Hi all,

I am looking for a japanese Jiujitsu school in or near Central New Jersey. Any recommendations? Any japanese jiujitsu school in the area will he good. Also I just had two questions about the style. Does it include any weapons, such as swords, ( more specifically double swords). Lastly, does it have any strikes in the style like punches, kicks, or palm strikes. Also what is Aiki-jujitsu all about?

Any response is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Eric

There is no such thing as "japanese jiujitsu", in Japan it's jujutsu.
The are only two legitimate japanese jujutsu schools outside Japan. One is in England and the other one is in Australia, both are of the Tenshin Shinyo Ryu. Both schools have instructors that hold Menkyo certifications awarded to them in Japan.
Any other outfit that calls itself "jiujitsu" or "jujitsu" is not japanese and has no connection with any legitimate jujutsu systems there.
The japanese art of the sword is called kendo and there are other arts for each individual weapons.
I would beware of any unarmed martial art that also teaches weapons, since teaching the use of a weapon no longer makes it an unarmed martial art. So if you want to learn the sword, I suggest you look for kendo lessons.
I would also beware of anyone advertising "aiki-jutsu" or anything of the sort, probably absolutelly no links to Japan at all. Look for aikido instead.
In central NJ you should look to Cramford Judo Club, the instructor there is a 9th dan in judo and also holds high rank in karatedo, plus was a sumo champion in Japan.

Whereabouts in Central Jersey are you? I live in Monmouth County.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any schools in the area that teach (or claim to teach) classical Jujutsu.

Kodokanjudo's suggestion of Cranford Judo Club is absolutely a good one, though it might be a tad far north, if you're from around the same area as me. Shore Thing Judo is over in Lakewood, as well, and there's also the Toms River Judo Club.

There are also several very good Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools in the area. I train at Kurt Pellegrino's MMA, in Belmar. There's a great new school opening in Red Bank soon called The Grapplers' Guide Academy, run by my former coach Jason Scully. There are plenty more great schools around, too.

--Joe

That is so wrong on so many fronts, I am not trying to be insulting, but as a Jujutsuka, who studies both an Americanized Japanese based art and a true Japanese Aiki Jujutsu system (11 years in both, 4th Dan in the Americanized system) I wont let Judoka and Aikidoka define us, to many JJ schools played the "secret art, keep it under wraps" crap for too long and now we get defined by one of our better offshots (Judo) one of our great, but narrowly focused offshots (BJJ) and our worse (Aikido).
Some of us are out to put this back into the light.

#1 There are indeed more Japanese Jujutsu schools in the US. we use the term Japanese Jujutsu to differentiate between Comprehensive JJ and BJJ. Yes there are far more Jujutsu schools who are Japanese based Americanized systems than true Japanese associations, but Tenshin Shinyo Ryu is not the only one, Ellis Amdur teaches Araki Ryu in Washington as one example of a Japanese JJ school, (a Koryu to boot.) There is also Technouchi Ryu (spell?) and there are several school for it in the US and Canada.

#2 I do Aiki Jujutsu, Daito Ryu Kodo Kai, headquartered in Hokkado Japan, and you tell this guy there is no Akiki Jujutsu, go look for Aikido? That's even further from the mark, Jujutsu is an Art of War, Aikido is a way of peace and harmony, that a few can actually fight with. Big differences in technique, application and mindset.

#3 There is more than Kendo (a sport), there is Kenjutsu, Iaido, BattoJutsu and there are instructors of these arts in the US.

#4 You give him the name of a Judo/Karate Instructor instead of what he asked for. Judo and Karate are great but he wants JJJ.

To the OP,
I look into and see if I can find anyone up there for you. Goldberg is in Conn but I thin he knows some guys in Jersey. Yes JJJ is harder to find, very few Dojo's are set up as commercial establishments, lots of Dojos do not advertise and are somewhat clanish, it took me years to find what I do now.

My email is martialstrength@gmail.com, ping me in a few days if I have not come up with some info here.

Shugyo!

Dylan

Some JJJ schools teach weapons, the best ones are systems that have several Jutsu's as part of a larger art and is a Koryu, Technouchi Ryu comes to mind there. I do agree with Kodokanjudo that alot of schools that teach swords are mucking around and not doing anything real with them.

Our school does not teach sword or anyother midevil weapons, we teach knife, stick, garrote, improvissed weapons and wepons retention and defense as going down the street with a Katana kind of gets you noticed.

As for strikes, some styles of Jujutsu have alot of them, and some seem to not teach them at all.
In the 2 styles we do, the Americanized uses simple strikes (Palms, elbows, knifehands, headbutts, knees, low kicks and stomps, along with gouges and tearing. Daito Ryu has a good deal of Atemi (strikes) as well, but it's in conjunction with other waza as oppossed to kick, punch, grab, throw.

