Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

732 Wrestling and Grappling: Japan
Some of the schools have been overly influenced by aikidô and have
departed from the more brutal and devious combat techniques, and other
schools have gravitated toward sport to the point of facing off squarely to
an opponent like boxers or wrestlers and throwing people on their backs
so that they still have a fighting chance. This can be seen in the modern
Gracie Jiu-jitsu (spelling based on the one trademarked by this school) or
the Hawaiian Danzan-ryû jûjutsu.
Like jûjutsu, aikijutsu avoids meeting force directly. In the case of aikijutsu,
a defender strives to harmonize with aggression rather than either
opposing or yielding to it, as the label for the art—derived from ai (coordinated,
harmonized), ki (energy) jutsu (technique)—implies. Thus, aikijutsu
strives for blending with the force (at both the physical and psychic levels)
of the attacker. In practice, aikijutsu techniques have been described as utilizing
the mechanical model of the wheel against an opponent, in contrast to
jûjutsu or jûdô, which uses the lever as a model. In the context of his discussion
of the principles of jûdô and aikidô, John Donohue characterizes the
jûdô (and by implication the jûjutsu) strategy as making the attacker fall
over the defender’s body, while in aikidô (and aikijutsu) the defender leads
the attacker to fall around a focal point (e.g., a point of anatomical weakness).
The principle embodied in the method dates from the feudal period as
an element of various ryûha, as was the case with jûjutsu, although in its best
known modern guise of aikidô, the principle of aiki is most closely associated
with Daitô-ryû Aikijutsu through aikidô’s founder, Ueshiba Morihei.
Daitô-ryû, the system studied by Ueshiba before he went on to found aikidô,
has been claimed by its adherents to date back to the Kamakura period
(1185–1333) and is said to have been founded by Minamoto Yoshimitsu
(Yoshitsune). The interpretation of ki (in Chinese, qi [ch’i]) as intrinsic energy
and its use in a fashion reminiscent of the internal Chinese arts (e.g., taijiquan)
is a distinctive feature of aikijutsu and was emphasized (along with
a philosophy of harmonious conduct in general) in Ueshiba’s aikidô.
Just as the mainstream ryûha of the feudal period provided a vehicle
for the development and preservation of grappling principles that have
evolved into the contemporary cognate arts of aikidô and jûdô, ninjutsu
permitted the nurturing of similar skills in its pre-Tokugawa heyday and in
the modern revival attributed to Hatsumi Masaaki. Hatsumi is the head of
nine ryûha or martial traditions: Three are ninjutsu ryûha and six concern
other martial art traditions. Each school differs in ways from the others according
to the type of armor worn or weapons carried during the time of
its popularity. He inherited these schools from Takamatsu Toshitsugu, his
teacher. His interpretation of these schools is named the Bujinden or,
among the practitioners, Bujinkan budô taijutsu. The hombu (home dôjô)
is in Noda City, Japan.