surfing channels in my Japanese hotel room one afternoon, I came across a jidai-geki series featuring Zenigata Heiji, a one-of-a-kind character. Heiji was a goyōkiki, basically a poor non-samurai assistant working for the higher ranking police officials in Edo. He solved crimes based more on investigation than brute force. Since he was not a member of the samurai class, Heiji was forbidden by law to wear a sword or carry a bladed weapon. To compensate for this limitation, Heiji displayed a remarkable ability to throw heavy coins like bullets, to disarm and capture criminals. He also was armed with a strange-looking iron truncheon, called a jutte, which he used to disarm his opponents without bloodshed. Although the coin throwing skill was obviously a writer’s invention, I noticed that many feudal era police characters in other jidai-geki were also armed with jutte.
I frequently trained at Asahi Judo Academy during my stays in Japan. Located in Higashi-Hakuraku district near the center of Yokohama, the dojo is well known as one of the top judo schools for junior and senior high school competitors. The head instructor, Asahi Dai sensei, was also the judo instructor for the Kanagawa Prefecture Police Department, so many of the local officers practiced there as well in the evenings. Learning of my interest in the jutte, several of my police friends eagerly demonstrated the many different disarming and restraining techniques using the implement. Although modern Japanese police no longer carry a jutte, they are armed with a similar spring-loaded baton called a keibo. The keibo is often employed in their practice of modern taiho-jutsu, “body restraining” or “arresting art,” which is mandatory training for most of the regular police officers. I learned that many of the jutte techniques from ancient martial arts styles were the basis for current keibo techniques.
In my search for more information, I discovered the samurai employed a wide range of weaponry other than the sword, bow, and spear. Many of these were used for self-defense in places where swords were not allowed or as alternatives for situations in which the use of swords was not advantageous. Some weapons such as the tessen (iron fan) were also popular with commoners forbidden by law from openly carrying bladed weapons.
As my research of these unusual weapons increased, I began writing articles about the subject for various martial arts magazines. Mr. George Donahue, then editor for Tuttle Publishing, offered invaluable advice and I self-published my first book, Secret Weapons of Jujutsu. Tuttle Publishing eventually purchased the rights and released a paperback edition.
After the first book was published, I received numerous questions, comments, and even additional tidbits of information from hundreds of martial arts practitioners, historical re-enactors, jidai-geki fans, and Japanese sword and armor collectors. I was quite fortunate to make the acquaintance of Nawa Yumio sensei, author of numerous titles about feudal-era arresting implements and procedures. Nawa sensei was also the last head of Masaki-ryū Manrikigusari-jutsu and Edo Machikata Jutte-jutsu as well as a technical consultant for many jidai-geki television shows and movies. Our visits and correspondence provided me with a wealth of information and details unavailable from any other source. Dr. S. Alexander Takeuchi, Department of Sociology at the University of North Alabama, provided considerable information regarding both feudal-era weapons restrictions and Edo-period publications. I also had the opportunity to conduct more in-depth research through visits to the Tokyo National Museum, Meiji University Criminology Museum, Keisatsu Museum, and Fukagawa Edo Museum. With the assistance and editorial guidance of Ms. Ashley Benning, editor for Tuttle Publishing, I wrote my second book, Taiho-Jutsu: Law and Order in the Age of the Samurai. A talented artist, good friend, and fellow judoka, Mr. Rich Hashimoto, provided excellent line drawings to illustrate many of the techniques.
After several years, I considered preparing a revised edition of Secret Weapons of Jujutsu. Instead, Ms. Sandra Korinchak, senior editor for Tuttle Publishing, suggested creating an entirely separate book with both updated and new material. With her advice and guidance, this is the result. Many individuals contributed information, assistance, and encouragement for this project. Without their help, this book would not have been realized. I am especially grateful to Ms. Korinchak for her editorial insights and her enthusiasm for this project. I also want to thank Mr. Hashimoto for allowing me to use several of his line drawings again for this volume. Finally, I want to thank my wife Lynn for her patience and understanding about my obsession with Japanese martial arts and history. Any errors are mine alone.
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| Japanese Martial Arts Culture |
The samurai were Japan’s warrior class for more than seven centuries. The word comes from the Japanese verb saburau, meaning “service to a noble.” Samurai were primarily military retainers who attended and guarded clan leaders. The samurai eventually emerged as military aristocrats and then as military rulers. The samurai were also known as bushi, or “warriors.”
Medieval samurai were generally illiterate, rural landowners who farmed between battles. With an economy based almost solely on agriculture, small farming villages were the core of early Japanese society. Area landowners and farmers also served as militia forces, either in the defense of their own lands or as private armies seeking to expand and gain new territories. As hereditary warriors, though, they were governed by a code of ethics— bushidō, meaning the “way of the warrior”—that defined service and conduct appropriate to their status as elite members of Japanese society. Even though the samurai’s role changed from farmers and soldiers to government bureaucrats and administrators during the latter years of relative peace, the samurai were still bound by the tenets of bushidō and their warrior heritage.
Japan was theoretically ruled by the emperor, considered a direct descendant of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami. An extensive hereditary aristocracy of nobles formed the Imperial Court, although the emperor and his nobles have held no real governing power for many centuries. Their position was mostly symbolic. Their principal function was to conduct and take part in various religious rituals.
An abbreviation of seitaishōgun, the title of shōgun first appeared during the Nara period (710–794) and means “great general to conquer barbarians.” Initially a temporary designation, the shōgun were authorized to recruit soldiers to subdue the Ainu, an ethnic tribal group indigenous to the northern islands of Japan. Later the title of shōgun came to designate a supreme chief of samurai. During the Kamakura period (1185–1333), the title became permanent and was used until the late nineteenth century.
The shōgunate was first referred to as bakufu, a Chinese term designating the headquarters of a general in expedition. The term literally means “office under tent.” After Minamoto no Yoritomo became shōgun and officially established the Kamakura bakufu, virtually replacing the prerogative of the Imperial Court, though, the term shōgunate was used to designate the military government. There were three successive shōgunate or military governments in Japan—Kamakura shōgunate (1185–1333), Muromachi shōgunate (1336–1573), and Edo shōgunate (1603–1868)—each designating the periods administered by the respective shōgun.
A dispute over shōgunal succession combined with harsh economic times eventually led to the Onin no ran (Onin war) in 1467, embroiling Japan in more than one hundred years of successive military disputes referred to as the Sengoku period. Many battles were fought constantly throughout Japan during this era, also referred to as the Warring States period. The introduction of guns to Japan by the Portuguese in 1543 served to intensify battlefield tactics and conflicts over territory.
A brilliant military strategist and son of a warlord, Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) conquered most of Japan and declared shōgun in 1568 after entering the capital city of Kyōto. When Nobunaga was assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide in 1582, one of his generals, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, avenged the murder and eventually unified Japan. Despite uncommon military and political talents, Hideyoshi was unable to assume the title of shōgun because of his family’s modest background.
