08. The Origins of Jiu Jitsu
An Excerpt from Where Did It All Begin?
in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, The Master Text by Gene Simco.
For a complete history, buy the book!
Where did [Jiu Jitsu] begin? I don't think anyone can answer this question
with certainty, but there are plenty of good hypotheses. Every culture has some
form of hand to hand combat in its history. Combat without weapons usually
appears in the form of wrestling and sometimes boxing. Looking at the history
timeline, one good hypothesis is that the wrestling techniques of Jiu-Jitsu could very well have
come from Ancient Greece. Olympic games were one of the Greek's strongest
traditions. It is most likely that along with Greek ideas, came one of its most
popular sports, Pankration. Pankration
was a sport that involved both boxing and wrestling techniques and became more
popular to the Greeks than either of those sports individually. Pankration would later be overshadowed by the Roman
Gladiators, and then banned from the Olympics by Christian leaders of the Roman
Empire. Even though new rulers would come and go, Greek customs and ideas still
reached India, where Jiu-Jitsu's
foundation was likely to have been born. During Alexander the Great's conquests (356 - 323 B.C.), he brought the Greek
culture to the areas he conquered. His conquests stretched all the way to
India, where he introduced the customs and ideals of Greek culture to the
people of that area. Jiu-Jitsu
wasn't being formally taught in Japan for over one thousand years after this.
Many say that the Greek influence in India led to the development of Kung Fu or
more appropriately, Wu Shu (martial arts) in China.
The Chinese have a great deal of stories to support
the history of their martial arts. The general idea embraced by most historians
is that systemized martial arts techniques came from India along with Buddhism
(Bodhi Dharma). The concept here is that the Shaolin temple was built in the center of China and this is
where Bodhi Dharma introduced Buddhism and Boxing (senzuikyo). (ref. Aikido and Chinese Martial Arts, Sugawara
and Xing) The story that supports the idea of Jiu-Jitsu coming from China takes place around the time of the
fall of the Ming Dynasty. It states that a man named Chingempin
came from Japan to live in Tokyo at a
Buddhist temple where he met three Ronin (masterless Samurai) named Fukuno,
Isogai, and Miura. Chingempin
told the Ronin of a grappling art he had seen in
China. The Ronin became particularly interested in
pursuing the study of this art, so he then began teaching in Japan, and this
art became Jiu-Jitsu.
The next theory is that there was many forms of
wrestling that had developed in China. One of the most notable is Horn
Wrestling, called Jiaodixi. This form of wrestling
was practiced by the Mongolians and later evolved into Jiaoli,
which was wrestling without the horns. This form of wrestling can be seen in
Native American cultures (evident in the typical Native American Buffalo head
wear) and most likely arrived there by way of Mongolians migrating through now
modern Alaska. Jiaoli evolved and became Xiangpu and it is said that this form of wrestling became
Sumo in Japan. Another theory says that there were practitioners of Chikura Karube, a wrestling sport
developed around 200 B.C. It is said that Chikura Karube later became Jiu-Jitsu in Japan.
The last story mentioned here is that Jiu-Jitsu is Japanese and from
Japan. This story follows the same basic idea but differs in that Chingempin introduced an early form of Jiu-Jitsu (not yet called Jiu-Jitsu) called Kempo in Japan,
which consisted mostly of strikes and very little grappling. From there, the
Japanese developed it into a more effective grappling art. One thing is certain
about these stories, and that is that the Japanese were responsible for
refining a grappling art into a very sophisticated grappling system called Jiu-Jitsu.
Tracing the history of grappling techniques for this
book was quite interesting. In doing so, I decided to look for some common
threads between the stories, which are:
All
ancient cultures had some form of grappling and unarmed fighting techniques.
The Greek culture gave its fighters the greatest
financial and social rewards. The ancient Greeks conquered quite a bit of territory during the
time of Alexander the Great, including the area that Jiu-Jitsu's techniques
were said to have come from.
Wrestling did exist in China and Mongolia before Jiu-Jitsu did in Japan, and it is
interesting to note that this is where Native American wrestling most likely
came from by way of migration over the Alaskan Ice Bridge.
