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Eric Baluja
8th June 2000, 19:31
Dear folks,

I received several responses to my query about SMR jo practice in NYC, which I am very, very grateful for.

Of interest, however, was that all of them referred to their practice as "jodo." This has caused me some confusion (not that that's hard to do).

I have always thought of Shinto (Shindo) Muso Ryu jo as a koryu bujutsu, as described in the "Ryu Guide" on koryu.com. I have considered it separate from "jodo," which I took to be a gendai budo, since it's my understanding that the seitei kata were devised within this century and the art comes under the aegis of the ZNKR.

Is this way of thinking wrong? Am I inventing a distinction that is not generally accepted to exist?

As a further illustration of my probably twisted thinking, I always figured that...

SMR jo is to jodo as TSKSR iaijutsu is to ZNKR iaido

...or, similarly,...

SMR jo is to jodo as koryu jujutsu is to Kodokan judo (I realize judo is more of a sport now, BTW; I'm not saying jodo is a sport.)

Am I way off base?

I thank you all in advance for your guidance.

Eric Baluja

Diane Skoss
9th June 2000, 00:07
Hi Eric,

Jodo/jojutsu are interchangeable and they aren't. They can refer to the same thing and different things. Now that you are completely confused....

SMR jo is a koryu bujutsu. Many people who practice it call it jodo some of the time, just as Yagyu Nobuharu Sensei has been known to refer to his Yagyu Shingkage-ryu kenjutsu as kendo.

ZNKR jodo is a gendai budo. It is based around a single seteigata (twelve techniques selected from the first three sets of SMR jo) created in the last 50 years or so by Shimizu Takaji Sensei. This is the art that people get dan grades in from the ZNKR. This seteigata (standardized form) can be practiced in several different ways. The ZNKR version has a definite kendo flavor to it, particularly in the way the sword is used. Folks in my line use this same sequence of techniques as a first-step teaching tool. Some make a distinction between the way this seteigata is done (making it more the way done in the ZNKR), while others teach the techniques exactly like they are done in the koryu sequences.

Not everyone who does ZNKR jodo also does the koryu (i.e. SMR jojutsu). Most folks who do koryu also have done/do ZNKR jo, both in Japan and here. Virtually all the credible instructors in the U.S. have rank from ZNKR; fewer also have paper in SMR.

Incidentally, one really isn't a fully-fledged "member" of the Muso-ryu until one receives an okuiri-sho from a menkyo kaiden. One may be practicing the koryu techniques (seven sequences beginning with omote) and may be on the koryu path, but until one has received this agreement from one's teacher, it is safer to say that one is training in SMR (rather than "a member of") under a specific licensed person.

Finally, in our dojo, a beginner trains for some time before starting to train in the koryu techniques (beginning with omote). During this time, we consider a student to be training in jodo and not the koryu.

So you may wonder, how do you figure out which art a group practices? You can ask an instructor if they have a ZNKR grade or SMR license or both. You can ask if they teach techniques beyond the ZNKR seiteigata. You can ask if anyone in the dojo does any of the attached ryuha, i.e. tanjo, kenjutsu, kusarigamajutsu, juttejutsu, hojojutsu. If an instructor indicates that the entire SMR curriculum is practiced, then that instructor is teaching the koryu, and as long as he or she has been authorized by (or is) a menkyo kaiden, then you know you're on the koryu track. If an instructor has ZNKR grade and practices only seiteigata, then the group is doing jodo (but the teacher may be practicing koryu elsewhere.... it is confusing and even these statements may not be true in 100% of the cases. Oh well, such is the way of the koryu bujutsu, in my experience).

Hope this helps???

------------------
Diane Skoss
Koryu.com (http://Koryu.com)

Eric Baluja
9th June 2000, 00:46
More than you probably think. Thanks.

Hope to run into you soon,
Eric Baluja