, 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 defeat a swordsman in combat using the jō, with an emphasis on proper combative distance, timing and concentration. The system includes teachings of other weapon systems which are contained in Shintō Musō-ryū as auxiliary arts (Fuzoku ryuha). The school is sometimes abbreviated as SMR.

The art was founded by the samurai Musō Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi (夢想 權之助 勝吉, fl. c.1605, dates of birth and death unknown) in the early Edo period (1603–1868) and, according to legend, community, Shimizu spread Shintō Musō-ryū worldwide.

History

left|thumb|250px|[[Muso Gonnosuke|Musō Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi, founder of Shintō Musō-ryū (Image from the Buko Hyakunin Isshu)]]

According to its own history, Supposedly that was his inspiration to develop his new techniques and go fight Musashi a second time.

Gonnosuke used his training in kenjutsu, naginatajutsu, sōjutsu and bōjutsu, which he acquired in part from Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū

and Kashima Jikishinkage-ryū, to develop his art.

right|thumb|200px|[[Miyamoto Musashi wielding two wooden swords. The legend states that Musō Gonnosuke found a way to break Musashi's two-sword style of combat and defeat him.]]

Gonnosuke was said to have fully mastered the secret form called The Sword of One Cut (Ichi no Tachi), a form that was developed by the founder of the Kashima Shintō-ryū and later spread to other Kashima schools such as Kashima Jikishinkage-ryū and Kashima Shin-ryū. Gonnosuke developed several techniques for the jō that were to be used against an opponent armed with a sword, partially by using the superior length of the jō to keep the swordsman at a disadvantage. After the creation of his jō techniques and his establishment as a skilled jōjutsu practitioner he was invited by the Kuroda clan of Fukuoka, in northern Kyūshū, to teach his art to their warriors. The result was the Zen-Nihon Kendo Renmei Seitei Jōdō system consisting of twelve forms and twelve basic techniques. Ten of these forms are drawn from the existing Shintō Musō-ryū Jō forms with minor modifications, and two other forms were created specifically for Seitei Jōdō and based on Uchida-ryū Tanjō-jutsu forms. The latter forms are taught in various Shintō Musō-ryū dōjōs outside the main series of Kata.

Grades – new and classical

For many of the classical martial arts organizations the highest rank available is the "License of Complete Transmission" (Menkyo Kaiden) of the teachings of the system, and includes the technical as well as oral transmission. This rank is used in many classical martial arts of Japan. In SMR, a student considered for a Menkyo Kaiden must first attain the separate rank of Menkyo. This process will take many years, depending upon the skill, dedication and maturity of the student. Shimizu Takaji himself was issued his Menkyo Kaiden very early in his life in comparison to modern western standards, though he trained for several hours each day.

A person with a fully valid Menkyo Kaiden has the right to teach the art to whoever he or she chooses and also holds the right to issue scrolls of transmissions to his students. The Menkyo Kaiden holder may also, if he so chooses, implement modifications in the SMR system to techniques or kata. As Shintō Musō-ryū does not have a single organization with a single leader, these changes will only be relevant to that teacher's direct students, and will not be universal. Instead, every person who has been issued a Menkyo Kaiden can technically be described as teaching their own variation of the ryū, known as "ha". "Ha" is a variation of a martial arts system taught by a Menkyo Kaiden but is still a part of the main ryū. An example of this is the Ittō-ryū school of kenjutsu. After the first generation died out, the school transformed into the Ono-ha Ittō-ryū. However, if a Menkyo Kaiden decided to make radical changes to the system, such as adding or removing parts of the art, he would be departing from belonging to a ha, and in effect be creating a new style.

So far in the post Shimizu Takaji SMR history, there has been no organisation who has taken the "-ha" description for their respective new branch. Shimizu Takaji himself, who introduced a set of basic techniques (kihon), and even a new series of kata (Gohon no midare) to the SMR Jo system, did not name his expanded system as "Shimizu-ha Shinto Muso Jo".

There are five classical ranks in Shintō Musō-ryū, as follows in ascending order of seniority:

  • 1. The classical system of giving licenses of transmission: "Oku-iri", "Shomokuroku", "Gomokuroku", "Menkyo" and "Menkyo Kaiden".
  • 2. The dan/kyū system which is used in the majority of modern Japanese martial arts today.
  • 3. The "Shoden, Chūden and Okuden" ranks, put into effect by Donn F. Draeger and Pascal Krieger. It is used today by the International Jodo Federation and its sub-organisations including the European Jodo Federation.
Grades in the International Jōdō Association

The IJA follows the grading system used by Ichitarō Kuroda. Students grade up to 5th dan and thereafter receive licenses of transmission. Students must also grade with the Zen Nippon Kendō Renmei in the Seitei series of Kata.

  • 1. The classical system of giving licenses of transmission: "Oku-iri", "Shomokuroku", "Gomokuroku", "Menkyo" and "Menkyo Kaiden".
  • 2. The dan/kyu system. Grades are issued up to 5th dan.
Grades in the Nihon Jōdōkai

NJK was headed by Kaminoda Tsunemori and incorporates two separate grade-systems.

  1. The classical system of giving licenses of transmission: "Oku-iri", "Sho-mokuroku", "Go-mokuroku", "Menkyo" and "Menkyo Kaiden".
  2. A new system developed by Kaminoda Tsunemori's organization to replace the Dan/Kyū system. The new system involves three ranks in three jō-kata series, , and , after which the classical grade-system is used.

