Bojutsu
The bōjutsu in Japanese, 棒術, romanized: bōjutsu is the martial art of using a bō or long staff (usually wooden) as a weapon. Generally, the rokushakubō (bō of six shaku) is usually used, which is usually called simply bō because it is the stick most used in this martial art. The rods or poles are perhaps one of the first weapons used by man. Which have been used for thousands of years in Asia.
Today, bōjutsu is generally associated with the kobudō of the island of Okinawa, and with the modern traditional unarmed martial art of karate-dō i>, of which many of its teachers are also practitioners, or, with the traditional ancient martial arts or koryū budō of the Japanese medieval warrior or samurai. Japanese bōjutsu, with its various schools and styles, is one of the main elements of classical martial training (bugei jyuuhappan) in addition to the use of the saber or kenjutsu. i>. In the Okinawan context, the weapon is generally known as the kon. The long staff of the Okinawan kobudō is usually narrow at the tips to give greater penetration to blows.
The founder of aikidō, (one of the modern traditional martial arts or gendai budō) the master Morihei Ueshiba; he was an assiduous practitioner of bōjutsu , and founder of the Masakatsu bōjutsu school, of which he gave the transmission to his disciple, the late master, Hikitsuchi Michio. The bō used in Masakatsu bōjutsu has the peculiarity that its length is proportional to the practitioner's height, and must reach from the ground (barefoot) to below the nose. Michio Hikitsuchi's main student in Masakatsu Bōjutsu in Europe is Master Gerard Blaize. Likewise, the master Morihei Ueshiba also developed various techniques with the medium-length staff or jō also based on the arts of the Sōjutsu spear and the art of the bayonet or Jūkendō within the martial art of his creation, the Aikidō.
Types of sticks used in Bojutsu
Although the most widely used and well-known bō is the one approximately 180 cm (rokushakubō), there are other types of sticks that are also used in the art of bōjutsu:
- Rokushakubō: 180 cm stick.
- Yonshakubō or jō: 130 cm stick.
- Sanshakubō or hanbō: 95 cm stick.
- Shishinbō or tambō: 30 cm stick. "Known in the police and security field as the extensible cane."
- Nyoibō: mast or pole of 200 cm. for 5 ing (12.7 cm).
- Daisharin: 250 cm cane with wheels on the ends.
- Nihiribō: 180 cm stick with a twisted tip.
- Yawara: small stick of the palm width of the hand.