Jodo
杖道The Japanese art of the short staff against the sword. Modern seitei jodo has twelve kata, compiled by Shimizu Takaji for the ZNKR in 1968.
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About Jodo
Jodo is the Japanese art of the short staff, the jo, used against the sword. Its roots lie with Muso Gonnosuke, who by tradition lost to Miyamoto Musashi in the early seventeenth century, withdrew, altered the length of his staff and held his own in the rematch; from his teaching came the school Shinto Muso-ryu. **Today's jodo, however, is a younger thing, and it is worth not tangling the two levels.** The modern form, seitei jodo, was compiled by Shimizu Takaji and presented to the All Japan Kendo Federation in 1968. It contains twelve kata and twelve basic techniques, kihon; ten kata were taken from Shinto Muso-ryu with minor modifications and two were newly created. The federation also prescribes the weapon: the jo is 128 cm long and 2.4 cm in diameter, made of white or red oak. Practice is always in pairs and always against a wooden sword — the staff is shorter than the sword and cannot reach as far, so technique rests on timing, footwork and the fact that the jo is worked from both ends with changes of grip. There is no free sparring; kata performance is what is judged. Jodo is therefore a discipline measured by precision rather than by defeating an opponent.
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