Jujutsu (Classical Japanese Unarmed Combat)
柔術A collective name for classical Japanese schools of mostly unarmed fighting: throws, locks, chokes and strikes to sensitive points. Kano’s judo came out of its schools.
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JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Jujutsu (Classical Japanese Unarmed Combat)
About Jujutsu (Classical Japanese Unarmed Combat)
Jujutsu (柔術) is a collective name for Japanese schools of fighting, mostly unarmed, which belong to koryu bujutsu. The word is made up of ju, soft or yielding, and jutsu, art, and so means the art of yielding. Before the 17th century the discipline was also called kogusoku, kumiuchi, taijutsu, yawara and wajutsu, and the word judo is documented as early as 1724. The name jujutsu came into common use only in the Edo period.
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Technically jujutsu rests on throws (nage waza), joint locks and holds, supplemented by strikes to vital points (atemi waza), such as the eyes, throat or nape. The strikes served mainly to distract the opponent or unbalance him before a lock, a choke or a throw. It was fighting without a weapon or with a short weapon, and the aim was to secure the opponent, not to kill him. The oldest verifiably documented school is considered to be the Takenouchi-ryu, which was founded in 1532 by Takenouchi Hisamori at Ichinose Castle in Sakushu province. Older are only traditional datings, for Shinden Fudo-ryu around 1130 and for Katori Shinto-ryu around 1447. Around 1600 there were over 2,000 traditional schools. Modern judo came out of two of them. Kano Jigoro studied from 1877 the Tenjin Shin’yo-ryu under Fukuda Hachinosuke, after his death in 1880 under Isa Masatomo, and from 1881 the Kito-ryu under Iikubo Tsunetoshi. The founding of the Kodokan in February 1882 is regarded as a union of the two traditions. Edward William Barton-Wright brought jujutsu to Europe in 1898 and made bartitsu out of it.
Styles & Branches
A branch of Japanese jujutsu developed in the United States. Its founder deliberately kept it a small closed group, with no network of dojo.
A Japanese old school of jujutsu from the 17th century, preserved unbroken. It also trains from kneeling and sitting, the ordinary postures of a Japanese house.
One of the oldest Edo-period jujutsu schools; its founder is credited with introducing the systematic practice of ukemi.
A school that used the word judo about one hundred and seventy years before Kano. Its fourth head changed both its name and its meaning in 1724.
Jūjutsu from the mid-sixteenth century known for strikes to vulnerable points and resuscitation techniques. It left a mark on both judo and bartitsu.
A jujutsu school of Shibukawa Bangoro, student of the Sekiguchi school's second head. The main line died out in the Taisho era; the name is now carried by Hiroshima's Shibukawa Ichiryu.
Jujutsu assembled in 1864 from five schools, including two sword schools. Through his teacher Tatsusaburo Nakayama, it produced the founder of Wado-ryu karate.
A jujutsu school from the Akiyama Yoshin-ryu lineage. The founder trimmed the syllabus to sixty-eight techniques; one of the two schools from which Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu arose.
A Japanese jujutsu school of the mid-seventeenth century holding unarmed and sword work together. It was originally called Futagami-ryū.
The oldest documented Japanese jujutsu school, founded in 1532; the source of kogusoku koshi no mawari and torite.
One of the two jujutsu schools from which Jigoro Kano assembled judo. Its hallmark is atemi — a strike meant not to injure but to break the balance.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.