“maruki wo motte, suigetsu wo shire“
ZNKR Jodo
ipponme (Tsuki Zue)
nihonme (Suigetsu)
sanbonme (Hissage)
yonhonme (Shamen)
gohonme (Sakan)
ropponme (Monomi)
nanahonme (Kasumi)
hachihonme (Tachi Otoshi)
kyuhonme (Rai Uchi)
jupponme (Seigan)
jūipponme (Midare Dome)
jūnihonme (Ran Ai)
The thing about fabled martial artists is that for the most part they are just that… fabled. Little is known about them that could be described as historically accurate fact. Muso Gonnosuke is certainly no exception to that; and may even exemplify the statement.
Gonnosuke was born into a samurai family in the latter 1,500’s. He was an accomplished martial artist and had studied a variety of weapons. Eventually he achieved teaching rank in Katori Shintō-ryū. Whilst not a Ronin per se, he did go on the road, wandering the land teaching some people, and engaging in duels with others. This practice was a relatively common one at the time and allowed him to practice his craft, hone his skills and of course learn new ones.
Admittedly many of you may not have heard of Gonnosuke, but I’ll wager that a good number will have heard of Miyamoto Musashi. Arguably the most recognized Japanese swordsman in common circles. Even the business world of the current era has cashed in on Musashi.
Musashi however, was a ronin, also wandering the land and also engaging in duels. And according to legend was never bested in over 60 encounters. It may have been inevitable that Gonnosuke and Musashi met; on one and possibly two occasions. There are several accounts of the first engagement.
One has Gonnosuke arrogantly and brusquely challenging Musashi with a Bo, a weapon at which Gonnosuke was very accomplished in using. Musashi using his two sword x-block handily caught the Bo in such a way that prevented Gonnosuke from disengaging without the risk of a fatal counterattack from Musashi. Musashi at this point (I suppose graciously) spared his life.
Another version of this encounter has Gonnosuke challenging Musashi with a Bokuto, and armed only with a willow stick he happened to be holding Musashi soundly defeated him with a single stroke whereupon Gonnosuke immediately conceded defeat.
A third account has Musashi using a half carved Bokuto that he was working on at the time. He tapped Gonnosuke lightly on the forehead thus displaying the superiority of his stance and distancing.
Does the tale end here? Of course not! Gonnosuke did what every self-respecting legendary martial artist would do…he secluded himself at a Shinto shrine where he meditated, practiced relentlessly, and performed purifying rituals, until after a period of time he collapsed from exhaustion and had a vision of a childlike divine being who enlightened him with “know the solar plexus of your opponent with a round stick”
This led Gonnosuke to shortening the length of the standard Bo to a length of four shaku, two sun and one bu (or approximately 128cm). This greatly increased the versatility and usefulness of the staff. It now allowed Bo, spear, and sword methods to be applied using a single weapon. Several key benefits are that the Jo is longer than a standard sword, yet short enough for both ends of it to be used in close combat. All of this resulted in Gonnosuke developing a new style that he named Shintō Musō-ryū.
With his new weapon and skills perfected Gonnosuke apparently sought out Musashi for a rematch. This time around when Musashi used his trademark jūji-dome block Gonnosuke was able to quickly reverse the other end of the Jo thus forcing Musashi into a situation where he had to forfeit. Arrogant though he was, and perhaps because of that, Gonnosuke returned the prior civility and spared Musashi’s life.
It is unclear that any of these duels actually took place. Obviously proponents of Jodo and Jojutsu believe that Gonnosuke did fight with Musashi at least one time, and that he defeated Musashi. Just as obviously the descendants of Nito Ryu believe that Musashi retired from swordsmanship undefeated. One tale also has Gonnosuke and Musashi becoming friends and travelling together.
The only thing for certain is that we still have several prominent schools of Jodo extant today. So, how did that come about? At some point Gonnosuke got a gig as martial arts instructor to the Kuroda Samurai clan. The Shindo Muso-ryu became an exclusive practice of this family for many generations to come. It passed through many masters until it reached the modern era. Shiraishi Hanjiro was the 24th headmaster and died in the Spring of 1927. Thereafter some splintering took place. Shimizu Takaji was a student of Shiraishi and was eventually considered the 25th headmaster although since his death in 1978 a successor has not been named. Shimizu brought Jodo to Tokyo and taught it to several groups there including the police. He realized that some changes were needed to make the art more accessible to the modern era, and the common man, so among other changes he introduced the 12 kihon, or basic elements.
It should be noted that although we have been using the term Jodo rather loosely that the correct terminology up to this point should be Jojutsu. Jojutsu being more of the combative aspect of the art. It was actually Shimizu that was responsible for coining the use of Jodo in order to reflect a more spiritual and philosophical practice in addition to the important martial roots. This change did not take place until 1965.
The ZNKR also adopted Jodo as a discipline and shares much of same kihon and waza as the original Shindo Muso-ryu, although there are some differences that have been influenced by modern Kendo.
In the ZNKR version there are 12 kata, and 12 kihon. Ten of the kata are from the first three levels of the Shindo Muso-ryu thought to best represent the style. Two were developed specifically for the ZNKR Seitei Jodo. Shimizu was also (along with a committee) responsible for the development of this for the ZNKR