D Day and Gendai Jujutsu - "Does this training produce useful results?"

The active struggle against barbarity and totalitarianism is not a quasi myth from the feudal period nor an abstract koan for contemplation - it is in our recent past and goes on in much of the world today. We who live in societies so civilised that the carrying of weapons is not a regular habit of most of the population live in one of history's outliers. One who practices a gendai school of Jujutsu should always keep the closeness of these struggles in mind.

Each year, around this time, we are given cause to remember the Second World War. My thoughts always turn to my teacher's teacher, whom I trained with only occasionally but whom many of my contemporaries knew quite well and trained with quite a bit. This man, fresh in the memory of many people, had to use Jujutsu to survive in occupied Holland being part of the Dutch resistance.

Rather than being somewhat ashamed that the majority of the Jujutsu schools I have practised were founded or changed after the restoration of the emperor Meiji in 1868, I am especially proud of the adaptions and continued usefulness of these schools through the Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods.

Following the restoration of the emperor Meiji the soldiers, police and citizenry of Japan still needed methods of dealing with violence. As these needs changed so did their Jujutsu. The transfer of these skills to the rest of the world during the Meiji and Taisho period meant they were adapted for a plethora of contexts, times and places giving birth to everything from modern combatives to modern law enforcement methods.

The fragmentation of the gendai Jujutsu world is therefore inevitable, but not lamentable. Gendai Jujutsu cannot be standardised. Unlike Koryu, modern Budo or combat sports the rules and needs of society do not bend to gendai Jujutsu - like water it fills the container in which it is placed. The fact that part of the bell curve of gendai Jujutsu is of low quality is unfortunate but unavoidable - better this than the albatross of stagnation and irrelevance.

So, each year at this time one considers one's Jujutsu, reminds oneself that it is intended to be used in matters of life and death and asks: "Does this training produce useful results?". In gendai Jujutsu if the answer to this question is "No", then it is unconscionable to continue without making the required adaptions.

Spear (Yari) in Owari Kan Ryu 尾張貫流 (Kudayari & others)

Owari Kan ryū is known for its use of the kuda-yari (tube spear). The e (shaft) is run through a kuda (metal pipe) that’s in the front hand of the practitioner. Interestingly the school’s students start training by doing shiai (competition) and only after considerable training they learn the school's kata (forms). Most classical schools that practice shiai do so after learning kata. Thrusting using the kuda. Cross-stepping. Thrusting attack with kuda. Wide stance. Shiai. Shiai using a spear with a cross piece. The original demonstration from which these stills were taken is here:

The Structure of the Tenshinshoden Katori Shinto Ryu Syllabus

It should be noted that the current head, Otake Risuke, has commented that not all of the parts of Tenshinsho-den Katori Shinto Ryu survive. I recall his comments in various documentaries that Archery was once a component, and only some of the spear survives. Through various sources, mostly Otake's book, I have put together this brief outline of their syllabus, however I have little idea of the exact stage each is taught except that I believe the students start with Omote no Tachi. I will use this as the basis for further posts and may add to it over time. I believe their are important implications when Otake says that one of the main reasons for training all the weapons is to train the swordsman against them. Note in this section in brackets are my own comments and should therefore not be relied upon, those from the written work of Otake are clearly marked. Tenshinsho-den Katori Shinto Ryu -Kenjutsu (Otake lists Tachi, Ryuto and Kodachi under Kenjustsu) --Tachi (Use of the singl

Australia’s Turning Point – Signals Intelligence leading to the Battle of the Coral Sea

Australian/American Signals cooperation was not only important in stopping the Japanese advance to Australian shores but marked the beginning of Australia embedding its forces with the United States rather than simply furnishing troops for the British. Whilst the British, in my opinion , had a long history of using Commonwealth troops to either protect their colonial interests or to take on deployments with high expected rates of attrition, when Australia faced the real possibility of invasion with the vast majority of its troops and equipment deployed overseas, it was the Americans, whose interests in the Pacific aligned with our own, that were on hand to push the Japanese back from our shores. The Battle of the Coral Sea saw the beginnings of the deployment of Australian sea power under direct American command, a joint approach that would continue to the present time – it was, however, Signals Intelligence that led the way to the embedding of US/Australian forces and played a major

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