The pinning and throwing techniques of Jiu-Jitsu are very similar to,
and in some cases, the same as those of Greco Roman Wrestling.
Development of Jiu-Jitsu
Jiu-Jitsu
itself was developed in Japan during the Feudal period. It was originally an
art designed for warfare, but after the abolition of the Feudal system in
Japan, certain modifications needed to be made to the art in order to make it
suitable for practice. During Feudal times, Jiu-Jitsu was also known as Yawara, Hakuda, Kogusoko, and an assortment
of other names. The earliest recorded use of the word "jiu-jitsu"
happens in 1532 and is coined by the Takenouchi Ryu (school). The history of the art during this time is
uncertain because teachers kept everything secret to give their
art a feeling of importance and then would change the
stories of their art to suit their own needs.
After the Feudal period in Japan ended (Jiu-jitsu was
no longer needed on the battlefield), a way to practice the art realistically
was needed, which is why Jigoro Kano (1860--1938), a
practitioner of Jiu-Jitsu,
developed his own system of Jiu-Jitsu
in the late 1800's, called Judo. Judo was helpful because it allowed
practitioners the ability to try the art safely and realistically at the same
time. The most important contribution Judo made to the practice of
"Jiu-jitsu" was the concept of Rondori. Rondori was a form of sparing and contained a set of
sportive rules that made practice safe, yet realistic. Because of the sportive
outlet (rules that made practice safe), students of Jiu-jitsu from Kano's
school were able to practice more frequently due to the fact that they were not
always recovering from injuries. This multiplies the amount of training time
for student's of Kano's school and drastically increased their abilities. Judo
(Kano's version of Jiu-jitsu) was watered down from the complete form (of
Jiu-jitsu), but still contained enough techniques to preserve its realistic
effectiveness. The one problem that occurred was, in Kano's opinion, ground
work was not as important as achieving the throw or take down, therefore ground
fighting was not emphasized in Judo and became weak in that system. Judo also
began placing too many rules and regulations on the art to make it more
acceptable as an Olympic sport. Leg locks were not allowed, and when a fight
went to the ground, a player had only 25 seconds to escape a hold or pin before
the match was lost. These are a few of the rules that hindered Judo as a
realistic form of self-defense. Then why did Judo flourish and why was it so
great? Even with all the rules and restrictions, the time-tested principle of
"pure grappler beats pure striker," still holds true. The fact
remains that most fights, even those fights occurring between strikers with no
grappling experience, end up in a clinch. You see the clinch in just about
every boxing match, and hundreds of punches usually need to be thrown to end
the fight with a strike, which gives the grappler plenty of opportunity to take
his/her opponent to the ground, where a pure striker has no experience and is
at the grappler's mercy.
After a match-up between older styles of Jiu-jitsu and
Judo at the Tokyo police headquarters, Judo was named the national martial art
in Japan. It was the official art used by law enforcement in the late 1800's,
and continues to be popular to this day. During World War II, many U.S.
soldiers were exposed to the art of Judo and brought it back to America with
them. The first issue of Black Belt magazine here in America (1961), featured a
sketch of a Judo throw and was a special Judo issue.
It wasn't until the birth of martial arts in Hollywood
that the mystique of martial arts myths were catapulted to the public eye on a
large scale. Here in the U.S. especially, Bruce Lee was one of the greatest
catalysts for martial arts in the world today. Bruce Lee was actually a student
of Judo and did many studies on grappling while he was alive. He criticized
traditional martial arts as being ineffective, but ironically spread more myths
about martial arts through his movies than almost anyone in martial arts
history.
Jigoro Kano was the founder of
Judo, however, Judo is simply a style of Jiu-jitsu and not a separate martial
art. Kano was not the first to use the name Judo, the Jiu-jitsu schools he
studied at, which would be the source of much of his Judo's techniques had used
the phrase before he made it famous in the late 1800's.
The first use of the name Judo was by Seijun Inoue IV, who applied it to his Jujitsu of Jikishin-ryu. Students of Jikishin-ryu
Judo were not only expected to master its ninety-seven techniques, but to also
develop into generous and gentle-mannered individuals.
