Jo (weapon)

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A jō (杖:じょう) is an approximately four-foot (1.28 m) long wooden staff, used in some Japanese martial arts. The martial art of wielding the jō is called jōjutsu or jōdō; aiki-jō is a set of techniques in aikido which uses the jō to illustrate aikido's principles with a weapon. The jō staff is shorter than the bō.

The jō is still used by some Japanese police forces.

1 Historical/Legendary Anecdotes
2 References
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] Historical/Legendary Anecdotes

The techniques for jō 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-ryū because of Gonnosuke's previous training under Sakurai Osuminokami Yoshikatsu of the Shinto-ryū.^{[citation needed]}

The school he founded to transmit his techniques 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. ^{[citation needed]}

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-ryū, was probably the first known professional school that dedicated itself to the art of using a jō against a swordsman. ^{[citation needed]}

Several traditional Japanese koryū (traditional warrior styles) used the jō like a sword. The added length of the jō was meant to give it an advantage over the sword. Further, its wood construction allowed a fighter to improvise a jō quickly from a tree, branch, or other pole.^{[citation needed]}

Those who believe most martial arts devices used as weapons arose from commonly used implements believe that the jō arose from poles used to bolt doors.^{[citation needed]}