History of Shintō Musō-ryū

The art was created with the purpose of defeating a swordsman in combat using the jō, with an emphasis on proper distance, timing and concentration.

c. 1605, dates of birth and death unknown) in the early Edo period (1603–1868) and, according to legend,[1][2] first put to use in a duel with Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵, 1584–1645).

The relatively peaceful Edo period took away the means of the samurai to fully develop and test their skills in actual battlefield combat.

One of the men who went on a warrior's pilgrimage (musha shugyō) was Musō Gonnosuke, a samurai with considerable martial arts experience.

Gonnosuke used his training in the arts of the sword (kenjutsu), glaive (naginatajutsu), spear (sōjutsu), and staff (bōjutsu), which he acquired from his studies in Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū[4] and Kashima Jikishinkage-ryū, to develop a new way of handling the jō in combat.

[1][6] His experiences, which would climax in his duels with the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, led him to create a set of techniques for the jō and establish a new school which he named Shintō Musō-ryū.

One of several legends states that after his defeat Gonnosuke withdrew to the Homan-zan mountain in the northern part of Kyushu, spent his days meditating and training, and underwent austere religious rituals.

[7] While resting near a fire in a certain temple, Gonnosuke heard a voice say "Be mindful of the strategy 'the moon reflected in the water' (suigetsu)".

[1] After Gonnosuke's death, his jōjutsu would become a closely guarded secret (oteme-waza) of the Kuroda clan, and forbidden to be taught anywhere but within its domain and only to specially selected people within the warrior-class.

For example, in the 17th century, the Kage-ryū school of swordsmanship (battōjutsu) [3], used swords which were longer than the length legally permitted by the Tokugawa shogunate.

Since these longer swords were forbidden by the government, Kage-ryū went "underground" [4], but was kept active in strict secrecy until the Meiji Restoration hundreds of years later.

[1] The primary reason for this branching, though indirectly, was the result of a restructuring of the living and training quarters of the warriors at the Chikuzen castle.

The low-ranking foot soldiers (ashigaru) and the junior officers (kashi) were relocated to two separate areas of Fukuoka, partially due to the difference in the social status of the two groups.

[1] These new branches, jigyo and haruyoshi, were a reality by the early 19th century, but even though separate, all three lines appear to have been very similar in terms of techniques.

During this era many of the old bushi (Samurai warriors of all ranks) had no choice but to abandon the old (and considered by most of the Japanese population of the time to be all but obsolete) martial arts altogether.

During this transition period and beyond, various groups of former Kuroda bushi held sporadic meetings and training sessions in memory of the now bygone era.

Due to newfound cooperation between the surviving SMR-lineages there were several joint-licenses of the Haruyoshi and Jigyo-branches of SMR issued in the late 19th century.

By the end of the Meiji era, (1912), only Shiraishi was still active as a fully qualified exponent and dedicated teacher of the last two remaining Kuroda Jō lineages.

Sometime in the late 19th century, Shiraishi started learning the art of Kusarigama (chain and sickle weapon) as taught by the Isshin-ryū tradition.

[1] In the early 20th century Uchida Ryogoro arrived in Tokyo and set up shop, teaching jōjutsu to high-rankers in the Japanese society at the time.

Shimizu Takaji was born in 1897 and came from humble origins, his family descending from a line of village headmen and minor officials.

He took inspiration from Jigoro Kanos new Judo organisation and training-methods in order to, among other things, develop the twelve basic techniques kihon which would make SMR more appealing and approachable to the beginner-student.

With the end of World War II in 1945, many martial arts were banned by the new government for fear that they might be used by ultra-nationalistic groups as a way to cause civil unrest.

From the end of the Samurai reign in 1877 to the early 20th century, SMR was still largely confined, (though slowly spreading), to Fukuoka city on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu where the art first was created and thrived.

With Shimizus death Otofuji were not in a strong enough position to claim complete authority over the SMR-community and no sort of agreement could be made over who should formally succeed Shimizu.

One of the first worldwide organisations was the "International Jôdô Federation" (IJF), founded by martial artist Donald "Donn" Draeger (1922–1982) and Shimizu Takaji in the 1970s with the aim of spreading SMR beyond the Japanese boundaries.

Donn Draeger was a US Captain of the United States Marine Corps who had trained in the martial arts since boyhood, first in his native country then during the 1950s and onward in Japan.

Krieger started training Jodo under Shimizu Takaji in the late 1960s and introduced the tradition to his native country in the early 1970s.

In November 1979 "Helvetic Jôdô Association" was created with its headquarters in Geneva, and many new students started to arrive regularly to Geneve for training.

The new organisation quickly grew beyond its boundaries and taking on a multi-border role with many of the qualified teachers returning to their homecountries and establishing new SMR-groups.