''Ikkaku-ryū juttejutsu'' () is a school of

juttejutsu is the Japanese martial art of using the Japanese weapon ''jitte'' (also known as ''jutte'' in English-language sources). Jittejutsu was evolved mainly for the law enforcement officers of the Edo period to enable non-lethal disarmament and app ...

(or jittejutsu) that, as the equivalent to its sister variant Chūwa-ryū tankenjutsu (中和流短剣術), is taught alongside traditional school (''

ko-ryū is a Japanese term for any kind of Japanese school of traditional arts. The term literally translates as "old school" (''ko''—old, '' ryū''—school) or "traditional school". It is sometimes also translated as "old style". Martial Arts It ...

'') of

Japanese martial arts Japanese martial arts refers to the variety of martial arts native to the country of Japan. At least three Japanese terms (''budō'', ''bujutsu'', and ''bugei'') are used interchangeably with the English phrase Japanese martial arts. The usage ...

Shintō Musō-ryū , most commonly known by its practice of '' jōdō'', is a traditional school ('' koryū'') of the Japanese martial art of '' jōjutsu'', or the art of wielding the short staff (''jō''). The technical purpose of the art is to learn how to defea ...

. It is composed of 24 forms (''

kata ''Kata'' is a Japanese word ( 型 or 形) meaning "form". It refers to a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements made to be practised alone. It can also be reviewed within groups and in unison when training. It is practised ...

'') divided into two series. It was created by the third Shintō Musō-ryū (SMR) Headmaster, Matsuzaki Kinu'emon Tsunekatsu in the late 17th century.Matsui, Kenji. 1993. ''The History of Shindo Muso Ryu Jojutsu'', translated by Hunter Armstrong (Kamuela, HI: International Hoplological Society) Ikkaku-ryū juttejutsu utilizes the

jutte A is a specialized weapon that was used by police in Edo period Japan (1603 – 1868). History In feudal Japan, it was a crime punishable by death to bring a sword into the ''shōgun''s palace. This law applied to almost everyone, including the ...

as a way of self-defense for use against an attacker armed with a

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

(katana).

History

The original tradition of Ikkaku-ryū did not specialize in the jutte, but was a system of seizing/capturing arts (''toritejutsu'') with the jutte being one of several weapons and skills used. These weapons and arts included the war-fan (''tessen''), grappling (''jujutsu''), short-stick (''tebō'') and short-sword (''kodachi''). Originally the complete Ikkaku-ryū was taught in the ''New Just'' (Shintō) Musō-ryū branch and the Ten'ami-ryū as an arresting/seizing-system for the local security force of the Kuroda domain. After the Meiji-restoration the two largest surviving branches of the Kuroda-no-jo tradition, Jigyo and Haruyoshi -branches of ''New Just'' (Shintō) Musō-ryū, was merged and streamlined into what would become the modern day ''Way of the Gods'' (Shintō) Musō-ryū system led by Shiraishi Hanjiro. Of the original seizing-arts of the Ikkaku-ryū only the jutte and tessen arts was incorporated into the new system.

The Jutte and tessen

The (''jutte'') is a

baton Baton may refer to: Stick-like objects *Baton, a type of club *Baton (law enforcement) *Baston (weapon), a type of baton used in Arnis and Filipino Martial Arts *Baton charge, a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people *Baton (conductin ...

made of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

with a small tine or prong fitted just above the handle. The gripspace of the handle is wrapped with a cord that hangs down from underneath the handle with a tassle at the end. The jutte was mainly used by police-forces of the Edo-period of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and is known to have had over 200 variations.: Krieger, Pascal - ''Jodô - la voie du bâton / The way of the stick'' (bilingual French/English), Geneva (CH) 1989, Ikkaku-ryū fields a truncheon about 45 cm in length with a weight of about 550

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...

s. It has a smooth shaft ending in a handle wrapped in a coloured cord ending with a hanging tassel. A small tine is attached just above the grip. Originally the colour of the wrapping-cord indicated the social level of the wielder. The original design of the Ikkaku-ryū jutte had a

hexagonal In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...

shaft cross-section with the tine attached to one of the corners instead of the flat surface. The inside of the tine was also sharpened which enabled the wielder to use it for cutting if applicable. The fan (''tessen'') used in Ikkaku-ryū is about 30 cm in length. The fan was designed to look like a regular folding-fan carried by samurai and other nobles in the samurai-era when they did not have access to their swords. These special tessens were in some cases either made totally of iron or had iron-edges thus enabling it to be a small self-defence weapon if required.

Jutte methods

Ikkaku-ryū applies the jutte, either alone or in tandem with the tessen, in response of an attack made by a swordsman armed with a

katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...

. The jutte is made of iron and it can block and parry swordattacks either on its own or in tandem with the tessen. The jutte can be used to catch a sword between the main shaft and the tine thus controlling the sword or even snapping it in two if applicable. After deflecting or avoiding the sword, the wielder gets within arms-length of the opponent in order to successfully strike at any part of the opponents body such as hands, wrists and head.

Training

The jutte is for the most part taught only to advanced students who have achieved a high level of proficiency in the Shinto Muso-ryu Jodo forms, though the level required is not standardized and different Jodo-organisations have different requirements. Modern exponents of Ikkaku-ryū normally use all-wooden weapons in order to reduce risk of injuries during training, though this is heavily dependent on which Jodo-organisation he/she belongs to. In some groups, when a student has attained the necessary level of skill, the wooden-jutte is replaced by a real one made of metal, and the attackers wooden-sword is replaced by a metal non-sharpened sword (''

iaitō The is a modern metal practice sword, without a cutting edge, used primarily for practicing iaido, a form of Japanese swordsmanship. Other Japanese swords A real (sharp) katana is called a . In contrast to shinken, iaitō have no cutting edge ...

''). The tessen is normally made of wood for safety-reasons even in advanced levels as the tessen is discarded in some of the forms and can present a risk when thrown.

Ikkaku-ryū jutte forms

The modern Ikkaku-ryū system fields 24 training-forms (''kata'') divided between 2 series called ''Omote'' and ''Ura''. Some of the kata uses a war fan (''Tessen'') in tandem with the jutte. The forms of the ''Omote'' and ''Ura''-series share the same name but are different in application. Omote series # ''Uken'' (右劍) # ''Saken'' (左劍) # ''Zanken'' (殘劍) # ''Keageken'' (蹴上劍) # ''Ichiranken'' (一亂劍) # ''Irimiken'' (入身劍) # ''Ippuken'' (一風劍) # ''Meateken'' (目當劍) # ''Utoken'' (右刀劍) # ''Gorinken'' (五輪劍) # ''Isseiken'' (一聲劍) # ''Kasumiken'' (霞劍) Ura series * (''Identical names and number of forms as the Omote-series'') # ''Uken'' (右劍) # ''Saken'' (左劍) # ''Zanken'' (殘劍) # ''Keageken'' (蹴上劍) # ''Ichiranken'' (一亂劍) # ''Irimiken'' (入身劍) # ''Ippuken'' (一風劍) # ''Meateken'' (目當劍) # ''Utoken'' (右刀劍) # ''Gorinken'' (五輪劍) # ''Isseiken'' (一聲劍) # ''Kasumiken'' (霞劍)

References