Jiujitsu

“ Of course the combatants in both exercises strive to get the upper hand of each other, but the great difference is that the wrestling relies chiefly on strength, whilst jiujitsu depends on all sorts of tricks, based upon a careful study of physical organism, and therefore physical strength may be said to be of little value, nay, in truth, it uses the strength of the opponent against himself. We, in Japan, have also a method of competition resembling the wrestling of the West, and we apply to that the Western name "wrestling." ”

“ Every member of the feudal class, from the shōgun downward, received regular instruction in this art, and regarded his two swords with the utmost love and veneration, the skill and spirit shown by him in their use being justly a source of pride to Japan. Spears and firearms were also widely employed, and the practice of jiūjitsu—a species of gymnastics based on the laws of balance and reaction and directed to purposes of self-defense—received general attention. Men conspicuous for skill in fencing and other martial exercises built schools and became teachers of their respective specialties. ”

“ Sometimes Western wrestlers come to Japan and challenge our wrestlers, but they are no match for ours. It is not [Pg 98] worth boasting about, I merely state the fact. Of course, there is also much wrestling in country parts, and young people often perform, but they are, after all, only amateurs. As to jiujitsu, the art has been studied by the Samurai in a similar manner to fencing, with no professional performance or public show. Hence a great difference in the social position of jiujitsu experts and wrestlers. ”

“ Jiujutsu is the old samurai art of fighting without weapons. To the uninitiated it looks like wrestling. Should you happen to enter the Zuihōkwan while jiujutsu is being practiced, you would see a crowd of students watching ten or twelve lithe young comrades, barefooted and barelimbed, throwing each other about on the matting. The dead silence might seem to you very strange. No word is spoken, no sign of approbation or of amusement is given, no face even smiles. Absolute impassiveness is rigidly exacted by the rules of the school of jiujutsu. ”

“ It is to the persistent practice of Jiu-Jitsu that the Japanese owe their courage and success in battle, their almost superhuman strength and power of endurance, their low death rate and their material progress. Surely a system of physical training which has done so much for the Island Nation will interest you. Jiu-Jitsu not only embodies the ideal principles of attaining perfect health and perfect physical development, but as a means of self-defense it is as potent at short range as the deadliest weapon. ”

“ Since Sunday we have not been able to ride. I still box with Grant, who has now become the champion middleweight wrestler of the United States. Yesterday afternoon we had Professor Yamashita up here to wrestle with Grant. It was very interesting, but of course jiu jitsu and our wrestling are so far apart that it is difficult to make any comparison between them. Wrestling is simply a sport with rules almost as conventional as those of tennis, while jiu jitsu is really meant for practice in killing or disabling our adversary. ”

“ Once the wrist, ankle, neck, arm or leg of an assailant is firmly grasped so that added force will dislocate it, there is nothing for the seized man to do, in case he is still on his feet, but go to the floor, often being thrown clean over his opponent’s head. A fall of this kind does not necessarily mean defeat, for the struggle proceeds upon the floor, where indeed most of the combat takes place, and the ju-jutsu expert receives a long training in the art of falling without injury. ”

“ Before paying much attention to the tricks of combat the American student of the art should, after observing the first requirements of bodily health, practise long and assiduously at the resistant and other exercises that harden the muscles and bones. Too much time cannot be spent in this manner. The fighting tricks of jiu-jitsu, if attempted by those who have not yet taken the trouble to toughen the muscles and harden the bones, are certain to result in lameness—perhaps severe strain. ”

“ Jiujutsu may be briefly defined as an application of anatomical knowledge to the purpose of offense or defense. It differs from wrestling, in that it does not depend upon muscular strength. It differs from other forms of attack in that it uses no weapon. Its feat consists in clutching or striking such part of the enemy’s body as will make him numb and incapable of resistance. Its object is not to kill, but to incapacitate one for action for the time being. ”

“ Yes, I assure you: jujutsu is a fine art; more than that, it is an application of pure science. I say that, and I know. Compare it with boxing, that which your grandfathers called the noble art. Rapidity of movement, yes; quickness of eye and judgment, yes; but delicacy of touch--ah! jujutsu has it, boxing no. There is nothing brutal about jujutsu."
Kenneth Amory smiled back at the enthusiastic little Japanese, and rubbed his left shoulder.
"Nothing brutal, I agree," he said. "But it has been a dry summer, Mr. Kishimaru." ”

“ The possession of acquired agility teaches the student another valuable trick of attack. This is for him to crouch as if intending an attack at the knees, and then, as his opponent bends to meet him, to rise suddenly and make the attack upon the upper body of his descending enemy. Just as there are no "fouls" in the Japanese method of combat, so all the highest development of the art of jiu-jitsu is based upon the employment of the utmost degree of deception. ”

“ The feat is so popular with the jiu-jitsu instructors, and is considered to be of such value, that it is generally taught in the sixth or seventh lesson. A very little practice will show the investigator how much this exercise can do for the strengthening of the muscles. The assailant must remember always to tauten all the muscles that are employed. The man on the defence has no counter beyond employing the arm-pinch that is shown in the illustration. ”

“ In jiu-jitsu one seeks to draw out and exhaust the enemy's strength by non-resistance, vacuum, while conserving one's own strength for victory in the final struggle. In art the importance of the same principle is illustrated by the value of suggestion. ”

“ The student should familiarise himself so thoroughly with every vulnerable locality that he can seize it rapidly and unerringly.
It is a principle of jiu-jitsu that a weaker man should be able to attack a stronger opponent, and to defeat him by the aid of the latter's own greater strength. ”

