Jo (weapon)

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

The jo is still used by some Japanese police forces.

The techniques for jo 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 ryu because of Gonnosuke's previous training under Sakurai Osuminokami Yoshikatsu of the Shinto ryu.

The school he founded to transmit his technqiues 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.

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-ryu, was probably the first known professional school that dedicated itself to the art of using a jo against a swordsman.

Several traditional Japanese koryu (traditional warrior styles) used the jo like a sword. The added length of the jo was meant to give it an advantage over the sword. Further, its wood construction allowed a fighter to improvise a jo quickly from a tree, branch, or other pole.

Those who believe most martial arts devices used as weapons arose from commonly used implements believe that the jo arose from poles used to bolt doors.

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Jo (weapon)

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