II - JIGORO KANO AND THE REENTERPRETATION OF TRADITIONAL JU-JUTSU

Koryu vs Gendai Budo -Koryu are the traditional / ancient martial arts. The focus is military training. Ex: Ju-Jutsu (technique / gentle art), Ken-Jutsu (sword technique), Iai-Jutsu (art of drawing the sword), So-Jutsu (art of the spear), Kyu-Jutsu (art of the bow and arrow), Ho-Jutsu (art of firearms), etc. -Gendai budō are the modern schools of martial arts. They arise after the Meiji restoration. The main focus is personal development through training in the arts of self-defense. Many of these schools also focus on practicing martial arts as a sport. “Do”, which means path (in a spiritual way) is used to name these schools. Ex .: Judo, Kendo, Iaido, Kyudo, Aikido, Karate-do… These schools adopt a rank system of kyu (colors of belts) and dans. -Jigoro Kano was born in 1.860 and started training Koryu Ju-Jitsu at the age of 16. He becomes an expert in 2 styles, Tenjin-Shinyo Ryu and Kito Ryu. -Kano believes that Ju-Jutsu is an important cultural legacy but it must change its purpose. It must be taught for educational, physical and moral improvement. -Opens its Ju-Jutsu school, the Kodokan Judô in 1,882. -To improve the reputation of Japanese martial arts, Kodokan creates, among other things, a code of ethics (such as the prohibition of fighting for money) and a teaching curriculum. Kano's idea is that his method is not just to train to fight, but a form of personal evolution. That is why he uses the word “do”. -Kano also emphasizes a training method based on randori (sparring). -Many Ju-Jutsu schools based most of their training on the practice of combined forms, the Kata, in which both students cooperated to do the techniques. Kata were a way of training techniques that were too dangerous to be used in free sparring. -Kano believes it is very important to train the techniques in a realistic manner. To be effective, there was no point in having a lot of techniques considered "deadly", if we do not know how to use them in an opponent who opposes resistance, not collaborative. To enable randori training with full resistance, he needs to limit the use of techniques, removing those that do not allow students to safely apply them. Safe strikes are no less efficient. For example: chokes are safe if stopped as soon as the partner taps. Otherwise, it can lead to death. -The counterintuitive result: A student who trains in a realistic manner (with resistance), but only with safe techniques, does much better in a real fight than the student who trains techniques to be supposedly “deadly” in an unreal way (without resistance from a partner). -Many students from other schools of Koryu Ju-Jutsu start training at Kodokan. -Kodokan establishes itself as one of the main schools in Tokyo and starts to take on challenges from several traditional Ju-Jutsu schools, winning easily. -As Kano wanted to change the bad image that Ju-Jutsu had at the time, the challenges were matches with rules, without traumatic strikes like punches and kicks (the fight could only be won by falls, immobilization or submission). -In 1886 the Tokyo police organized a challenge (with grappling rules, with no striking) to decide which style would be used in their training. There were 15 matches in which Kodokan won 13 and tied 2. -After the 1886 police championship, Judo Kodokan became the most famous Ju-Jitsu style in Japan. There is a huge influx of students from all different styles of Ju-Jutsu into Kodokan. Around 1,896 a student who will be crucial in the history of BJJ starts training at Kodokan. His name is Mitsuyo Maeda -At the end of the 19th century the Kodokan is challenged by Mataemon Tanabe, a teacher at a little-known school of Ju-Jutsu, the Fusen Ryu. -These 2 events - Maeda's entry into the Kodokan and Tanabe's challenge (from the Fusen Ryu Ju-Jutsu School) - would change the story of Kodokan Judo and traditional Ju-Jutsu. Consequently, they would have a huge impact on what would become Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.