What is Jujitsu?

Jujitsu is a Japanese word and has many different spellings. The word can be split into two meanings. The first part, "ju" roughly translates to the words "gentle" and "soft" and basically means that a much lesser force can overcome a much greater one, whereas "jitsu" relates to a fighters technique and knowledge.

Technical characteristics

As a "soft" art, jujitsu systems generally employ the principles of balance, leverage, and momentum to overcome opponents. This is in contrast to "hard" systems (for example, some styles of karate or taekwondo) that tend to emphasize developing power, strength, and speed. Although there is some diversity in the actual look and techniques of the various traditional Jujitsu systems, there are significant technical similarities common to all schools:

Students learn traditional Jujitsu primarily by observation and imitation of the ryu's waza.
The unarmed waza of most schools emphasize joint-locking techniques (kansetsu waza), that is, threatening a joint's integrity by placing pressure on it in a direction contrary to its normal function, aligning it so that muscular strength cannot be brought to bear, take-down or throwing techniques, or a combination of take-downs and joint-locks.
Sometimes, atemi (strikes) are targeted to some vulnerable area of the body; this is an aspect of kuzushi, the art of breaking balance as a set-up for a lock, take-down or throw.
Movements tend to capitalize on an attacker's momentum and openings in order to place a joint in a compromised position or to break their balance as preparation for a take-down or throw.
The defender's own body is positioned so as to take optimal advantage of the attacker's weaknesses while simultaneously presenting few openings or weaknesses of its own.
Weapons training was a primary goal of Samurai training. Koryu (old/classic) schools typically include the use of weapons. Weapons might include the roku shaku bo (six-foot staff), hanbo (three-foot staff), katana (sword), wakizashi or kodachi (short sword), tanto (knife), or jitte (short one hook truncheon).

History

Classical Jujitsu became as it is known today during 16th century Japan, although the grappling arts that led to its formation can be traced back to the start of the Kamakura period in the year 1192. This early form of grappling art was mainly used as a form of unarmed attack by Japanese warriors in the event of a weapon being lost whilst in battle. Because of the nature of the heavy and cumbersome armour used by the warriors, a fighting style was developed whereby attacks were focused on weak points of a warrior's body such as joints and vital areas. This proved to be very effective as other previous traditional striking arts were nullified by the warriors' tough armour. The other aim of the art is to take away the opponents balance where they can be attacked much easier on the ground with a sword.

Schools were established were students can learn various martial arts from teachers (Sensei) who had been studying the art for a long time. As time progressed certain practitioners realised that the way of teaching was too dangerous and schools teaching the art were unable to teach students to use the techniques in real situations. This seemed common sense because techniques such as eye gouges were dangerous to practise (with many students being injured) and very difficult to apply in real situations where precision is required very quickly on a moving opponent. Thus, instead of a new art being completely reborn it was not so much the techniques being altered but the way in which it is was taught. Instead of schools teaching students Katas (where a set of movements are performed on an unmoving opponent), students are encouraged to perform techniques on a resisting opponent. Unsafe techniques such as eye gouging are not practised. By doing this, students are much better equipped when it comes to a real fighting situation because they have already had the experience and have learnt valuable lessons from it *in a safe environment*. This method of schooling proved to be very successful and paved the way for other similar arts such as Judo and Budo.

Recently...

Very recently, in the early 90's, a fighting championship was formed to end the age old dispute of which martial art was the best. The championship was called the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and attracted people from all countries practising very different arts from Sumo Wrestling to Muay Thai Kickboxing.

BJ Penn submitting an opponent with the rear naked choke

BJ Penn submitting an opponent via the rear naked choke.

Very early on in the contest it became clear that one fighting style, Jujitsu, was prevailing and that much larger and heavier fighters were losing to much smaller fighters. Since then Jujitsu has become a popular prerequisite of a UFC fighter, many using a style called Brazilian Jui Jitsu (BJJ) that was made famous by the Gracie family, who adapted traditional Jujitsu and created a new style that focused more on a hierarchy of positions and separated the different stages of a fight. More info on the different types can be found in the "Types of Jujitsu" section.

*Some text taken from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons license and the work is released under CC-BY-SA. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/for more info.

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