A is an approximately

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

en staff, used in some

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 ...

. The martial art of wielding the jō is called ''jōjutsu'' or ''

jōdō , meaning "the way of the ''jō''", or is a Japanese martial art using a short staff called ''jō''. The art is similar to ''bōjutsu'', and is strongly focused upon defense against the Japanese sword. The ''jō'' is a short staff, usually a ...

''. Also, '' 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 A ''bō'' (棒: ぼう), ''bong'' (Korean), ''pang'' (Cantonese), ''bang'' (Mandarin), or ''kun'' (Okinawan) is a staff weapon used in Okinawa. ''Bō'' are typically around and used in Okinawan martial arts, while being adopted into Japanese ar ...

''. Today, the jō is still used by some Japanese police forces.

Legendary origin

The techniques for jō were reportedly invented by Musō Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi (夢想權之助勝吉,

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

c.1605, date of death unknown) after he was defeated by the famous swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵, 1584–1645). They fought each other in a duel sometime between 1608 and 1611, according to

Kenji Tokitsu is a Japanese author and practitioner of Japanese martial arts. Tokitsu has also written a scholarly work about the legendary swordsman Musashi Miyamoto. He holds doctorates in sociology and in Japanese language and civilization. Biography Ken ...

. The record mentioning this duel, the ''Nitenki'' (二天記), recounts:

When Musashi was in Edo, he met an adept named Musō Gonnosuke, who asked to fight him. Gonnosuke used a wooden sword. Musashi was in the process of making a small Bō; 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 ''Nitenki'' 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. The fight occurs in

Akashi Akashi may refer to: People *Akashi (surname) Places *Akashi, Hyōgo *Akashi Station, a Japanese railroad station on the Sanyō Main Line *Akashi Strait *Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, crossing the former *Akashi Castle *Akashi Domain * Akashi, the name ...

, not

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

, and Gonnosuke wields a staff four ''

shaku Shaku may refer to: * Shaku (unit) * Shaku (ritual baton) * Buddhist surname In East Asian Buddhism, monks and nuns usually adopt a Buddhist surname and a Dharma name, which are combined in the surname-first East-Asian naming order. Since the 4th c ...

'' in length and reinforced with steel rings. After his defeat, he then went to Mount Hōman-zan in Chikuzen ( near

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

), where he practiced considerably, changing his preferred weapon to four ''shaku'' and two ''sun'' in length - 1.27 meter as compared to 1.21 meter. This school was called the Shintō Musō-ryū because of Gonnosuke's previous training under Sakurai Osuminokami Yoshikatsu of the Shintō-ryū. 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,Hatsumi, Hatsumi and Chambers, Quinton (1971). Stick Fighting. Kodansha International Ltd., p. 9. as the vast majority of documentation states that Musashi was never defeated.

Subsequent history

Several traditional Japanese '' koryū'' ("old schools" of martial arts) 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.

Legendary origin

Subsequent history

See also

References

Further reading