Japanese Wrestling: Jujutsu
Jujutsu is known to the Japanese under various names, such as judo, yawara, taijutsu, kogusoku, kempo and hakuda, but judo, jujutsu and yawara are the terms most commonly used.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From “Sumo and Jujutsu” in The Fighting Man of Japan by F. J. Norman, 1905
As before explained, jujutsu is a very different art to sumo, ranking considerably higher than it in the esteem of the more aristocratic portions of Japanese society. Its principles, like so many other things Japanese, were until lately handed down as a sort of esoteric secret from one great master of the art to another, and, unlike as in the case of sumo, there are many schools or styles of jujutsu.
It is essentially a military art, and in the feudal days instructions in it formed a no mean part in the education of a young samurai. For some time after the abolition of the feudal system it looked as if it was going to become one of the many lost arts, but happily for the future prospects of Japanese manhood a revival took place, and at present it is extremely popular among all classes of the Mikado’s subjects.
Jujutsu is known to the Japanese under various names, such as judo, yawara, taijutsu, kogusoku, kempo and hakuda, but judo, jujutsu and yawara are the terms most commonly used. Considering the high esteem in which it has always been held, it is really wonderful what few books there are upon it, and still more wonderful that such as there are have not dealt as fully with it as they might have. Such books, or rather pamphlets, as have dealt with it have generally so done from the particular standpoint of some one of the many schools of jujutsu, and there is absolutely no doubt the originators of certain new schools have made history to suit their own purpose.
Still, there seems little doubt that, while kogusoku and kempo were originally two distinct arts, the former the art of seizing and the latter the art of gaining victory by pliancy, the two were afterwards amalgamated and formed into one art and that jujutsu as we now know it. As to the date when jujutsu first became firmly established as an art necessary to the proper training of a warrior, that would appear to have been somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth century. A Chinese refugee named Chingempin had apparently something to do with its introduction into Japan, for his name appears in nearly every pamphlet bearing upon the subject from a historical point of view. But for all that the art, like so many others originally borrowed from the Chinese, is now essentially Japanese.
To explain straight off what jujutsu is would indeed puzzle any one, for it stands in somewhat the same category toward wrestling as fencing does toward single-stick practice, and it is again an art of fighting without weapons on lines entirely distinct from those followed by the pugilists of England and America, or by the savate players of France. An expert at jujutsu has, figuratively speaking, many cards up his sleeve,—he can throw an opponent heavily enough to daze, to stun or to kill him; he can choke, strangle or throttle him with his bare bands, arms, legs, or even by twisting his clothing tightly around his neck; he can hold him down on the ground, or in such a position as to render him absolutely helpless, or he can twist and bend his arms, legs or fingers so as to force him to give in through sheer pain.
The different schools of jujutsu practise all these various methods of overcoming an opponent, but it is only in some of them, that atemi and kuatsu are taught. Atemi is the art of striking or kicking some particular part of an opponent’s body in order to kill, injure, or incapacitate him from further resistance. Kuatsu, which means to ‘‘resuscitate,” is taught only to a favoured few for the purpose of resuscitating those who have apparently died through violence. The methods employed by the practisers of kuatsu are many and differ considerably according to the schools, but the one most commonly employed when a man has been stunned by a fall or blow is to embrace the patient firmly from behind and just under the armpits, to then lift him up to a standing position and to raise him up and down sharply once or twice, allowing his feet to strike the ground each time, and it is truly remarkable how very often and how very efficacious this generally is.
In days gone by the samurai learnt jujutsu with the same spirit and object in view as they learnt to use a sword, but of late it has been developed into a system of athletics and mental and moral training, and as such it undoubtedly is of inestimable value to the youths of Japan. In the best equipped schools in Tokyo daily instructions are carried out by means of lectures on the theory of the art as well as by actual practice; and, as the best teachers of it so justly claim, a knowledge of it gives confidence to men and helps them to face dangers and difficulties in a proper and manly spirit, and in illustration of this they tell many amusing and instructive stories.
