Weapons in TJR jujutsu overview
TJR deals with unarmed defences against various weapons as well
as the use of various weapons. The use of weapons forms a
crucial part of the TJR syllabus. The main weapons used
are:
- Tanbo (short stick or baton);
- Hanbo (walking stick);
- Jo (4 foot stick);
- Jujutsu stick (yawara stick, pocket stick or
kubotan);
- Sword (bokken or wooden sword);
- Manriki kusari (weighted chain).
It is important to know how weapons are regulated. In
Western Australia (as in many other jurisdictions) there is
legislation directly dealing with weapons in general and martial
art weapons in particular. See the discussion of the Weapons
Act.
Overview of weapon syllabus
The use of weapons in the syllabus occurs in the more senior
grades. From and including second kyu, there is a section in
each grade dealing with various weapons. Students are
encouraged to commence training weapons before they reach those
grades. In fact, after fifth kyu, students may grade the
weapon sections of higher grades. For instance, having graded
fifth kyu a student may grade the weapon part of second kyu
whenever they are ready.
The most important part of training in weapons is that the use
of the weapon is an extra level that is built upon the foundation
and underlying structure of the empty handed syllabus. This
is a significant matter.
Historically, traditional martial arts schools were "composite"
schools. They practiced warfare in all its forms. There
were sound practical reasons for this approach. Schools may
have had their specialities or things that they were well known
for, however, a sound working knowledge and understanding of all
weapons was essential for a warrior. Schools specializing in
individual weapons was a development that commenced in Japan in the
Tokugawa Period (1600-1868). This development is a topic
worthy of separate study.
The modern soldier is no different to what can be regarded as
the traditional samurai warrior, in so far as reliance on weapons
was concerned. It is the weapons that are the most important
part of their training. Soldiers work their way down from
their machine gun, assault rifle, sidearm, bayonet, trenching tools
and anything else they can lay their hands on, before resorting to
an unarmed combat as a last resort. The traditional samurai
warrior was the same. Archery, spear, sword and smaller
weapons all came before having to resort to unarmed combat.
When it comes to deciding upon a training regime and the
time that needs to be devoted to the various skills and weapons
that warriors (both past and present) must gain high levels of
skill, it is difficult to justify vast amounts of time being
devoted unarmed combat. This is perfectly
understandable. It is the same for elite military
forces. Overall, their training is more extensive and more
thorough in all areas, but still they have to prioritise their
time. Unarmed combat is generally perceived to be a low
priority. The result is that despite the hype that seems to
surround the unarmed combat of elite forces, they are not
necessarily the repository of particularly good unarmed combat
skills or knowledge. Further, the unarmed combat suitable for
military use diverges from the self defence requirements of
ordinary civilians; quite simply, the rules of engagement are
different.
Closer to the civilian context may be police forces.
However, police rely on a number of weapons and force options such
as side arms, batons, tasers, pepper sprays and the like. And
with the military, the allocation of training time to all the
facets of the work is a difficult task. Whenever, an issue
involving the police hits the media, usually, somewhere along the
line the suggestion is that their training in a particular area
should be increased. This is all very well, hoever, very
quickly the police would find themselves spending all of their time
training and not on the streets. For the same reasons, the
levels of unarmed combat or self defence skills in police forces is
generally found to be very limited.
The reason for diverging, is to explain that often the
development of unarmed combat for warriors, from whatever age, is
addressed from the perspective of coming downwards from weapon
arts. The result for unarmed combat is that the end product
is heavily influenced by the pathway to get there and the use of
primary methods of combat being the weapons. The civilian
context is different. The most important part is the unarmed
skills used in self defence. The use of weapons is more
remote in the civilian context, usually simply because of their
lack of availability at the appropriate time. The use of
weapons is therefore a lower priority in the self defence
context. Both the law and morality require proportionate
responses to an assault. Using a weapon may only be
appropriate in the more extreme circumstances. If a weapon is
held, there may have to be "soft" option chosen when deploying
it
The influence flows both ways. The use of weapons flows on
to the use of no weapons just as the use of no weapons flows on to
the use of weapons. However, it is the starting point that is
quite important. The starting point in the civilian context
is unarmed self defence and the methods that are used must allow
for the ease of building a weapon defence structure onto the
same methods used for unarmed self defence.
The modern civilian requirement of self defence is the starting
point of the use of voice, negotiating skills and then unarmed
self defence. If the situation warrants it, the use of a
weapon (if available) may be justified. The first rules here
is that anything available should be used as a weapon. It may
be anything in a person's grasp or within easy reach. It may
be any kind of ordinary everyday object. Movie buffs will
remember the fight scene in the apartment between Jason Bourne and
the assassin in the Bourne Identity! A good example of using
anything available as a weapon.
After learning the basics of unarmed self defence, the next
level is to train with some objects that are reasonably likely to
be available in everyday life. This is why, historically,
martial arts are full of farming implements and utensils of
everyday life that have been turned into weapons. Not
necessarily because of their innate design or functionality for the
purpose, but rather because they were simply available.
An example of this interaction of unarmed with armed self
defence is that the methods of foot movement to avoid attacks,
unbalancing to provide opportunities to counter can apply
consistently. The methods of movement to achieve this are
equally applicable to self defence without weapons as it is with
weapons. This is to be contrasted with, for instance, the
bobbing and weaving of a boxer which is appropriate for that
particular sporting situation, however, those methods do not lend
themselves to building a weapon system upon them. Of course
it will be said that boxing has a self defence application and it
does. However, its methods do not derive from weapons and do
not lend themselves to building a weapon capability upon the
structure of its methods. So whilst things may have self
defence applications, if they do not derive from a combat heritage,
extension to dealing with weapons (both the use of and defending
against) becomes difficult indeed without learning a new set of
methods.
Weapons training is an invaluable means of learning about
engagement intervals (maai), timing (hyoshi), lines and
trajectories of attack (hassuji), and movement (taisabaki).
These are aspects that translate directly into techniques used for
unarmed combat.
Often it is claimed in some martial arts that sticks and knives
are used in precisely the same way as the hands. Well, there
can certainly be some similarities. However, it is important
to understand the differences and what changes need to be made to
accommodate the unique aspects of each weapon. A simple
example of this is a thrusting strike with a fist and with a
knife. The hand is only a threat on the extension whilst the
knife is a threat both on the extension and the retraction.
This additional threat needs to be understood and addressed.
So the weapon system of TJR is constructed to be compatible with
the unarmed methods. It also helps to enhance the learning of
unarmed methods as it involves the application of consistent
methods already in place.
The next element is weapons being useful and practical for self
defence. This applies to all of the sticks as they (and close
substitutes) are a part of everyday existence. It does not
apply to the sword, but the sword has such an intimate connection
with jujutsu that it cannot be ignored. Some sword methods
have a closer connection to unarmed methods than others. Only
sword methods that have a high correlation to unarmed methods are
used in the system.
The teaching of bladed weapons is something that is approached
with some reticence. An edged weapon has potential for
considerable harm. The focus of the system is to defend
against aggressors armed with such weapons rather than actually
using them. However, in order to acquire good skills in
defence, training partners need to acquire some good skills in
learning to attack with and edged weapon. Training with edged
weapons is approached from this perspective.
The manriki kusari (weighted chain) is a more novel
weapon. It is a difficult weapon to master. Originally,
its primary purpose was to ensnare and allow the disarming of a
swordsman. In TJR it is used primarily for controlling
techniques. Possible everyday substitutes are ropes, belts
and dog leads.