Jo (weapon)
A
jō (Japanese:
杖) is an approximately four-
foot (1.28
m) long
wooden
staff, used in some
Japanese
martial arts. The martial art of wielding the
jo is called
jojutsu or
jodo;
aiki-jo is a set of techniques in
aikido which uses the
jo to illustrate aikido's principles with a weapon. The
jo staff is shorter than the
bo.
The jo is still used by some Japanese police forces.
The techniques for
jo were reportedly invented by
Muso Gonnosuke after he was defeated by
Miyamoto Musashi (sometime between 1608 and 1611, according to
Kenji Tokitsu) in a
duel. The record mentioning this duel, the
Nitenki, recounts:
"When Musashi was in Edo, he met an adept named Muso Gonnosuke, who asked to fight him. Gonnosuke used a wooden sword. Musashi was in the process of making a small bow; he picked up a piece of firewood. Gonnosuke attacked him without even bowing, but he received a blow from Musashi that made him fall down. He was impressed and left." A different text, the
Kaijo monogatari (dated to 1666) differs considerably from the
Nitenkis version. In it, Gonnosuke is a boastful and brash warrior who duels Musashi (intending to see how Musashi compares with Musashi's father in swordsmanship) in
Akashi, not
Edo, and wielding a staff four
shaku in length and reinforced with steel rings. After his defeat, he then went to
Mount Homan-zan in
Chikuzen (near
Fukuoka), where he practiced considerably, changing his preferred weapon to four
shaku and two
sun in length - 1.28 meters as compared to 1.2 meters. This school was called the
Shinto Muso ryu because of Gonnosuke's previous training under Sakurai Osuminokami Yoshikatsu of the
Shinto ryu.
The school he founded to transmit his technqiues has some old records which claims that Gonnosuke, struck by his defeat, went into solitary meditation until he received divine inspiration in a dream; he then invented techniques to fight against Musashi's two swords using only a stick, and defeated Musashi on their next encounter. Assuming the records are accurate and genuine, this would be the only time Musashi was defeated.
The usage of various stick weapons has existed in one form or another long before Muso Gonnosuke invented his techniques, but his school,
Shinto Muso-ryu, was probably the first known professional school that dedicated itself to the art of using a
jo against a swordsman.
Several traditional Japanese
koryu (traditional warrior styles) used the jo like a sword. The added length of the jo was meant to give it an advantage over the sword. Further, its wood construction allowed a fighter to improvise a jo quickly from a tree, branch, or other pole.
Those who believe most martial arts devices used as weapons arose from commonly used implements believe that the jo arose from poles used to bolt doors.
*
Bo*
Hanbo*
Shinai*
Tambo*
Quarterstaff*
List of martial arts weapons*
