Kosen judo

Categories: Combat sports | Gendai budo | Individual sports | Judo

Kosen judo is a form of judo adopted by the major high schools and technical schools during the Meiji Era (1868 - 1914). It emphasizes newaza (ground techniques) such as controls, joint locks and strangles. This is the style of judo that was taught to the Gracies in Brazil by Mitsuyo Maeda.

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History

The roots of Kosen Judo lies in two schools of Jujutsu: The Fusen-Ryu Jujutsu and, not surprisingly, Jigoro Kano´s own Ryu (school) which was named Judo and spread worldwide.

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Ancient origins

Fusen-Ryu Jujutsu was founded by Takeda Motsuge in the early 1800's. The ryu was based on his early jujutsu teachings (he was already considered a Shihan by his later teens). The most influential schools he had trained were the Nanba Ippo (from Takahashi Inobei), Takenouchi, Sekiguchi, Yoshin, Shibukawa, and Yagyu-Ryu. The dissolution of the Samurai class came about at the same time of the Fusen-ryu founding, and the banning of armed combat probably contributed heavily for its development and emphasis in unarmed combat techniques.

By the end of the 19th century another school of Jujutsu was getting prominence, beating several older schools in consecutive matches. This school was founded by Jigoro Kano, and was called Kodokan Judo. Mataemon Tanabe, then the Fusen-Ryu master, challenged Kano school and his students won every match. Much to Kano´s surprise, they did not attempt throwing techniques, but rather went straight to the ground, and applied newaza (grappling) submissions as arm-locks, leg-locks, pins, and chokes. Kano being very open-minded, was so fascinated by the Fusen-ryu effectiveness, that he persuaded Tanabe to teach kodokan students the concepts of his ryu´s strategy. Kano had consistently invited the heads of every jujutsu ryu he encountered to incorporate their teachings into the Kodokan curriculum. The newaza component however became a major part of judo influencing its development greatly. Among these early students were prominent to be Kodokan judokas by the likes of Yoshiaki Yamashita, Hirata Kanae, Tsunejiro Tomita, Sakujiro Yokoyama and Maeda, the latter being the one who eventually taught Judo to the Gracie family, which would later develop into Brazilian jiu-jitsu (jiu-jitsu is actually a misspelling of Jujutsu).

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The birth of Kosen Judo

Jujutsu schools had earned a very bad reputation in the 19th century. The art of Jujutsu was not seen as a sport, and its practitioners were all labelled trouble-makers. This troubled Kano as he wanted his art to be mainly taught as a way of life and to be a fitness exercise (for both body and mind). To this end he started promoting the educational side of his Jujutsu ryu by first changing its name to Judo. This theoretically demonstrated that Kano´s school departed from the Bujutsu tradition of warfare to a more person centered Budo tradition, where the role of the individual was the real focus.

Since Fusen-ryu matches ended in a pin or submission instead of serious injury and it avoided difficult throws, it was easily learned in the school setting. Kodokan Judo had formed great newaza experts. This, along with Kano´s willingness to promote Judo as a way of life and a form of physical education, greatly influenced the face of Judo in its early days and helped him promote it in Japanese schools. In 1914 Kano organized all the Japan High School Championships at Kyoto Imperial University. This sportive style of competition was formally called Kosen (high school).

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An expansion of Kodokan judo newaza

Newaza effectivess and ease of learning started to change the way Judo matches evolved. It was much too easy to train a bulky fighter in Newaza and have him stop the most fit opponent from a rival school, so soon Kano saw Judo becoming a newaza only school. By 1925 so much emphasis was on newaza, due to its success in competition, that Kano introduced new rules limiting the amount of time the Judoka could stay on the ground. It was stipulated that techniques had to start from tachiwaza (standing stance). If you pulled your opponent down more than three times he was declared the winner. This rule continued into the 1940's but was ignored by the Kosen schools who continued their form of newaza competition.

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Kosen judo evolution

At the time of the rule change of 1925 newaza was extremely popular and well researched, particularly by the Kosen Judo students. Since Kosen Judo was an inter-school team contest only, there was the possibility to draw. It was only Ippon (win by pin, submission, or a perfect throw) or a draw. Newaza training was very useful because it is easier to get draws in newaza, and faster to get a beginner trained for competition. By this time turtle positions, double leg locks (closed-guard), half-guard and so on were extensively researched by the Kosen masters (there is a major misconception that these techniques were developed by the Gracies in Brazil).

Kosen judo followed its own course and continued under the old rules even to this day in the Seven Universities Tournament. Kano was very careful not to obliterate Kosen judo when he introduced the new rules. He did this for several reservations:

  • There were relatively few doing newaza-only.
  • He wanted newaza specialists in judo.
  • He could not convince himself that doing only newaza was in itself bad.
  • Kosen judokas did also tachiwaza despite their emphasis in newaza.

This way the rule changes were not enforced throughout the judo world in Japan allowing judo to evolve both standing and onto the ground. The new rules were devised as a mean to emphasize tachiwaza while great care was taken not to make newaza unpopular.

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The spirit of Kosen judo

Kosen judo followed the spirit of Bushido. Winning was the most important aspect, although in Bushido this means winning for the group rather than the individual. They were the elite of the time. They never gave up, even when pinned or having their arms broken, and succumbed to unconciousness rather than call maitta. World War II changed this, as Japan lost the war and the Kodokan was closed, eventualy to become a military academy. After many meetings it was agreed that the Kodokan could re-open only if it taught judo in a pure democratic manner.

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Kosen judo and brazilian jiu-jitsu

In 1904 Mitsuyo Maeda was sent to America to spread the word of Judo. He finally arrived in Brazil by 1915 and taught Judo newaza to Carlos Gracie. Helio Gracie learned the techniques from watching his brother Carlos, and adapted them to his own slim and weak body. This way Brazilian jiu-jitsu can be regarded as a direct descendant from Judo newaza, and by extension from Kodokan Judo as it was taught before World War II.

In recent days, due to Brazilian Jiu-jitsu prominance in the media, a rivalry between Judo and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu started to grow. Soon this was regarded derogatory to both sports. In Brazil, practitioners of Jiu-Jitsu never took much attention to this rivalry, partly because they did not recognize sport-judo as having any influence in their art, partly because they regarded old school judo masters as very capable fighters (Helio Gracie´s account of Masahiko Kimura´s skills is just one evidence among many).

Currently there is a big trend in Brazil toward bringing together Judo and Jiu-Jitsu schools. Brazilian Jiu-jitsu fighters went to Judo schools to develop their throwing techniques and Judokas went to Jiu-jitsu schools to develop their newaza skills. Much credit for this has to be given to the specialized press, which started to write accurate articles regarding the origins of brazilian jiu-jitsu in Judo, promoting the aproximation of both arts.

Many scholars regard Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Kosen Judo to be more closed related to the Kodokan Judo before World War II than current international judo as it is presented by the Kodokan itself.

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