History of Jujitsu

THE HISTORY OF JUJITSU ANCIENT WARRIORS
 Though the exact origin of Jujitsu is unknown, it is agreed that the Japanese Jujitsu techniques were a culmination of many ancient forms used by other oriental warriors. It has been a point of much dispute as to how the martial arts of China and Japan came to be. The most plausible theory, and the one most supported by hard evidence is that the basis for the oriental unarmed combat forms originated in Greece. Six centuries before the earliest Japanese record of unarmed combat, a martial sport, very close to modern Jujutsu, existed in Greece. This grappling and striking martial art was called the PANKRATEON, meaning the "all powerful" art. It was introduced into the Olympic games of Greece in 648 B.C. and continued to be practiced in that country until about 400 A.D. There are many depictions of the techniques of the art on pottery, frescos, and in statuary. The techniques precisely match those of Jujutsu.
The Pankrateon art was part of the basic training of the Greek warriors under Alexander the great, and many of the Pankrateon champions were, in fact, soldiers. It is now believed that when the troops of Alexander invaded India in 326 B.C., that at least part of the unarmed martial form was left behind with local warriors. It is widely accepted that the basic tenants of the Chinese martial forms were derived from India and then in turn, heavily influenced the Japanese.

ANCIENT JAPAN
 Fighting forms have existed for centuries in Japan, but few were recorded, thus precise dating is impossible. There were, however, orally passed traditions that mention early combative confrontations in ancient Japan. Their exact origins are shrouded in mythology. The earliest mention of a sportive fight was a style called Chikura Kurabe. Another early tale is of Takemina Kata-no-Kami; a commoner, and Takemikazuchi-no-Kami; a divine champion. They are recorded in ancient tradition as having a combative wrestling match. Another tradition recorded in the NIHON-SHOKI refers to an early fighting style called Sumai (meaning "struggle"), and states that the style may have existed as early as 23 B.C. Here the story is of one Nomi-no-Sukune of Izumo who defeated Tajima-no-Kehaya on a beach in Shimane Prefecture by fracturing Kehaya's ribs with a side kick, throwing him to the ground and then trampling him, crushing his pelvis and ultimately killing him. This was supposedly witnessed by the Emperor Suinin. Most of these early combative forms resembled modern Sumo and wrestling. Some of the ancient recorded styles were Tekoi, Sumai and Kumi-Uchi. Kumi-Uchi was a battlefield type of Sumai. It was developed especially for battle against an opponent in lightweight armor. The art did not need gripping to make the techniques work. The techniques were based on strong hips and legs which were used to maintain contact with the enemy and throw him to the ground. Another ancient form of Jujutsu was centered around the manipulation of joints and the immobilization of the limbs. It was called Yawara. These combat arts existed with little change for over 600 years.

THE MINAMOTO CLAN
 Around 700 A.D. the Japanese began to have more frequent contact with the people of China. Through these contacts, bits of Chinese culture, religion and art became assimilated into the Japanese society. It is during this time, the Heian period, that Jujutsu took the form it has today. Though there were already established combat arts in Japan, this new style of fighting became the most popular. About 875-880 A.D., one of the sons of Emperor Siewa met a Chinese man who taught him a few fighting techniques. From these techniques and principles, Teijun Fujiwara (sometimes called Sadazumi or Sadagami) developed a fighting art he called Aiki-Jutsu. Teijun Fujiwara taught these techniques exclusively to the royal Minamoto family where it remained a secret style until the early 1100's. At that time, two sons of Minamoto no Yoriyoshi (a 5th generation descendent of Emperor Seiwa and ruler of the Chinjufu area of Oshu) began to thoroughly develop, organize and catalog Aikijujutsu techniques. Minamoto no Yoshimitsu (also known as Shinra Saburo or "Genji") (1036 - 1127 A.D.) and Minamoto no Yoshiie (Hachimantaro) (1041 - 1108 A.D.) were both Yamusame (archery) and To-Ho (swordsmanship) masters, brought up in the tradition of their forefathers. They both worked together to develop their families fighting techniques by dissecting cadavers and studying the working of the muscles and bones. Yoriyoshi's eldest son Yoshikiyo was also a famous warrior who fought against Abe no Sadatou in the Zen Ku Nen war (1051 - 1062) and was victorious against Abe at the battle of Koromogawa no Yakata. If Aikijujutsu would develop anywhere, it would be here in the most famous military family in Japan. It was Minamoto Yoshimitsu who named his family style Daito-Ryu AikiJujutsu after his estate called Daito. Minamoto no Yoshikiyo moved to the Kai region and became the head of that branch of the Minamoto family. He called that branch KaiGenjiTakeda. KAI was the region, GENJI the ancient family name and TAKEDA was the town from whence he chose the new family name. The Takeda family ran several martial arts schools in the area for over 400 years. The only two surviving Yamusame schools Takeda-Ryu and Ogasawara-Ryu come from the schools of Takeda no Yoshikiyo.

