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- From: toman@darkwing.uoregon.edu (Joseph Toman)
- Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
- Subject: Re: Aikido : jo vs. spear
- Message-ID: <1992Nov18.025134.12061@nntp.uoregon.edu>
- Date: 18 Nov 92 02:51:34 GMT
- Article-I.D.: nntp.1992Nov18.025134.12061
- References: <1992Nov17.184646.11795@cs.brown.edu>
- Sender: news@nntp.uoregon.edu
- Organization: University of Oregon Network Services
- Lines: 29
-
- In article <1992Nov17.184646.11795@cs.brown.edu> tac@cs.brown.edu (Ted A. Camus) writes:
- >
- > There is something I have always wondered about the jo. Biographies of
- > O'Sensei note that he studied Hozoin ryu spear, but not the jo (although
- > there is mention of Daito-ryu "stick fighting"). When we study aikijo,
- > are we really imitating the movements of a spear rather than a jo, just
- > as a bokken is not a bokken but a katana?
- Harumphh! Just another data point, when we study bokken, it's about
- 70% blunt impact weapon and 30% pretend edged weapon.
-
- I don't know a lot about jo, the only jo form I knew I forced myself
- to forget so I could learn a very similar bo form. I do know that when
- we practice bo, which was what O-Sensei was doing before jo (I think),
- the bo forms I know would be pointless if one end didn't have an edgy
- bit on it. Actually, if you remember that he was about 5'3" or so (given
- he hadn't been hanging himself upside down from a tree :), the difference
- between jo and bo start to blur. Maybe the average American aikidoka is
- actually studying han-bo ;-) .
-
- > In aikijo kata we have far
- > fewer end-reversals than in jodo kata, to the extent that one might
- > suspect that they were just thrown in at some point (of course unlike
- > the jo the spear is asymmetric, one would rarely if ever want to reverse
- > the position of the spear head). Comments??
-
- ??? A reverse tsuki with the butt of the weapon is a common move in our
- forms. Why do you think it wouldn't be useful ?
-
- J. Toman
-