Kuninori Suzuki V, the Master of Kito-ryu (Kito means to Rise and
Fall) Jiu-jitsu, changed the name of Kito-kumiuchi to
Kito-ryu Judo in 1714. The most important
contribution that kito ryu
would offer Judo was the principle of kuzushi
(off-balancing), which is the key to the throwing techniques of modern Judo. Jigoro Kano studied the judo of Jikishin-
ryu and Kito-ryu, and
incorporated some of their concepts into his original system, which he named Kodokan Judo.
Judo is made up of many styles of Jiu-jitsu whose
masters Kano had studied with. The most notable were Jikishin-ryu,
Kito-ryu, and later Fusen-ryu
would be incorporated for its groundwork (ne waza) as
Kano would ask the style's head master, Mataemon
Tanabe for his syllabus. Yokiashi Yamashita (Kano's
Chief assistant) would add his knowledge of Yoshin Ryu ju jitsu
and Tenshin shinyo Ryu ju jitsu,
both of which, he was a master.
In 1912, Kano met with the remaining leader masters of
Jiu Jitsu to finalize a Kodokan syllabus of training and kata.
Aoyagi of Sosusihis Ryu,
Takano, Yano, Kotaro Imei and Hikasuburo
Ohshima from Takeuisi Ryu. Jushin Sekiguchi and Mogichi Tsumizu from Sekiguchi Ryu, Eguchi from Kyushin Ryu, Hoshino from Shiten Ryu, Inazu from Miura Ryu and finally, Takamatsu, a Kukkishin
Ryu master, whose school specialized in weapons
training.
Before the formal meeting between Kano and the
grandmasters of Japan's greatest Jiu-jitsu schools, a defining event occurred,
which is one of the most historically important pieces of the Brazilian
Jiu-jitsu puzzle. By 1900, the Kodokan had been
challenging other Jiu-Jitsu
schools in sport competition and winning with throwing (standing) techniques.
Much of the Kodokan's status was built on the
throwing skills of Shiro Saigo,
a practitioner of Oshikiuchi, the art of Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu. Jigoro Kano had actually enlisted the help of Shiro Saigo in order to win a
famous tournament at the Tokyo police headquarters in 1886. This tournament,
mentioned briefly earlier in this chapter, was Judo (Kano's style of Jujitsu)
vs. "old" Jujitsu. It is interesting to note that Kano's champion was
not originally a Judo student at all, but a student of an older Jujitsu style,
which in reality, defeated the purpose of having a Judo vs. Jujitsu tournament
in the first place.
As I stated earlier, Judo was a collection of
Jiu-jitsu styles, once such style was the Fusen Ryu. Fusen was a school of
Jiu-jitsu which specialized in Ground Work (Ne Waza).
In 1900, the Kodokan challenged the Fusen Ryu school to a contest. At
that time Judo did not have Ne Waza (ground fighting
techniques), so instead they fought standing up, as Kano had been taught in
both the Tenshin Shinyo Ryu and Kito Ryu
systems he studied. Both Kito Ryu
and Tenshin Shinyo Ryu had excellent striking skills and effective throws.
When Kodokan Judo
practitioners fought the practitioners of Fusen Ryu Jiu-Jitsu,
the Kodokan practitioners realized that there was no
way they could defeat the Kodokan Judoka standing,
thus they decided to use their superior ground fighting skills. When the Kodokan fighters and
the Fusen Ryu men
began to fight, the Jiu-Jitsu
practitioners immediately went to the guard position ( lying on their backs in
front of their opponents in order to control them with the use of their legs).
The Kodokan Judoka didn't know what to do, and then
the Fusen Ryu practitioners
took them to the ground, using submission holds to win the matches. This was
the first real loss that the Kodokan had experienced
in eight years.
Kano knew that if they were going to continue
challenging other Jiu-Jitsu
schools, they needed a full range of ground fighting techniques. Thus with
friends of other Jiu-Jitsu
systems, among them being Fusen Ryu
practitioners, Kano formulated the Ne Waza aka. Katame Waza (ground techniques
and grappling techniques respectively) of Kodokan
Judo which included three divisions: Kansetsu Waza (joint locking techniques), Shime
Waza (choking techniques), and Osae
Waza (holding techniques).