Do vs Jutsu
A LOOK IN SIMONS MIND
The Do (path, way) vs Jutsu (technique, method) is an interesting discussion that we will get into in this blog.
The Science and the Way
In many modern schools the old Japanese words Jutsu and Do have become interchangeable with one another.
But it wasn’t always this way.
The Do in Karate do, Aikido, Judo rather than Jutsu in Karate Jutsu, Aikijutsu, Jujutsu is a distinction that seems to have lost meaning over the years.
Do; Do is closely related to the Chinese Dao – the way. Often these schools include spiritual, moral and personal cultivation. With these aspects the Do schools are well suited for students to focus on health, fitness or kind of spiritual wellbeing.
Jutsu; Jutsu meaning technique, method or science. This was the science of war, the method of war or technique in battle. It was a word used in older incarnations of some of the many Japanese martial arts.
Aiki Jujutsu informed Aikido, Jujutsu informed Judo, Karate Jutsu informed Karate Do, Ken Jutsu informed Kendo.
There is much more to the story than these simple explanations, but a real deep dive would take an essay of considerable length.
We will just do a bit of an overview with some well known examples.
The Do in Judo
Judo was started at the end of 1882 by Kano Jigoro. Two of its predecessors Kano learned were – Kito-ryu Jujutsu and Tenjin Shinyo-ryu Jujutsu.
Kano was university educated. Later he went on to run a school for the education of children of the Japanese nobility.
Coming out of the Edo period and into the Meiji restoration things were changing in Japan. The warrior based culture of the Samurai was becoming a thing of the past. There are still many remnants of this class structure today in Japan, but time was moving on, the world and western culture was affecting Japanese culture.
When Judo was put together by Kano it involved the concepts of knowledge, moral education and health. It seems to have been a modernization and an expansion of the art of Ju Jutsu.
The old class structure that had kept martial training behind castle gates was being broken down.
Kanos focus on health and sport meant his teaching of Atemi (striking) in the old Jujutsu style was superseded by a focus on Randori (sparring).
It was in the early 1900s when Judo won some important victories over their Jujutsu contemporaries in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department martial arts competitions. Jujutsu was superseded by Judo in being the primary martial art being taught to police in Tokyo.
And so some Jujutsu became Judo. But it also changed and became different from its root art.
Good or bad is not for me to decide.
Within these changes a few big things happened that reverberate in the martial arts world to this day.
Judogi (martial arts uniform) and the Kyu (coloured belt) and Dan (black belt) grading system came into popularity.
Judo/Ju Jutsu was taken to the world by Kanos students. In this way it made it to Brazil. The rest is a history that reverberates in the martial arts scene to this day.
Kano Jigoro had changed Japanese martial arts.
Karate Jutsu
Born in 1868 Funakoshi Gichen was born in Shuri, Okinawa. Out of the southern Japanese Islands in the South China Sea, Okinawa is the largest.
Funakoshi, as with Kano, was a teacher. They both wanted to spread their art by teaching young men martial arts through the education system. Taking health, fitness and martial expertise to young men was important to both martial artists.
Funakoshi himself was taught by 2 main teachers, Anko Itosu and Anko Izato.
Anko Azato a master of Toudi and Jigen-ryu. Anko Itosu master of Toudi.
Toudi is an earlier form of the word that is now Karate.
He was taught two of the main styles of karate from that part of Okinawa – Shorin-ryu and Shorei-ryu.
Both of Funakoshis instructors had been taught by the infamous ‘Bushi’ Matsumura.
Anko Itosu broke down the kata Kusanku and the kata Channan/Chiang nan into the 5 heian/pinan kata. These kata were simplified to be able to be taught in schools in Okinawa. These kata are still practiced in many forms of Karate to this day.
These were not the only forms of Toudi/Karate taught in Okinawa and Okinawa still remains a hot bed of Karate Jutsu, Tuodi and Okinawa Te.
The kanji used for karate in Okinawa was translated as Chinese hand. When Funakoshi moved to mainland Japan the name was changed from Chinese hand to empty hand. Here is an great article by the excellent Karate Nerd, Jesse Enkamp on this subject of how Karater got its name.
