The man who defeated Musashi. 武蔵に勝った男
【The man who defeated Musashi. 武蔵に勝った男】
Jojutsu is a form of martial arts, using the cane staff.
It’s just a simple wooden stick, but it can change to other weapons such as a spear, halberd, and a sword.
The founder of Jojutsu is Gonnosuke Muso.
The name of his style is “Shinto-musoryu”.
You may also know Musashi Miyamoto.
He was a very famous samurai, who is known as never having lost a fight.
However, according to legend, Gonnosuke defeated him once.
Did you know that Gonnosuke battled with Musashi two times?
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As a young, Gonnosuke was a was tall, arrogant, tough and always caught people's attention.
However, he had great swordsmanship skills and received approval in two representative styles of swordsmanship
- Katori-shintoryu and Kashima-shinryu.
He came to Edo and battled many samurai with the katana. He always won.
One day, Musashi appeared in front of him.
Gonnosuke challenged Musashi to a battle.
Gonnosuke lost this first battle.
This was the first battle between them.
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After this battle, Gonnosuke never used the sword again.
Instead, he trained intensively in other fighting methods. He spent many years.
He was in a cave one day when he received a blessing from God and just like an epiphany, he created technique to fight with a cane staff.
Finally, Jojutsu was born through him.
After this miraculous incident, he challenged Musashi again and this time, Gonnosuke won.
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Gonnosuke Muso and Musashi Miyamoto both lived in the same generation.
There was a deep affinity between them.
There are various theories regarding this story, because it’s a legend, but it's a very enthralling and inspiring story.
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The following is a teaching of Jojutsu that is worthy of special mention :
“Admonish somebody for his misconduct without hurting or killing.”
Gonnnosuke arrived at such an ultimate truth regarding the true nature of martial arts, even though he was an outlaw in the past.
Gonnosuke taught this in the book “Shinto-musoryu Hiden”.
In our country Japan,
people consider swordsmanship as the main form of martial arts.However, Jodo must be also considered as the fundamentals of all other martial arts keeping in mind that unlike swordsmanship, killing is prohibited with Jodo.In ancient times,
the two Japanese Gods Izanagi and Izanami used a cane staff looking stick called the Ameno-nuboku to stir the sea and this is considered to be how the land of Japan was created.
Another God named Amaterasu-oomikami is the first God of Japan and is known as the God of the Sun.
She wears three swords and she praised and revered martial arts.
In Japan, we value the five Confucian teachings of benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom and sincerity.
But martial skills is also important to protect our country.
I believe that killing people with swords should not always be the true meaning of martial arts.
The purport is that if you are fighting with a Jo, you should be responsible for not killing the opponent but be skilled enough to face all circumstances.
We need the right mindedness and martial skills.
So, I founded Jojutsu and began passing on the skills to people who have a devotion to it.
I hope to pass down my spirit and belief to successive generations with this book.
＊I have referred to the original Japanese text from the website of Tokyo Jodo Federation.
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This is a thoughtful message even now.
These spirit, mentality and the technique of Jodo has been passed down to the current generation.
Another interesting fact- Japan's police officers have employed the Jodo technique and still use it today.
Gonnosuke Muso was a significant figure in the history of Jo but even the general population of Japan does not know about his story and Jo.
Musashi Miyamoto is famous in the world because of the impact of his novel, but Gonnosuke Muso should also be famous, shouldn't he?
In the year of 2019, it be 400 years since the second battle of Gonnosuke and Musashi.
I'm glad to tell this story to you.
Thank you for reading.
Bugeido MUSUBI
Yui 結井