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Old 04-13-2010, 12:10 PM   #199
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
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Re: Video definitions, "Aiki" and other terms.

Quote:
Chris Hein wrote: View Post
I can see we are going to need a thread defining "Ju" as well. There seems to be the decided opinion of an aiki camp, that jujutsu is simply all that stuff we do that is easily explainable.

I consistently see the word jujutsu used whenever something is perceived as simple or less important (i.e. angle, timing, leverage etc).

"Ju" is another principle, different then "Aiki". "Ju" has to do with yielding to force.
Hi Chris:

I'd disagree. I think that basically "kokyu", "Ki strength", "aiki", etc., has intertwined usage that is the same as "ju" originally referred to. Here's a comment from Steven R. Cunningham (the whole paper is at
http://www.judoamerica.com/coachingc...ano-kata.shtml ) :
Quote:
Kano extensively studied the Tenjin Shinyo Ryu Jujutsu which is a fusion of Shin no Shindo Ryu and Yoshin Ryu. Yoshin Ryu (Yo, meaning "willow tree," and Shin, meaning "heart or spirit") was de-vised by a doctor from Nagasaki named Shirobei Yoshitoki Akiyama. Akiyama had studied battlefield and healing arts in Japan, and is thought to have been accomplished in Jujutsu. Wishing to extend his knowl-edge, Akiyama went to China to study in the 1600s. There he studied medicine, katsu (life-restoring tech-niques), and various martial arts, especially striking arts and their use as applied to vital areas (kyusho-jutsu). He also studied Taoism, Taoist healing and martial arts, and acu-punc-ture. The centerpiece of the art he created by incorpor-ating his training in China with Japanese methods was a syllabus of 300 techniques. This represented an infusion of the "soft" or "internal" martial arts of China into Japan 6.

The soft or internal arts were known popularly in China as jou-chuan, the characters for which are read in Japanese as "ju-ken," meaning "soft fist." It was common throughout that period to refer to all internal arts by this name. This may have played some role in the eventual popularity of the term jujutsu for these rough-and-tumble martial arts. Kano and others argued that there was nothing "gentle" or "soft" about Jujutsu, and that ju was hardly the over-riding principle of the arts. The arts were called "ju-arts" or jujutsu because they were based on internal methods and ki (internal energy), not because they employed no strength or force 7.
FWIW

Mike Sigman