given the founder of a system or posthumously for extreme service or development of a system by an individual. Often, for want of increasing ego, instructors have turned to inventing a system in order to gain 8th 9th 10th Dan’s. However, mixing 2 or more systems together does not mean you have a new system, it just means you've got a big ego. Grades and rank are less important than skill and understanding. Just as it is possible to have a lot of money, but no class, so it is possible to have many black belts but no skilful expertise.

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JU-JITSU & AIKIDO

The name aikido is composed of three Japanese characters, successively meaning harmony, energy, and way. Ai is linked to ki to imply a harmony of effort or force, meaning that the attacker’s strength is harmonised with, rather than opposed. This concept is one which will be encountered again in ju-jitsu and judo. It is a yielding to the attackers force but more than that, it also means adding to that same force. In other words, it is an active force of compliance. The attacker pulls, the opponent does more than merely give way; he pushes, so his force is in harmony with the attacker’s. This is a core principle of aikido.

History

MORIHEI UESHIBA

Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) was the son of a farmer and from the earliest days was strongly spiritual. Work on the farm builds strength and endurance, and early accounts of Ueshiba’s life describe him as forceful and vigorous. He became interested in the martial arts and travelled to Tokyo, where he studied under Toszawa Tokusaburo of the tenjin shinyo ryu Jiu-jitsu school. Conscription interrupted his formal studies and sent him to the Russo-Japanese front line. Ueshiba found other martial arts among the ranks of his unit and together they continued to practice informally. When he was demobilised Ueshiba was appointed a teacher in his ryu. He then joined a different tradition, this time taught by the illustrious Takeda Sokaku, who had been taught by Saigo Tanomo, himself descended from the Aizu warrior clan. During the 250 or so years of the Tokugawa Shogunate armed warfare was stamped out and the warrior caste encouraged turning its attention to more Peaceable pursuits. This inevitably led to a decline in martial ability, especially with those clans, which associated closely with the royal court. Outlying rural clans were not continuously subject to this debilitating influence and the Aizu were less affected than most. As a result their training system survived longer, under the name oshikiuchi.

Takeda studied oshikiuchi and modified it to suit correct practical requirements. The result was an effective self defence system which he named daito ryu jiu-jitsu, in honour of General Yoshimitsu Shinra Saburo, the noted martial arts exponent who identified the key elements of distance and timing in martial arts engagements. Takeda was teaching self-defence to the Hokkaido police force when Ueshiba came in contact with him. Ueshibi avidly absorbed the traditions of daito ryu and in 1917 he was awarded a teaching diploma in the system. Then he had a mystical experience, which was to change the subsequence course of his life, in which he saw a vision of unity of nature. This profoundly effected him and in 1938 he founded a new tradition based on natural harmony the system was named aikido.

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Judo & Ju-Jitsu

Ju-Jitsu principles of Leverage are used in Judo throws and holds

Training ‘accidents’ often happened in feudal Japan. It was not uncommon for samurai to die in the dojo. [[Judo]] came about because the Japanese government required the dissolution of the Samurai class. It was no longer considered suitable for martial arts training in modern Japan to result in fatalities, so [[Jigoro Kano]] was commissioned to devise an alternative training system. He devised a system without many of the dangerous techniques known to result in serious training injuries. [[Judo]] was the result of many systems of Jujutsu combined those systems whose instructors were not in favour of Kano's amalgamation remained aloof from it. However, many school joined Kano, bringing their techniques with them into Judo's fold. Others chose to develope their systems for the modern world such as Karate and Aikido.

Jujutsu was not meant for use in sporting contest, but for practical use in the Samurai world (which ended circa 1890). Techniques like hair pulling and eye poking were and are not considered conventionally acceptable to use in sport, thus they are not included in Judo competitions or [[randori]]. Judo did, however, preserve the more lethal, dangerous techniques in its [[kata]]. The kata were intended to be practiced by students of all grades, but now are mostly practiced formally as complete set-routines for performance, kata competition, and grading, rather than as individual self-defence techniques in class. However, Judo retained the full set of choking and strangling techniques for its sporting form, and all manner of elbow 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 fully legitimate way to win. It should also be noted that Kano viewed the safe sport-fighting aspect of Judo an important part of learning how to actually control an opponent's body in a real fight. Kano always considered Judo to be a form of, and a development of, jujutsu. A Judo technique starts with gripping of your opponent followed by off-balancing an opponent, fitting into the space created, and then applying the technique. In contrast, [[kuzushi]] (the art of breaking balance) is attained in Jujutsu by blocking, parrying or deflecting an opponent's attack in order to create the space required to apply a throwing technique. In both systems, kuzushi is essential in order to use as little energy as possible during a fight. Jujutsu differs from Judo in a number of ways. In some circumstances, Jujutsuka generate kuzushi by striking one's opponent along his weak line. Other methods of generating kuzushi include grabbing, twisting, or poking areas of the body known as [[atemi]] points or pressure points (areas of the body where nerves venture close to the surface of the skin).

DOCTOR YOSHITOKI

One of the foundations of judo and jiu-jitsu/ju-jitsu is the way of compliance momentarily yielding to your opponent so as to gain an advantage. It has been stated that the most commonly attributer and even originator of this principle is Doctor Yoshitoki, who has said to have been otherwise dismayed at the strength needed for the Chinese wrestling techniques he had studied. It is said that one day whilst walking there had been a storm and all the tree’s were badly damaged when he noticed that a willow tree had survived the storm by bending before the wind and then whipping back unharmed afterwards, whereas the more rigid cherry tree next to it was battered to pieces.

