Adults Weapons Training

The eight Jo kata we study originated in the Kukishin Ryu school of koryu bujutsu. I was lucky enough to learn all eight while living in England way back in 93 and training with Abdul Kalim.

Abdul learned them from Ishizuka Sensei on a pervious trip to Japan I think the year before. I’ve since practiced them with many people over the last 17 years and they’re a bit of a feature of our schools training.

Hatsumi sensei taught the Jo for an entire year awhile ago but I don’t believe he taught the Kata at all, instead choosing to focus on flow and variations off the taijutsu movement. Another BJK partitioner that I shared them with didn’t even believe that they were real because he had been living in Japan for the Jo year and had not seen them.

In Sensei’s book on stick fighting published about 2005(ish) he demonstrated all eight Kata.

In main stream martial arts Aikido is the most common form of training with the Jo although all their Jo is based on spear techniques, I’ve seen 5 foot spears in antique shops in Tokyo, so it’s not as strange as it might sound at first.

History

It is said that in the early 1600s, a samurai warrior named Muso Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi came up with the idea after he was defeated in a duel by the famous Musashi, but not killed. His weapon of choice at the time was a Bo staff, but it was too long. So through deep mediation while in the mountains, he came up with the Jo staff which is about two feet shorter than the Bo. After he started using the Jo staff, it is said that Muso was never defeated in a duel again. To find out more simply search the net on Muso Gonnosuke, there’s lots of info around

Some of the key points of Jo training 

• Allow the Jo to slide thru your hands, not gripping to firmly. You can slide the full length of the weapon
• Drop your weight when striking on downwards strikes
• Always be off the cutting line
• You must have your hands close together (thumb length apart )when striking (not like in Aikido which is more centre and the end ) so you have the reach advantage over the swordsman without your hands as exposed.

There are more key points but we’ll cover those in class over August, the Kata we’re going to focus on this month is

Roppo

Uke :- Seigan No Kamae
Tori :- Gedan No Kamae

Tori :-   Steps forward with the right foot to do left Ashi Barai releasing the right hand grip on the Jo
Uke:-    Jumps up to avoid resuming Seigan No Kamae on landing

Tori :-   Continues the motion to move the Jo behind the shoulders and then re-grips the Jo from the right side with the right hand (overarm style) then twists anti clockwise with the hips releasing the left hand grip to strike at Uke’s left Kasumi re-gripping with the left hand
Uke:-   moves the back foot around and back anti clockwise to block using the side of the blade in Seigan no Kamae

Tori:-   Slides the left hand up to the right hand and steps forward with the left foot, releasing the right hand grip to strike down onto Uke’s head re-gripping with the right hand
Uke :-  Parries with the right side of the blade and then steps back with the right foot to move into Dai Jodan No Kamae and then attacks with a downward cut

Tori :-   Leaps in to thrust forwards into Uke’s chest and leaps back out for distance.

If you’ve not read my explanation of the Bo Kata – Wrist Thrust you might want to read that next , particularly the part concerning how to train Kata.


Jo is one of the weapons that we study in our Adults Martial Arts classes

Hanbo 3 foot staff

Our Hanbo 3 foot staff training comes from the Kukishinden Ryu school of martial arts.  There are several Kata defences against sword and also some defences against a Shoto (short sword) .

Here’s the first two techniques, they’re really similar in application and are fairly simple to learn.

1 Omote Gaeshi

Uke Dai Jodan with the Sword – Steps forward to cut straight down   

Tori Musen Muso no kamae  (like a walking stick)

Step out to the left and while taking your right foot straight back same time over head strike to the top of Uke right wrist to break the grip on the sword

2 Omote Otoshi

Uke - Dai Jodan with the Sword – Steps forward to cut straight down   

Tori - Musen Muso no kamae (like a walking stick)

Step out to the left and swing the Hanbo across the front of your body and around to strike to uke right temple with the bottom of the Hanbo

 
Now I’ve left out a few key points in both techniques, but if you come along to class and train we can fill in the gaps easily enough.

Hanbo also has a lot of unarmed applications such as Striking, Locks, Chokes and Throws. While the majority of time is spent learning the locks and throws this is only because they take a longer time to learn. In reality striking with the Hanbo (and in general) is always easier to do. 

Personally I would rather lock and control an attacker because hitting someone with a stick usually isn’t looked on to well and can do real permanent damage. Locking and Controlling i.e. arresting, is always more a more compassionate approach.