A History of Jiu Jitsu: Part One

Part One: Birth on the Battlefield

Our story begins in the ninth century, on a small collection of island nations that would become known as Japan. Land owning lords of time, known as Daimyos, meaning 'great names', were faced with a time of civil strife and to ensure their safety they began hiring mercenary warriors.

Now most of these warriors during this period were horsed archers, and archery was considered the most important skill for a warrior to have. These hired warriors were given privileged status by their local Daimyo during their service and over time this lead to the establishment of a noble warrior class.

These fighting nobles became known as Samurai and by 1100 AD they were the ruling class of Japan. On the battlefield, they had transitioned from horse archers to masters a number of weapons including not just the bow, but also the long sword (Katana), spear, a host a shorter blades, and a deadly unarmed hand-to-hand style known as Jujitsu.

While for much of the time during the early Samurai days fighting with empty hands was considered a peasants way of fighting, as warfare escalated in Japan Samurai began studying and training in Jujitsu. By the 1100s, Samurai were a full warrior culture, their children were sent to fighting academies, known as Ryu, at a very young age to begin a life of training and warfare.

By this time, many of the joint locks of Jujitsu had been developed and in circa 1150 AD is when we first see the advent of the Triangle choke.

Over the next few centuries, Ryus sprang up all over the dozens and dozens of nations that covered Japan. These nations had relative peace under the rule of military dictators known as Shogun, and each nation had its own army of highly trained Samurai. But as the power of the Shogun slowly weakened tensions between rival nations grew.

In the mid 1400s the powder keg that was Japan finally exploded into all out war and for the next 200 years Japan would be embroiled in almost constant warfare. The Samurai were on the front lines for all 200 years of these string of wars and during this time Jujitsu became a critical aspect of Samurai warfare.

Jujitsu was designed as an unarmed fighting style in a culture were all Samurai were armed, so the first order of Jujitsu was defending against an armed enemy. So the standing techniques were critical: defending against sword strokes, spear thrusts and knife attacks. Strikes were not favored, due to the fact on the battlefield Samurai wore armor, but strikes to the groin, joints and face were incorporated.

The center principle of Jujitsu was getting inside your enemy's weapons, grabbing hold of him and throwing him to the ground. Once on the ground Jujitsu preach gaining dominate position and then using knives, eye gouges, fish hooks or any other method of finishing your enemy. If you were unlucky enough to be on the bottom, Jujitsu had sweeps and escapes to help a fighter gain dominate position from off his back.

At this time Jujitsu, despite translating as 'art of softness' was a desperate art of survival, that used anything at its disposal. Many techniques used blades, chains, or just pure brute strength to gain an advantage, but there also was the core values of momentum and leverage were there.

The result of the combinations of throws, joint locks, chokes, sweeps, weapons, and strikes was a deadly, overly complicated art that took the full span of a warrior's life to learn.

As the period of intense war drew to a close, the 1700s became a golden age for the Samurai. During this period we see the height of the great combat schools, each the home of a master of a battlefield art, Jujitsu included. In the absence of war students of rival schools would sharpen and display their skills in death duels.

But in 1853, the world of the Samurai was rocked when Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy brought his steam-power warships armed with modern cannons into Tokyo Bay. The result was the awaking of the Japanese people from their self-imposed exile. This would mark the beginning of the end for the Samurai and Jujitsu... 

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