Ranks attainable in the Omote series:

Ranks attainable in the Chūdan series:

Ranks attainable in the Kage series:

Weapons and training gear

Jō – The staff

  • The jō is featured in several Japanese martial arts. For more information see the jō and Jodo articles.

center|A Jo made of red oak, approximately 128 cm long

The jō is a cylindrical wooden staff approximately 128 cm in length. In modern times, the measurements have been fixed at 128 cm in length and between 2.4 and 2.6 cm in width, though in the Edo-period the length of the jō was customized to suit the height of the wielder. The jō is used in several gendai and koryu martial arts, such as aikidō and Tendō-ryū.

The jō, like its larger sibling the Bō, was never an effective killing-weapon on the battlefield in comparison to the sword, spear, glaive and bow. Although the jō and most other staves could be used to lethal effect when thrust at vital points of the body, when faced with a fully armored opponent those vital points would in most cases be covered by armour-plating. As a result, there were very few ryu that were dedicated to the staff-arts in the warring era with other more effective weapons were available, but there are several ryu that include jō techniques in its system. One example is the jō-tradition found in the koryū art Tendō-ryū Naginatajutsu, founded in 1582. In Tendō-ryū, which uses the Naginata as the primary weapon, there are techniques with the jō that simulates a scenario where the naginata has been cut in two and the wielder has to defend himself with the staff-portion only. With the onset of peace with the start of the Edo-period (1603–1867), the conflicts with heavy armored warriors became a thing of the past. In this era, the jō art would come into its own against non-armored samurai, rōnin, bandits, and other opponents. It was extensively used to police the local clan domains.

Various other martial arts also include elements of jō that are not necessarily related to Shintō Musō-ryū. One of the most famous promoter of the jō outside of Shintō Musō-ryū in modern times, and indeed in the martial arts community as a whole, was the founder of Aikidō, Morihei Ueshiba. Ueshiba trained in a variety of ryu including Yagyū swordsmanship, but is not known to have trained in Shintō Musō-ryū.

  • The first foreign student of Takaji Shimizu and the first foreign Menkyo of Katori Shintō-ryū.
  • Seiko Fujita (1898-1966)
  • 14th Soke of Kōga-ryū Ninjutsu (and considered by some to be the last true ninja).
  • Writer, in 1953, of a book about the jôjutsu of this specific school
  • Hosho Shiokawa – Japanese Menkyo SMR
  • Student of Takaji Shimizu and Nakajima Asakichi
  • Head of Shiokawa-ha of SMR
  • 15th Soke of Mugai-ryu Iaido.
  • Ichitaro Kuroda (1911–2000) – Japanese Menkyo SMR
  • Was the senior student of Takaji Shimizu for many years until his death
  • At time of death held 10th dan in arts of Kendo, Jodo, Iaido and Shodo.
  • Kaminoda Tsunemori (1928-2015) – Japanese Menkyo SMR
  • Student of Takaji Shimizu
  • Head of Nihon Jodokai
  • Soke of Isshin Ryu Kusarigamajutsu.
  • Matsui Kenji – Japanese Menkyo SMR Fukuoka line
  • Menkyo of Asayama Ichiden-ryu
  • Student of Takaji Shimizu and Ichizo Otofuji
  • Scholar and author of several works on SMR-history and lineage.
  • Matsumura Shigehiro - Japanese Menkyo in Suio-ryu (jōjutsu and naginata) and of SMR Fukuoka line
  • Student of Takaji Shimizu and Ichizo Otofuji
  • Head of the Kobujodokai organisation.
  • Namitome Shigenori - Japanese Menkyo SMR
  • former head of All Japan Kendo Federation's Jodo section
  • Student of Ichizo Otofuji
  • Tsuneo Nishioka (1934-2014) – Japanese Menkyo SMR
  • Student of Takaji Shimizu, founder of the SMR-group "Seiryukai"
  • Technical advisor to European Jodo Federation from 1994 to 2014.
  • Pascal Krieger, EU Menkyo in SMR
  • Student of Takaji Shimizu and Tsuneo Nishioka (the latter since 1994)
  • Head of European Jodo Federation (EJF)
  • Author of the book "The Way of the Stick" and prominent calligrapher
  • Phil Relnick – US Menkyo in SMR and TSKR
  • Student of Tsuneo Nishioka and Takaji Shimizu
  • Pan-American Jo Federation.
  • Steven Bellamy – GB Menkyo SMR
  • Student of Takaji Shimizu and Ichitaro Kuroda
  • International Jodo Association. Hanshi 8th dan Musō Shinden-ryū Iaido.
  • Karunakaran R. Chindan (1943–2016) – Malaysia Menkyo SMR
  • Student of Takaji Shimizu and Donn F. Draeger

Footnotes

  • The names Shintō and Shindō, as used in Shintō Musō-ryū, are both equally correct. Different SMR-groups use the name Shintō or Shindō depending on their own tradition, no sort of consensus has been made as to which name should be used.
  • Competitions are held in Seitei Jodo only. Seitei Jodo holds competitions on which the performance of the uchidachi and shidachi are judged when performing kata. Shintō Musō-ryū holds no competitions of any sort.
  • The name "Kasumi" Shintō-ryū is not the universal way of naming the 12 sword kata. The discovery of the name "Kasumi" was made from recent research into the history of Shintō Musō-ryū but is yet to be confirmed. The most common and older way of naming the 12 sword kata in SMR is "Shintō-ryu kenjutsu".
  • The number of headmasters is counted by combining all the known headmasters of all the branches of Shintō Musō-ryū Jōdō including the founder of Katori Shintō-ryū, the latter which the founder of SMR also held a Menkyo Kaiden,