Jukendo (Japanese Bayonet Art)
銃剣道The Japanese art of bayonet fighting; it trains with the wooden mokuju rifle and targets the heart, throat and left side.
Quick Facts
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.
About Jukendo (Japanese Bayonet Art)
Jukendo, literally the way of the bayonet, is the Japanese martial art of fighting with a rifle fitted with a bayonet. It arose in the Meiji period from the joining of two sources: the native spear art sojutsu and the French military training brought to Japan by the French military missions of the nineteenth century. It took systematic shape as jukenjutsu and was taught at the Toyama military academy in Tokyo; Ueshiba Morihei, the founder of aikido, went through training in it and carried some of its elements into his work with the jo staff. After the Second World War the Allied administration banned jukenjutsu as part of military training, and the art returned only in a civilian, sporting form: an amateur federation was founded in 1952 and the All Japan Jukendo Federation in April 1956. Today it is practised with the mokuju, a wooden replica rifle with a blunted bayonet, in protective equipment similar to that of kendo. There are three target areas: the heart, the throat and the lower left side. Teaching rests on kata, paired drills and refereed bouts. A close discipline is tankendo, fighting with the short blade, which is practised within the same federations. Jukendo is now taken up by members of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and by civilians alike; in 2017 it was approved as a permitted martial art for Japanese junior high schools, although its spread there has so far been slight.
Styles & Branches
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.