Jō
杖 · jō
A wooden staff four shaku and two sun long (about 1.27 m), shorter than the six-foot bō; tradition attributes its techniques to Musō Gonnosuke, the basis of jōjutsu.
Quick Facts
JapanAbout the weapon
The jō is a wooden staff four shaku and two sun long, about 1.27 m, shorter than the six-foot staff rokushakubō. By tradition its techniques were developed by Musō Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi after the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi defeated him in a duel between 1608 and 1611. Versions of the story differ: the chronicle Niten-ki places the meeting in Edo and gives Gonnosuke a wooden sword, while the Kaijō monogatari of 1666 places it in Akashi and describes a staff four shaku long, reinforced with iron rings. After the defeat, Gonnosuke is said to have received divine inspiration in a dream; most sources, however, state that Musashi was never defeated. According to Japanese sources, the art of fighting with a staff developed partly as a tool for officials to arrest criminals, and partly as self-defense for peasants and townspeople, who were not allowed to carry a sword longer than a wakizashi. Several traditional schools (koryū) used the jō in a manner similar to a sword. The art is called jōjutsu or jōdō; aiki-jō is a set of staff techniques in aikido. The main traditional school is Shintō Musō-ryū. Its techniques were adopted by the Japanese police and, through the All Japan Kendo Federation, spread as modern jōdō linked with kendō principles. The Okinawan school Kōjō-ryū cultivates its own art with a shorter staff, 80 cm to 1 m long.
People
- Muso Gonnosuke — Popularizer