GENERAL YOSHIMITSU

It is also said that two further fundamental aspects of ju-jitsu practice were identified by General Yoshimitsu in the school of aiki ju-jitsu. He studied the possibilities open to an unarmed warrior facing an opponent with a sword. It is said that he concluded that mastery of distance was a key element and that timing was vital. His view was that the defending warrior had to harmonise with his attacker moving unerringly and unhesitatingly with his opponent. Aiki ju-jitsu went into decline after the death of Yoshimitsu although it was still continued to be practiced within his family. In the later part of the 19th century aiki ju-jitsu started to get a renewed interest as students were keen to learn about the bodies internal energy – Ki .

CHIN GEM-PIN

Ju-jitsu includes a lot of its own striking techniques for attacking vulnerable parts of the body (atami). It has been suggested that the Chinese boxing master Chin Gem-Pin is a source of these techniques.

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JU-JITSU HISTORY

Origins

Fighting forms have existed in Japan for at least a millennium, (further back records are not reliable). The first references to such unarmed combat arts or systems can be found in the earliest purported historical records of Japan, the [[Kojiki]] (Record of Ancient Matters) and the [[Nihon Shoki]] (Chronicles of Japan), which relate the mythological creation of the country and the establishment of the Imperial family. Other glimpses can be found in the older records and pictures depicting sumai (or ''[[sumo]]'') ''no sechie'', a rite of the Imperial Court in [[Nara, Nara|Nara]] and [[Kyoto]] performed for purposes of divination and to help ensure a bountiful harvest.

Reportedly, a warrior Nomi no Sekuni of [[Izumo province|Izumo]] defeated and killed Tajima no Kehaya in [[Shimane prefecture]] while in the presence of [[Emperor Suinin]]. Descriptions of the techniques used during this encounter included striking, throwing, restraining and weaponry. These systems of unarmed combat began to be known as ''Nihon koryu jujutsu'' (Japanese old-style jutsu), among other related terms, during the [[Muromachi period]] ([[1333]]-[[1573]]), according to densho (transmission scrolls) of the various ''[[ryuha]]'' (martial traditions) and historical records.

Most of these were battlefield-based systems to be practiced as companion arts to the more common and vital weapon systems. These fighting arts actually used many different names. ''Kogusoku'', ''yawara'', ''kumiuchi'', and ''hakuda'' are just a few, but all of these systems fall under the general description of ''Sengoku jujutsu''. These grappling systems were only one component of the Samurai's training, whereby an unarmed or lightly armed warrior could hope to defend himself against a heavily armed and armored enemy on the battlefield. Ideally, the samurai would be armed and would not need to rely on such techniques. During Japan's feudal period, sparring in dojos sometimes led to serious injury or fatalities. This form of training was discouraged during the [[Meiji Restoration|Meiji]] revolution. The Japanese government sanctioned [[Jigaro Kano]] to reform jutsu schools to ensure that training bouts did not lead to fatalities. The resulting system was coined Jiu-Do (literal translation 'The flexible way'). Many samurai viewed Jiu-Do as a dilution of a pure combat art. Kano himself, on the other hand, saw his work as unifying a "bag of tricks" around core principles; principles which could also inform the daily life of the modern Japanese people. Those Samurai who would not accept Kano's Jiu-Do emigrated to Europe{{fact}} and started teaching jujutsu to Westerners. Thus jujutsu became established in the West as Jiu-Do was taking hold in Japan.

Etymology

Jujutsu is from the Japanese ''jujutsu'' meaning "gentle/versatile Art/practice". There are a wide range of spellings used in English for this Japanese martial art. In the native Japanese, ''jujutsu'' is written in [[kanji]] (Japanese ideograms) as ??, but the [[romanization]] of the Japanese word into the English language has been performed several times using different systems.

Jujutsu, the current standard spelling, is derived using the [[Hepburn romanization]] system. Before the first half of the 20th century, however, jiu-jitsu and then jujitsu were preferred, even though the romanization of the second kanji as ''jitsu'' is unfaithful to the standard Japanese pronunciation. 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. Jiu-Jitsu is still the standard spelling in Brazil, Canada and the US.

The literal translation of the word jujutsu means, "gentle art". In Japan, Jujutsu can also be used as a broad umbrella term encompasing all japanese martial arts such as Jujutsu, ''[[judo]]'', ''[[aikido]]'' et cetera (in the same way as the term Gung Fu is used in China to encompass many different schools of martial art). Also it can have a more specific meaning related to schools that follow the tenets of old school jujutsu, as opposed to other divergent specializations such as those denoted by the 'Aiki', Karate, or kenpo prefixes. The prefix 'ju' in jujutsu means softness, suppleness or flexibility. Jujutsu exponents use their techniques to react to an opponent’s attack rather than using brute strength in order to overcome the enemy. In that way, a smaller person may stand a chance of overcoming a larger person by means of stratagem and effective technique. A bamboo tree has a flexible trunk, which bends in high winds to avoid being up rooted. This analogy is a succinct way of describing how a jujutsu exponent conceptualizes the art of fighting.

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Military unarmed combat

Jujutsu techniques have been the basis for many military unarmed combat techniques (including British/US/Russian special forces and SO1 police units) for many years.

Law enforcement

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]] (police art) [[Taiho jutsu]] (arresting art) system formulated and employed by the Tokyo Police Department.