That of Terada Goyemon must here suffice: Terada lived in Tokyo some forty years ago, in days when it was considered necessary for princes and high officers of state to be accompanied by bands of armed retainers whenever they showed themselves in public. Being out one day on some business, Terada fell in with the procession of the Prince of Mito, and the sakibarai, or attendants of the Prince, while making way for the procession ordered him to kneel down, which he refused to do, explaining that a samurai of his rank did not require to kneel unless the Prince’s kago, or “sedan-chair,” came nearer. The sakibarai, however, persisted in their endeavours to force him to kneel, and five or six of them attempted to throw him down, but he freed himself and threw them all to the ground. Other sakibarai coming up threatened to kill him, but he threw them down too, and seizing their jittei, small iron rods or maces, ran over to the Prince’s yashiki, or official residence, saying: “I am a samurai of such and such a rank, and it is against the dignity of my feudal lord that I should kneel down. I regret that I had to throw your men down, but I had to do it to preserve my honour, and here are the jittei which I return to you.” To the credit of the Prince be it said, he was so pleased with Terada that he asked him to enter his service. This, however, that true samurai refused to do, claiming that his place was by his own Prince’s side.
As regards the present mania in England for jujutsu—and may it increase and live long—it is just as well to point out here that though the art is undoubtedly a most scientific one, yet if people will only think for a moment they will realise how very absurd and sensational are some of the claims advanced upon its behalf. Time and again I have been asked how a good jujutsu man would shape in front of a first-class boxer, and the only answer I have ever been able to give is that it would depend entirely upon the individual exponents of their own peculiar art. There is no neater fighter in existence than a good boxer, and if such a one got home with his blow first he would most probably knock his man down, if not out; but if he bungled over the affair in the slightest degree the jujutsu man would, or should, be in to him at once, and then there can be little doubt the result would be all in his favour.
But when talking of jujutsu and boxing, comparing the one with the other, people either forget or are unaware that while the majority of Japanese make a perfect study of their own peculiar art, few Englishmen do so of theirs. The result is that skilled jujutsu men exist in far greater numbers among the Japanese than skilled boxers do among Englishmen. And then again, to he thoroughly sure of knocking out his man cleanly and efficiently, a boxer must be up to professional form, while a jujutsu man, on the other hand, and one, moreover, who need by no means be any great expert, can easily throw and incapacitate any man, except, and only, another and superior exponent of his art. As an auxiliary to fisticuffs and sword-play jujutsu certainly ranks high; that is to say, if one regards and practices those two grand arts from a practical standpoint—as arts of offence and defence rather than of mere physical exercise.
As a physical exercise, pure and simple, there is, however, much to be said in favour of jujutsu, for victory does not depend upon a mere question of avoirdupois and brute force, as must be admitted to be the case with the majority of our native arts of offence and self-defence. In fact, the art of jujutsu is more mental than muscular, and might well be described as the mathematics of all physical exercises, on such wonderfully exact lines is it based. Balance being the key-note of jujutsu, the result of its teachings is a well- balanced and graceful carriage of the body when standing and when walking, and, it may also he added, when falling, and when getting up from a fall, for how to fall properly is the first thing taught an aspirant iov jujutsu honours. The result of such teachings is that a student of the art, whether man, woman, or child, soon gains so perfect a control over his other muscular system as to help minimise, to a wonderful extent, dangers from accidents which might otherwise prove serious, if not fatal; such, for instance, as so often occur at crossings in the more crowded streets of London; and all this is gained without any undue hardening and misshaping of the muscles.
In conclusion, it may he as well here to point out that it is by no means necessary for an intending student oi jujutsu to be an athlete, rather the other way; for such athletes, unfortunately, when commencing a course of jujutsu, are inclined to rely overmuch on their strength and activity, a fatal mistake if one hopes to attain to any degree of proficiency in the art. Unlike those muscle-trying exercises which necessitate the use of developers, dumb-bells, barbells, &c. (from the sale of which such enormous profits are derived by the proprietors of certain much-vaunted and advertised schools of physical culture), jujutsu is a natural art, an unartificial exercise, and one which, partly by reason of its superiority to all extraneous appliances, affords the very healthiest fun, emulation, and exercise in existence.
Norman, F. J. The Fighting Man of Japan. Archibald Constable & Co., 1905.
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