THE MUROMACHI PERIOD
 During the Muromachi period (1392-1537) there was another Jujutsu school that was greatly influential. Takenouchi-Ryu was founded by Takenouchi Hisamori (also called Takeuchi Toichiro) in 1532. Hisamori had spent time in the mountains with a Yamabushi (hermit mountain warrior) and had learned five arresting techniques and some principles of evasion. He combined these techniques with his knowledge of Kumi-Uchi to make a Jujutsu style he called Kogusoku. Later this style was renamed Takenouchi-Ryu Jujutsu. The second headmaster of Takenouchi-Ryu, Hisakatsu, added Shinken Shobu (deadly fighting). The third headmaster added Torite (restraining). One of its core teachings was that of Koshi No Mawari, or grappling in the light armor of the day. It became one of the three core styles of Jujitsu.
 Another school of Jujitsu that became popular was founded during the same period by Akiyama Shirobi Yoshitoki, a doctor from Nagasaki. He studied striking and kicking techniques in China under Haku-Tei (also called Pao-Chuan), along with 3 Yawara techniques and 28 different types of Kassei-Ho. Akiyama returned to Japan and began to teach these forms but found it hard to keep students with so few techniques. As a result, Akiyama retired to the temple of Temmangu at Tsukushi about 1723 to study the techniques and attempt to expand on them. During his winter stay he one day noticed snow piling up on the branches of the trees outside the temple. He saw that whereas the snow piled heavily on the branches of the great oak tree, is slipped harmlessly off the pliable branches of the willow tree. Eventually the branches of the oak tree began to break under the weight of the snow, but the willow branches simply yielded and allowed the snow to fall off, thereby saving the tree. This brought a great enlightenment (satori) to Yoshitoki and he used the concept of JU (suppleness) to increase his techniques to 103. From his experience at the temple he decided to name his style Yoshin-Ryu (willow heart school). This ryu is also called Yanagi-Ryu and Miura-Ryu after two of its most famous teachers.

AIZU
Takeda Harunobu (Shingen) (1520 - 1573) was a descendent of Minamoto (Takeda) no Yoshikiyo and one of the great warriors of the Sengoku era. Besides being a sword, spear and archery master, he was a great leader in battle. He warred against Uesugi Kenshin, the ruler of Echigo in his most famous battle known as Kawanakajima in 1561. In those days a wealthy samurai had several retainers under him to take care of many tasks which ran from administration of troops, to running training camps. Shingen had several illustrious retainers, namely Sanada Yukitaka, Obata Toramori and Yamamoto Kansuke (who wrote the famous HEIHO OKUGI SHO). During Haranobu's great military career he came into conflict with the Tokugawa clan. In a decisive battle in 1572, Takeda Shingen beat Tokugawa Ieyasu. Even though this was a great victory for the Takeda clan, Shingen died from wounds sustained in his clash with the Tokugawas while on his way to Kyoto. In April of 1573, Takeda Kunitsugu brought the last will and testament of Takeda Harunobu to the ruler of Aizu, Ashina Moriuji. Ashina was a long time ally of the Takedas and turned over his portion to Kunitsugu. Takeda Kunitsugu received a large estate and farm lands from Ashina and was persuaded to stay in Aizu as a swordmaster. From that day forward the Takeda family lived and taught Aikijujutsu in Aizu.
In one fateful event in February of 1582, the unbroken line of Takeda Aikijujutsu masters came to an end. It was during that month that the forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu took revenge for their loss in 1572 and attacked Takeda Katsuyori (the son of Takeda Harunobu) and was victorious over the Takeda clan. As any samurai who felt he had failed his family would do, Katsuyori committed ritual suicide (seppuku). Luckily, the art had been passed onto the retainers of the Takeda family who continued the tradition. The most famous were: Sanada Yukitaka, Sanada Masayuki, Sanada Yukimura, Sanada Nobuyuki, Yamamoto Kansuke, Obata Toramori and Obata Kanbei Kagenori.
 It must be understood that the teaching of the martial arts was restricted to extended family and retainers at that time. The headmastership was only passed on from father to son, unless there was no heir. In this case the headmaster was chosen from the head retainer or from a close male member of the extended family. The techniques that were taught as a matter of course to the footsoldiers (ashigaru or chugen) were simple, unrefined movements. Though they were combat effective, they depended on strong legs and hips and a powerful body rather than the skill of a true martial science. Many of the techniques that influenced the formation of Judo which came from the Kito-Ryu and the Tenshin Shin'Yo-Ryu were the techniques of the Chugen. The Goshinkiuchi or secret teachings (later called Otome-Ryu by the Daito-Ryu masters) were only taught to the top classes of samurai. Knowledge of these methods were not allowed to pass to the lower level retainers. Also, during this period families actually kept their knowledge a family secret. This allowed for superiority in battle against opposing family clans.
 Because the Aizu retainers were now the headmasters of Takeda-Ryu Aikijujutsu (Daito Ryu), the development of this style remained untouched in that area for another 250 years. This branch of the family came to be known as Aizu Takeda. They were renowned in Japan as great swordmasters. There were 5 styles of TO-HO and two of Aikijujutsu (Mizu no Shinto-Ryu and Shinmyo-Ryu) practiced by the Aizu Takeda. Additionally, there were many private schools in Aizu including 22 for Kenjutsu, 14 for Battojutsu, 16 for Jujutsu, 7 for Yamusame, 16 for Gunnery and 4 for Spear. Students in that area also studied Naginata, Bojutsu, Kusarijutsu, Kacchu Kumiuchi and Jinchyu Ninjitsu. In all there were over 90 schools thriving in the Aizu.
At one time there were over 700 documented Jujitsu schools in Japan. Many called their art Jujitsu, while others used such names as Ju-Do, Aiki-Do, Taijutsu, Koshi-no-Mawari, Torite, Kenpo, Wajutsu, Hudaka, Hobaku, Shubaku and Yawara. All these were Jujitsu.