Jo Jutsu

Jo Jutsu is the Japanese art of fighting with the Jo (jap. 杖, cane, walking stick), a stick made of oak wood (white or red) about 128 cm long. Jo Jutsu is often practiced along with Aikido, most often in the form of Aiki-jō (Kanji: 合気杖 Hiragana: あいきじょう) as taught by Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. In doing so, we try to incorporate the principles of Aikido into our work with the Jo. You practice suburi (素振り:すぶり, roughly: “empty cuts/strokes”) alone and kumi-jo (組杖, “meeting sticks”) together. Like all other Japanese martial arts, Jo Jutsu has set kata that you practice with your partner.

The stick differs significantly from the sword. It is about 20-30 cm longer, it has no cutting edge, of course, and it can be held at both ends. This results in completely different movements and possibilities compared to Ken Jutsu. In Jo Jutsu we study how to make the best use of the stick’s properties. This results in fluid and rotating movements, with many changes of grip. This fluid way of wielding the stick gives a very special aesthetic and is immensely satisfying.

Jo-Jutsu increases the sense of space. The perceived own space should become at least so large that the opponent has room in it. Then you can feel into him better. Jo-Jutsu is very effective and dangerous because of its way of wielding the stick more like a whip than a sword.