Funakoshi still taught Karate Jutsu, Karate Do didn’t turn up till later.
In 1922 Funakoshi gave a demonstration of Karate Jutsu at the Kodokan (Judo institute) after being invited by Jigoro Kano.
Both Kano and Funakoshi were from an elevated rank in Japanese societal terms, this is very important in Japanese society. If it wasn’t for this fact, they may not have been able to get their arts taught at the University’s in Japan at all.
It was after this that Karate took off in mainland Japan and from there world wide.
Funakoshi changed the martial arts world forever.
Aiki Ju Jutsu – Aikido
O’sensei – Morihei Ueshiba is a controversial figure in modern martial arts, but I’m not really sure why.
O’sensei studied Daito-ryu Aiki Jujutsu with Takeda Sokaku.
In his younger years he had studied many other martial arts, as many people in Japan did. Two of them, Kito-ryu Jujutsu and Tenjin Shinyo-ryu Jujutsu were arts that Kano also trained in.
Daito-ryu Aiki Jujutsu may have been the root art but O’sensei went off on a tangent and founded his own art – Aikido.
The name Aikido was used during the 2nd world war era but it wasn’t the official name until 1947.
O’sensei was/is very highly regarded in Japan for his extreme martial skill. While we may question what he did or how good he was, in the middle of the 1900s there was little doubt in Japan that he was one of the best ever. Many great martial artists went to O’sensei for instruction.
The discussion of Aikido 2022 is often based on a competition model. This is inherently unfair to Aikido because Aikido doesn’t judge itself with competitions.
Boxing, BJJ, Thai Kickboxing, Kickboxing, MMA, Judo, Sambo, Tai Chi, Wushu or Karate (and more), all have competition formats.
CQB, military and police arts have real life scenarios that test the capabilities and refine their skill sets.
Aikido doesnt have this kind of competition base even though the Tokyo police do use a form of Aikido designed by Gozo Shioda. It is still used now in modern times.
While many Aikido schools are viewed as a beautiful martial dance that has less combat effectiveness than some other martial arts, that is nowhere near the full story.
But I am not here to do an in depth study of Aikido or Aikijutsu. I just wish to point out that modern terminology has affected the way in which see these martial arts.
Morihei Ushiba O’sensei deliberately changed the art of Aikido to focus more on peace, love and spiritual self-perfection…
But its root is a Ju Jutsu school that still practices atemi (striking) as part of its movement practice.
The martial science was superseded by the path to peace.
In doing so he changed the art as it is known world wide.
The Great Innovators
In this article I have focused on the arts directly from Japan. The Do and Jutsu of the Japanese language.
This is far from an exhaustive study and it only brushes the surface of what these terms mean.
It is also only a quick look at some of the great martial arts pioneers.
The twentieth century was a very interesting time for the martial arts in general. Never before had we been able to so easily travel from one martial art school to another. Changing countries to train in different martial arts was extremely difficult a 100 years ago. Modern travel, modern education has expanded the scope of our martial arts experience.
Television and the internet have shifted our martial study even further.
The Asian martial arts permeated western culture starting in pockets around the world from early in the twentieth centaury.
Great innovators arrived in the scene. Great educators to which most of us western martial artists owe a great deal of thanks.
Kano – Jodo
Funakoshi – Karate
Ueshiba – Aikido
Ip Man – Wing Tsun
Helio Gracie – BJJ
Venancio Bacon – Balintawak Eskrima
General Choi – Tae Kwon Do
Hatsumi -Tai Jutsu
Bruce Lee – be like water my friend
…to name a few of the most influential and wide spread.
ALL of these martial artists took what they had been taught and modernized and commercialized their arts.
This enabled these arts to cover the world in the great sweep of globalisation.
The motivations behind them may have been different, but overall, the effect was similar.
They took koryu bujutsu – old school martial technique, put a spin on it for civilian use and sold it to the world.
The world has changed in the last 150 years, and so have the martial arts.
Do, Jutsu and Japanese
The Do and Jutsu argument is interesting, but is it really pertinent to the study of the modern martial arts?
Well hmmmm yeah nah maybe.
Terminology changes, new words come about and the meaning of words changes. The etymology of words is not as set as most people would like to believe….swear words are an example of this change in the meaning of words.