AikiJujutsu in some ways is hard to define, you even have some people who claim to do it say "It's jujutsu done hard!" wich is one thing it is most certianly not.
It's the blending of higher sensativity and some say Ki into techniques. Lots of techniques where you dont grab the attacker, you blend and use friction. There are lots of techniques where you are seized and you lock up their bodies. It's easier to show you than to tell you, even after 11 years I am hard pressed to easily define it. You could think of it like what you see in Aikido, but the circles are tighter, lots of lock up and then drop them strait down stuff as oppossed to throwing them in a big arc like Aikido. Then there is the proper emotion and mindset, wich is contemptuous towrds your enemy, in the "How dare you assult me worm!" kind of samurai vibe, while not being dehumanizing or underestimating your opponent. It's also about not just taking your attacker down, but punishing him with high levels of pain.

If you ever find yourself in Northern Va, we would love to have you come to the mats and try it out.

Shugyo!

Dylan

Many of the 'koryu jujutsu' were actually 'sogo bujutsu' that included lots of weapons, even improvised weapons from household and agricultural implements.

There are some koryu jujutsu styles that have legitimate instructors overseas, but they're few and far between. And almost every single one AFAIK teaches weapons, up through and including swords, spears, naginata, short swords, bo, jo, hanbo, and a ton of other nasty bits. I practice a couple myself, but even in Tokyo where I live among around 37 million people, some of the genuine koryu jujutsu styles are only practiced by a mere handful of people.

They include, but surely are not limited to:
Arakiryu (but formally known as a 'kempo' ryu)
Takeuchiryu (sometimes known as Takenouchiryu)
Tenjin Shinyo ryu (don't know specifically about weapons in this style)
Yagyu Shingan ryu
Daitoryu

There are also a couple of modern, 'gendai jujutsu' styles taught by advanced students overseas, I don't know of one near you. They also use small weapons, including techniques against staffs, etc.
Nihon Jujutsu
Daiwado ryu
maybe Yoseikan aikido ?(OK, sort of jujutsu, but uses a variety of kit AFAIK)

There are tons more where people have simply made up Japanese sounding names, stolen the name, or decided they were qualified to teach without permission after just a few years of practice, or all of the above.


Kano shihan himself famously described jujutsu as below:


http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=414 (full article at this link)
"The Old Samurai Art Of Fighting Without Weapons
Part 1 - Origins

By Jigaro Kano
Translated by Rev. T. Lindsay, April 18, 1888

Submitted by Stan Hart

Editor’s Note: This is the first part of an article originally written by Jigaro Kano, the founder of modern Judo (Jiudo). Part 1 investigates the origin of Jiujutsu (Jujutsu). There is also a glossary provided by Stan Hart, who translated the Japanese Kanji (characters) used in the original text. Part 2 discusses various schools and relates some stories about old Jiujtsu masters. The romanization of Japanese words that appear in this article are based upon the spellings used in England at the time the article was written.

In feudal times in Japan, there were various military arts and exercises by which the Samurai classes were trained and fitted for their special forms of warfare.

Among these was the art of Jiujutsu (1), from which the present Jiudo (2) has sprung up. The word Jiujutsu may be translated freely as the art of gaining victory by yielding or pliancy. Originally, the name seems to have been applied to what may best be described as the art of fighting without weapons, although in some cases short weapons were used against opponents fighting with long weapons.
........"

www.e-budo.com has a lot of Japan-based practitioners of these styles if you're after the real thing, maybe someone can steer you in the right direction. This is, after all, a judo forum

Banzai,

Sorry for intervening in something that is not of my concern but I believe that the previous message was correct: japanese base americanized jujutsu is by no means japanese jujutsu,just like an american german shepard is no a german shepard! yes they might look alike but the american german shepard is not a german shepard just like a ford mustang shelby is not a ferrari no matter how much they both are sport cars.
If we keep accepting water-down styles of originals we end up with nothing or crap at best,is better to make-up your mind over the fact that if you don't have money to travel to japan and train in a real ryu you have to chose to train in some other art, and what is so wrong with judo anyways.Oh I see maybe the overall low quality of the majority of instructors in the USA. My suggestion try with a Russian or maybe Cuban JUDO instructor they seem to win a lot at world and pam-am games.
Ahh!! who cares do whatever you want kid,I am wasting my time...OSU

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your response. I live in Marlboro New Jersey. So basically the american based japanese jujitsu schools are crap I assume right? I hear a lot about Judo. So what's judo basically all about? Also are the aikido schools in America the real thing or is it some crappy imitation?

Regards,
Eric

It all depends on what you are interested in learning.

If you really want a style with Striking and Weapons work, you might find Judo, BJJ, and Aikido somewhat lacking. However, if you're looking for a strong martial art that has both Sport and self-defense applications, then I can't recommend Judo highly enough. If you're looking to find a school that will prepare you for mixed martial arts fights, I'd point you in the direction of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Judo and BJJ are both Grappling arts. In a vastly oversimplified summary of the two, Judo focuses heavily on throwing your opponent, while BJJ focuses heavily on wrestling your opponent on the ground.

--Joe