TIM BURTON
28th December 2000, 12:28
You may know that before Taiho Jutsu, the Japanese Police used another older system called Yaku kobujutsu in order to maintain the peace. By 1900 the centre of Policing in Japan was Tokyo and so it was mainly Tokyo where Police related martial arts were practiced and refined. But apart from police dojos, where did they train? The answer is mainly at the Kodokan, the dojo of Jigoro KANO.
Here at the turn of the century the Kodokan was host not just to Judo but a large number of different styles. Many people think of this dojo, as it is today, a Mecca of Judo. Not so, the dojo was like yours or mine and when Kano was not teaching, the mat was rented out to other systems, in order to make the dojo a profit. If one were able to walk into the Kodokan at this time, we would see weapon arts and various Jitsu’s being practiced alongside each other.
As the Kodokan was so rich with different styles the Police actually received their training in a modular form. That is to say that they went to a particular Sensei or group of Sensei within the Kodokan to be taught for example, Jo jutsu (the art of the 4ft stave). Then to other Sensei, in order to be taught other fields of expertise such as Renkoho (restraining) and Goshinho (self defence).
On another level, around 1925, Kano had also sent out one of his top students, Kenji Tomiki then a fourth Dan at the age of twenty five, to learn the skills of Aikijutsu from Ueshiba, a fact I shall return to later.
Kano recognised the surge of imperialism in Japan prior to W.W.II, and as he was making progress with the Olympic committee and through them in-roads for the introduction of Judo as an Olympic sport, he removed a number of kata from the Kodokan syllabus. This was to stop the Kodokan Dojo being used by the military to prepare soldiers for war. This obviously did not go down to well and some labeled Kano, a western sympathiser.
The war ended with the occupation of Japan by the allied command. One of the beliefs the allies held was that the martial discipline of the Japanese had been a major factor that had influenced the war. So they prohibited the practice of many martial arts. It is interesting to note that Kano hid some of the Kata by entrusting them to the women’s section of the Kodokan. The allies were so chauvinistic at this time that they never bothered to check the women’s classes for prohibited techniques.
This fact interested me greatly, as on beginning Judo I was always told that Ju No Kata was a “woman’s kata”. Later in life I discovered that Kano had created the Kata to preserve the techniques of the Tenshin shinyo Ryu, where he received a lot of his early training. The Kata contains, attack, counter attack and counter to the counter etc, within each move. This means that each move is a short hand list of techniques and combat principals. Has its true meaning been lost because we were too blind to see that it had been cleverly preserved in the woman’s section, and was not just a kata for women? Who knows, but if so, those women to whom Kano entrusted the knowledge are fast disappearing.
So what happened to the martial arts that were banned by the Allies? A lot went underground to escape detection, but the Tokyo Police with their strong martial traditions came up with a solution. This was to apply to the Allies to review their current system of self defence; they removed the term “martial art” to prevent suspicion. They were granted leave to do this and they took advantage to preserve the older techniques and systems now banned, under the collective banner of the term Taiho Jutsu. So the Police were still taught say, Jo jutsu by the same Kodokan sensei as before, but now if asked they referred to it as Taiho Jutsu training.
In 1940 Tomiki Sensei received the first eighth dan ever bestowed on a student by Ueshiba for the study of what was then termed Aikibudo. Again it should be borne in mind that Tomiki was still a highly skilled Judoka and had continued his studies of this art along side Aikibudo. In 1948 Tomiki took up a post at Waseda University, he also joined the Kodokan Judo Institute as an instructor and a member of its board. By 1956 he was recognised as a 7th Dan at Judo and an 8th Dan at Aikido. During this period he was one of the twenty one sensei who developed the Kodokan Goshin Jutsu, created to update Kano’s Kime No Kata. In 1958 Tomiki divided his teaching of Judo and Aikido and the Waseda Aikido club was founded.
It was here Tomiki began to subject the techniques of Aikido taught to him by Ueshiba, to the same sort of process applied to Judo by his other sensei Kano. Tomiki sought to produce a contest form of Aikido similar to Judo in order to test its effectiveness. This culminated in a series of fifteen techniques deemed suitable for the practise of Aikido Randori. The theories being developed by Tomiki were not well received by Ueshiba and his protégés or the Sensei of the Kodokan, but Tomiki persisted with the help of his close friend and colleague Hideo Ohba.
With constant refinements the present Junanahon No Kata was created, together with six Kyoryu Kata that preserved about 140 techniques of traditional Aikijutsu passed down by Ueshiba. Tomiki who held it on a par with the Kodokan Goshin Jutsu often referred to the third of these Kyoryu kata as the Goshin Jutsu of his Aikido system. Tomiki always insisted he viewed his style of Aikido with a “Judo mind”. By this I believe he meant that he applied the basic theories formulated by Kano to his Aikido. If you are unaware of Kano’s theories, then I will summarise them here. Simply put, Kano distilled all of the teachings of all the Jujitsu Ryu’s down to a few common principles, which remain true whatever the martial art practiced. These are the principle of adopting a natural posture, the principle of rendering an attack useless by avoidance and the principle of breaking balance. In 1966 Tomiki introduced another form of Randori into his Aikido system involving the use of techniques against a knife or Tanto.
In 1967 Tomiki opened his first Shodokan dojo, which was established solely for the practice of his Shodokan Aikido. Again one can see similarities here as Kano named his system Kodokan Judo, Kodokan meaning “the place for teaching the way” and Tomiki named his system Shodokan Aikido, Shodokan meaning “the place for identifying the way”.
