Jujutsu in Japan?

[Joshua Walker]

Is Jujutsu practised in Japan? Do they refer to it by a different name?

Karate, Aikido, Kendo, and Iaido are all popular, and there are plenty of places to go to. There are even a few kung fu and tae kwon do studios.

That may sound like a stupid question, however, I have lived in Japan for over a year now and I have yet to find any Japanese person who has heard of it, let alone a place where they practice it.

In fact, when I have asked about it, I usually embarass myself as they think I'm talking about magic. They are usually puzzled about why I would want to switch jobs to that of a stage magician. :laugh:

[Mark Barlow]

Over the years I've met several Japanese who don't practice martial arts (they do exist regardless of what the movies tell us) and when something is said about me practicing Jujutsu, they'll go something like, "Oh, you play Judo?" or "Oh, you do Aikido?" Jujutsu just isn't on the radar in Japan anymore and they assume I'm using the wrong word.

On the bright side, the diaspora of Jujutsuka to Europe, South and North America at the beginning of the 20th century kept Jujutsu alive while it was superseded by Judo, Karate & Aikido in Japan. There are still a few koryu practicing Jujutsu in Japan but your chances of being admitted to the Dojo without a formal introduction are slim.

Try one of the local Judo or Aikido dojo and if you find it doesn't suit you, you'll still have established connections that could point you towards a more traditional dojo.

Good luck and keep us informed.

Mark Barlow

[Gunyo Kogusoku]

Is Jujutsu practised in Japan? Do they refer to it by a different name?

Karate, Aikido, Kendo, and Iaido are all popular, and there are plenty of places to go to. There are even a few kung fu and tae kwon do studios.

That may sound like a stupid question, however, I have lived in Japan for over a year now and I have yet to find any Japanese person who has heard of it, let alone a place where they practice it.

In fact, when I have asked about it, I usually embarass myself as they think I'm talking about magic. They are usually puzzled about why I would want to switch jobs to that of a stage magician. :laugh:

Yes, jujutsu is practiced in Japan and a large number of the classical schools are still extant and are open to the public.

You need to ask the right people. Most Japanese people today don't even know what the hell Jujutsu is. Shows a lot about indiginous cultural awareness in Japan today doesn't it? IMO, it's they who should be embarassed for not knowing their own culture rather than you wanting to learn it.

Jujutsu is a classical Japanese martial art and therefore classified as Kobudo. You need to refer to the Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai or the Nihon Kobudo Kyokai (Do a Google check or refer to http://www.koryu.com )

Hope this helps,

[starkjudo]

This thread kinda resonates to me, as we have a Japanese native who is in either the master's or doctoral program here at Mississippi State and has started Judo. There's still a degree of language barrier between us, but after one or two evening discussions it became obvious his knowledge or awareness of martial arts before coming to us was pretty much nil.

[Joshua Walker]

Thanks alot for the help. I'll start in this new direction and see what turns up.

I've started studying aikido recently, and enjoying it, but i'm still primarily interested in studying Jujutsu.



You need to ask the right people. Most Japanese people today don't even know what the hell Jujutsu is. Shows a lot about indiginous cultural awareness in Japan today doesn't it? IMO, it's they who should be embarassed for not knowing their own culture rather than you wanting to learn it.



About being embarrassed- that isint quite what I meant. I found out the hard way that jujutsu also can mean 'magic' in japanese. Which would explain the puzzled reactions I got from some people who are into karate, aikido, etc. When upon hearing that they study a martial art I mention that I want to study magic. (as you said, they don't know jujutsu as a martial art, they know it as magic, so people assumed I meant I wanted to learn how to do parlor tricks)

I finally learned that jujutsu means magic when one high school judo coach started quizzing me as to why I'd want to learn magic, to which I replied that I wanted to study magic to protect myself and for exercise. The coach nearly had a heart attack laughing when he thought of me trying to exercise by pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Whats really funny, though, is that with the popularity of K-1 here and Pride, Gracie is almost a household name. I mean, almost everyone I've talked to about this, (men and women, weather they were into watching K1 or not) knew the name Gracie but had no clue that BJJ is based off of a Japanese MA*

*Disclaimer- I dont know much about jujutsu or BJJ either, so if I apologize for any factual mistakes.

[small]

It does exist, but your right when you say not many Japanese have heard of it.
This is one traditional school, very Aikido like
http://www.hakkoryu.com/display/dsp_main.cfm?page=introduction

It stems from Daito ryu

Mark Brown