  |
The origin of Tai-Jitsu is difficult to make hard. In Japan there were 700 different, known, Ju-Jitsu styles, from which Kumi-Uchi, Aiki-Jitsu, Jui-Jitsu, Tai-Jitsu, Nin-Jitsu, Ken-Jitsu en Yawara were the most known in Europe.
Since there are people on earth, there have been martial arts, of which the aim in a fight was to defeat the opposition.
It is said that ju-jitsu origins from China, others refer to other countries. It is a fact that the Japanese Samurai practised ju-jitsu, which has led to the development of this martial art. Over more than 200 years the Samurai managed to keep quiet in their Ryu (schools) about the so called Kumi-Uchi, which later became Ju-Jitsu.
Every Ryu had its own speciality that was written down in secret notebooks “Densho’s”.
It was not easy to get into a Ryu. When in the early days a sensei wanted to test the power and techniques of another school, he would sent an invitation to the head sensei of that school, so that a duel could be arranged. When the life of the defeated was spared by the opposition, the face loss/ status loss was so big, that most of the times he turned to harakiri (ritual suicide). From this it is clear how important these secret techniques were, because they mostly disappeared when the last sensei deceased. For the first time in 1876 change came into this situation, because Kaiser Meiji made an end to the feodale time zone.. Many Samurai turned to teaching the different Ju-Jitsu styles to keep themselves alive. Only at the end of the 19th Century, when Japan was no longer isolated, the outside world came into contact with the different styles of Ju-Jitsu, because the Japanese started to spread it across the rest of the world.
Go to the top of te page Back to the Dutch site
Webmasters: Joey en Kees de Koning. E-mail: webmaster@sport-judoclub.nl
Copyright © 2001 Joey en Kees de Koning / Laatst bijgewerkt: 29 mei 2007