Tomiki continued to teach his system aided by such sensei as Ohba and Nariyama, until his death in 1979. An interesting point that many over look is that Tomiki did not stop his involvement with Judo as he believed the two systems to be inextricably linked and in 1971 he received an 8th Dan in Kodokan Judo.
Here at the turn of the century the Kodokan was host not just to Judo but a large number of different styles. Many people think of this dojo, as it is today, a Mecca of Judo. Not so, the dojo was like yours or mine and when Kano was not teaching, the mat was rented out to other systems, in order to make the dojo a profit. If one were able to walk into the Kodokan at this time, we would see weapon arts and various Jitsu’s being practiced alongside each other.
As the Kodokan was so rich with different styles the Police actually received their training in a modular form. That is to say that they went to a particular Sensei or group of Sensei within the Kodokan to be taught for example, Jo jutsu (the art of the 4ft stave). Then to other Sensei, in order to be taught other fields of expertise such as Renkoho (restraining) and Goshinho (self defence).
On another level, around 1925, Kano had also sent out one of his top students, Kenji Tomiki then a fourth Dan at the age of twenty five, to learn the skills of Aikijutsu from Ueshiba, a fact I shall return to later.
Kano recognised the surge of imperialism in Japan prior to W.W.II, and as he was making progress with the Olympic committee and through them in-roads for the introduction of Judo as an Olympic sport, he removed a number of kata from the Kodokan syllabus. This was to stop the Kodokan Dojo being used by the military to prepare soldiers for war. This obviously did not go down to well and some labeled Kano, a western sympathiser.
The war ended with the occupation of Japan by the allied command. One of the beliefs the allies held was that the martial discipline of the Japanese had been a major factor that had influenced the war. So they prohibited the practice of many martial arts. It is interesting to note that Kano hid some of the Kata by entrusting them to the women’s section of the Kodokan. The allies were so chauvinistic at this time that they never bothered to check the women’s classes for prohibited techniques.
This fact interested me greatly, as on beginning Judo I was always told that Ju No Kata was a “woman’s kata”. Later in life I discovered that Kano had created the Kata to preserve the techniques of the Tenshin shinyo Ryu, where he received a lot of his early training. The Kata contains, attack, counter attack and counter to the counter etc, within each move. This means that each move is a short hand list of techniques and combat principals. Has its true meaning been lost because we were too blind to see that it had been cleverly preserved in the woman’s section, and was not just a kata for women? Who knows, but if so, those women to whom Kano entrusted the knowledge are fast disappearing.
So what happened to the martial arts that were banned by the Allies? A lot went underground to escape detection, but the Tokyo Police with their strong martial traditions came up with a solution. This was to apply to the Allies to review their current system of self defence; they removed the term “martial art” to prevent suspicion. They were granted leave to do this and they took advantage to preserve the older techniques and systems now banned, under the collective banner of the term Taiho Jutsu. So the Police were still taught say, Jo jutsu by the same Kodokan sensei as before, but now if asked they referred to it as Taiho Jutsu training.
In 1940 Tomiki Sensei received the first eighth dan ever bestowed on a student by Ueshiba for the study of what was then termed Aikibudo. Again it should be borne in mind that Tomiki was still a highly skilled Judoka and had continued his studies of this art along side Aikibudo. In 1948 Tomiki took up a post at Waseda University, he also joined the Kodokan Judo Institute as an instructor and a member of its board. By 1956 he was recognised as a 7th Dan at Judo and an 8th Dan at Aikido. During this period he was one of the twenty one sensei who developed the Kodokan Goshin Jutsu, created to update Kano’s Kime No Kata. In 1958 Tomiki divided his teaching of Judo and Aikido and the Waseda Aikido club was founded.
It was here Tomiki began to subject the techniques of Aikido taught to him by Ueshiba, to the same sort of process applied to Judo by his other sensei Kano. Tomiki sought to produce a contest form of Aikido similar to Judo in order to test its effectiveness. This culminated in a series of fifteen techniques deemed suitable for the practise of Aikido Randori. The theories being developed by Tomiki were not well received by Ueshiba and his protégés or the Sensei of the Kodokan, but Tomiki persisted with the help of his close friend and colleague Hideo Ohba.
With constant refinements the present Junanahon No Kata was created, together with six Kyoryu Kata that preserved about 140 techniques of traditional Aikijutsu passed down by Ueshiba. Tomiki who held it on a par with the Kodokan Goshin Jutsu often referred to the third of these Kyoryu kata as the Goshin Jutsu of his Aikido system. Tomiki always insisted he viewed his style of Aikido with a “Judo mind”. By this I believe he meant that he applied the basic theories formulated by Kano to his Aikido. If you are unaware of Kano’s theories, then I will summarise them here. Simply put, Kano distilled all of the teachings of all the Jujitsu Ryu’s down to a few common principles, which remain true whatever the martial art practiced. These are the principle of adopting a natural posture, the principle of rendering an attack useless by avoidance and the principle of breaking balance. In 1966 Tomiki introduced another form of Randori into his Aikido system involving the use of techniques against a knife or Tanto.
In 1967 Tomiki opened his first Shodokan dojo, which was established solely for the practice of his Shodokan Aikido. Again one can see similarities here as Kano named his system Kodokan Judo, Kodokan meaning “the place for teaching the way” and Tomiki named his system Shodokan Aikido, Shodokan meaning “the place for identifying the way”.
Tomiki continued to teach his system aided by such sensei as Ohba and Nariyama, until his death in 1979. An interesting point that many over look is that Tomiki did not stop his involvement with Judo as he believed the two systems to be inextricably linked and in 1971 he received an 8th Dan in Kodokan Judo.