Jujutsu named a whole arsenal of armored grappling schools
Japanese jujutsu gathered striking, throws, locks, and pins for close combat when weapons failed. Written lineages stretch to the Nara period’s mix of sumo and battlefield arts; the blanket term itself only settled in the seventeenth century after older names for short-sword grappling faded.
Early styles such as Shinden Fudo-ryū (c. 1130) and Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū sit among the oldest cited. Muromachi-era (1333–1573) koryū were rarely bare-handed only—they assumed armour and weapons, with unarmed sets as backups. Edo peace under Tokugawa Neo-Confucian order pushed schools toward duelling sport and randori that would not break homicide laws, while urban clothes replaced armour as the design threat.
Technique menus still list kicks, punches, hip and sacrifice throws, pins, chokes, and cord-tying hojojutsu restraints. From that soil Kano later distilled judo, and global Brazilian and sport derivatives kept selecting subsets.
The name joins jū, meaning gentle, supple or yielding, with jutsu, art or technique, and its core idea is turning an opponent's force against him; the spellings jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, preferred before the mid-20th century, render the second syllable unfaithfully. Before the term appeared, such skills went by names like kumiuchi, taijutsu, yawara and torite, and even jūdō, recorded as early as 1724, almost two centuries before Kanō. Classical curricula covered not only unarmed fighting but minor weapons such as the jutte truncheon, the tantō knife and hidden weapons like weighted chains.
Unlike the striking-heavy arts of China and Okinawa, Japanese close combat centred on throws, immobilisations, joint locks and strangles. Tokyo police still train in cord restraint and carry a hojo cord alongside handcuffs, and the old Takenouchi-ryū continues extensive hojo training. Techniques drawn from certain jujutsu styles fed aikido, hapkido, sambo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts.
Source: Jujutsu