There are many schools/dojos that are trying bring back the idea of koryu jutsu – “old school technique”.
This is a welcome shift for me personally, but I believe not many people seem to grasp its full nuance, or even care about it.
The original script in which these words were written gave the words a deeper meaning. The complex characters – words in Japanese kanji and Chinese pinyin – portray a complex meaning that is often missed in translation.
Translation often makes a very complex concept simple.
Japanese cultural norms don’t seem to have the relevance that they once did. The code of Bushido, bowing, or even sitting on your knees (seiza) while listening to instruction, are rituals that are practiced less and less.
The old rituals from the ancient Japanese class structure have been broken down.
I believe the concepts from the code of Bushido – justice, courage, compassion, respect, integrity, honor, loyalty and self control, could teach us all something. But they are falling out of fashion.
When you are teaching people to seriously hurt or kill another human being these concepts should be in the forefront of your mind.
But that’s just me.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the words Jutsu and Do mean different things.
One is about pure martial technique and the other leans into personal development.
These words have traveled around the world they have lost some of their meaning.
If you choose – Jutsu and Do can make a difference in the way you visualise your art.
Intent is a more important concept than most people think. It is a concept that is being learned about and studied in modern sport science.
I can’t tell you that Jutsu schools are better than Do schools, or vica versa. There are excellent schools of both
I am not implying one or the other is better, just different. We all study the martial arts for our own reasons.
The great martial arts pioneers understood the world was changing. Moreover they understood that the martial arts also needed to change to keep relevant in a modern more peaceful society.
I believe this is why the wording changed.
It often doesn’t feel like it, but we live in one of the most peaceful times the world has seen, statistically.
Martial art has been changed by martial sport, just as Ju Jutsu was changed by Judo.
In saying this I don’t believe one is superior to the other, they are just different ways of seeing a very similar thing.
Many of the old schools that used the term Jutsu, informed and sometimes became, the schools that used Do as their identifier.
Learning pure, brutal martial technique or learning to live in peace and harmony in line with the ‘way’, should not be mutually exclusive.
As Sensei Enkamp says – “self protection was replaced by self perfection”, maybe this is an idea more people could take on.
Personally, I teach Karate Jutsu….but I try to live Karate Do
conclusion of the conclusion
I have been wanting to write a piece for ages that went something like –
“young loud mouth alphas on the internet stop fucking putting down other peoples martial arts you small minded c….”
I wanted to say these masters were masters, no need to put them down, they did what they did in their own time periods.
But as I researched and wrote this – with this kind of theme in mind, I had an epiphany myself. Martial arts changes and grows, changes and grows.
The simple truths are often the best truths.
What is ‘the best martial art ever‘ changes, grows and moves…it has to, or it will be left behind, relegated to the pages of history….and even then, time affects everything.
What was the best thing in the UFC in the early ’90s would get dominated now by what MMA has become – that’s just 30 years.
What I learn and teach now is nothing like what I started 44 year ago, in fact its not even the same as when I started at Bushin Ryu 30 years ago, and I’m not doing what I was doing 10 years ago.
BJJ – IS the best Ne Waza around at the moment, no doubt no argument. Is it the best martial art ever??? NO…but only because there is no such thing.
Is Danaher teaching the same as he was taught?? New wave jujutsu has moved on, it has been refined. DDS was everything a few short years ago, then L Giles turned up from Australia, then Ruotolo Bothers, then Mikey Musumeci…on and on into the future.
We are part of a martial arts continuum.
People study martial arts for many different reasons, some for combat, some for self realisation, some just for fitness and health.
BJJ inspired me to get better on the ground. Fuji Ryu Jujitsu grew my understanding of standing grapple and take downs. Bruce Lees science taught me to be faster. Aikijitsu taught me flow. TKD taught a young body to kick…kickboxing, boxing, kyusho…on and on, made me the martial artist I am today.
It all informed the martial art I do now – Bushin Ryu Bujutsu-kai….BUSHIN JUTSU.
I hope you ALL grow in your martial art. After the competition years I hope you carry on doing martial arts. I hope it moves you and grows you – as a martial artist AND a human.
USU Simon
Next time – Kyusho