“ There will come a time, when, if jiu-jitsu is faithfully kept up, two well-developed and equally matched opponents can struggle for twenty consecutive minutes without either gaining material advantage. At first not so much attention should be given to victory as to the training of the muscles. ”

“ If one of the students is decidedly the superior of the other in strength, then the stronger one should offer just enough resistance to continue the "struggle," and should allow the weaker contestant to slowly gain the victory once in a while. No exercise known in jiu-jitsu will do more than this one for gradually toughening all
WRIST-TO-WRIST RESISTANT EXERCISE.
the muscles of the body. Yet when practised in moderation the main benefit goes to the heart and lungs. Just as soon as the "struggle" has been mastered, arm exercises are given. ”

“ On certain days the wrestlers appear all dressed up in their ceremonial clothes and give a dance.
Ordinary wrestling, or sumo, must not be confused with the more scientific form known as judo, or more commonly, jiu-jutsu, which has been introduced to some extent in our own country. Here weight and strength count for little in comparison with skill and adroitness. While ordinary wrestlers are perfect mountains of men, some of the cleverest exponents of jiu-jutsu are quite small. ”

“ One bright fellow discovered that by pressing thumb or fingers against certain muscles or nerves momentary paralysis could be produced. He also discovered that by employing the hardened edge of his hand to strike a piece of bamboo at a certain angle of impact he could break the stick. If he could paralyse his own nerves and muscles, why not another's? If he could break a stick by a sharp blow with the edge of his hand, why could he not train himself in the same way to break the arm of a dangerous antagonist? And that was the beginning of the creation of the science of jiu-jitsu. ”

“ If you do not already know that Jiu-Jitsu is the most wonderful system of physical training and self-defense in the world to-day I invite you to write for my FREE LESSON and demonstrate this to your own satisfaction. ”

“ Many writers translate the term ju-jutsu “to conquer by yielding” (Jap. ju, pliant) , and this phrase well expresses a salient characteristic of the art, since the weight and strength of the opponent are employed to his own undoing. When, for example, a big man rushes at a smaller opponent, the smaller man, instead of seeking to oppose strength to strength, falls backwards or sidewise, pulling his heavy adversary after him and taking advantage of his loss of balance to gain some lock or hold known to the science. ”

“ The floor of the school is padded thickly and softly, so that the young man cannot injure himself. The instructor can do little when this exercise is being followed. The young man must learn the art of falling safely through his own practice and observation. He must learn what muscles are wrenched when he falls, and must study out for himself how to avoid the wrench. When one practising jiu-jitsu is thrown he must know how to aid in the throw himself in such a manner that he will not be weakened — and this knowledge can be gained by any one who practises assiduously. ”

“ It is by the straightening of these joints, and not by the action of stabbing, that the rapidity and force of a thrust are achieved.
It is just the same in boxing. No one who has the least knowledge of sparring strikes a round-handed blow, for, putting aside the ease with which it is parried or avoided, it has scarcely any force in it. When a boxer hits “straight from the shoulder,” he not only straightens the Toggle-joint of his left arm, but that of his right knee also, so that the force of the blow comes quite as much from the leg as the arm. ”

“ While the development of the portion of the body from the waist to the shoulders, and including, of course, the rigorous training of the arms, is considered by Japanese trainers as being of prime importance, only a few days are spent in the jiu-jitsu school before the student is taught how to strengthen his legs.
In the leg exercises, as in the arm work, the resistant principle is the one employed. In all feats the man who is "attacked" yields gradually to the pressure of his "assailant." It matters not which of the contestants is the stronger ”

“ Now that the samurai have been abolished as the distinctive fighting class, and strenuous life is open to all of the Emperor's subjects, the science of jiu-jitsu has been thrown open to all comers—even to foreign visitors. ”

“ All the strength or power is yoked to the post-fulcral end of the head; the pre-fulcral end of its lever is poorly guarded. Japanese wrestlers know this fact very well, and seek to gain victory by pressing up the poorly guarded pre-fulcral lever of the head, thus producing a deadly lock at the fulcral joint. Indeed, it will be found that those who use the jiu-jitsu method of fighting have discovered a great deal about the construction and weaknesses of the levers of the human body. ”

“ It will be seen that a victory in ju-jutsu does not mean that the opponent shall be placed in some particular position, as in wrestling, but in any position in which his judgment or knowledge tells him that, unless he yields, he will suffer a disabling injury. This difference existed between the wrestling and the pancratium of the Olympic games. In the pancratium the fight went on until one combatant acknowledged defeat, but, although many a man allowed himself to be beaten into insensibility rather than suffer this humiliation, it was nevertheless held to be a disgrace to kill an opponent. ”

“ In the second place, Japanese wrestling has for its object the development of strength in excess of that of an adversary, whereas ju-jutsu seeks primarily to divert an adversary's force into directions fatal to his own equilibrium. So essential is the difference between the two arts that while success in wrestling depends theoretically on preponderance of force on the side of the victor, success in ju-jutsu is promoted by preponderance of force on the side of the vanquished. A skilled wrestler of great thews fares worse than a feeble tyro at the hands of a ju-jutsu expert. ”

“ Yet, while the Japanese have adapted from Western civilisation everything that they consider to be necessary to their national development, they have retained jiu-jitsu and all its underlying principles as the means by which the nation is to work for its physical well-being. They have done more, for, whereas jiu-jitsu was taught at one time to the aristocratic classes only, it is taught now to all of the people of Dai Nippon who wish to acquire it. The value of jiu-jitsu is proven by the fact that the Japanese, while a diminutive race, possess the greatest endurance of any people on earth. ”