The Jō (杖), a short staff, is a versatile weapon in traditional Japanese martial arts. Its length, typically around 1.28 meters, allows practitioners to strike and thrust from medium distance, while also enabling close-quarters techniques. It is also known as a "four shaku staff" because of its traditional measurement in the shaku, an old Japanese unit of length equivalent to about 30.3 cm.
Derived from a simple walking stick or a pilgrim's staff, the jō became a staple in the martial arts world due to its versatility and availability. As an intermediate length staff, it bridges the gap between the shorter tanbō (short stick, about 45-60 cm) and the longer bō (long staff, typically around 1.8 meters).
Martial Arts Applications
The art of wielding the jō is known as jōjutsu or jōdō, with the latter term being more common in modern practice. The founder of Shintō Musō-ryū, Musō Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi, is often credited with developing the jō as a martial arts weapon after a significant encounter with the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. The jō, being shorter than the bō, is easier to handle and allows for quicker, more fluid movements.
The jō is primarily used to amplify the force used for a strike through the use of leverage and the inertia of the martial artist's movement. It can be utilized to reach medium and long-range targets. Many martial arts that use weapons have techniques involving the jō. This stems from the past, in Japan, when samurai warriors would lose the tip of their spear, halberd, or naginata in war, because these were broken or cut off. What remained was a rudimentary bō. These same martial arts include techniques using the hanbō for the same reason. As the fight continued, the bō could break, resulting in a pilgrim's staff or hanbō.
The martial art dedicated to the use of the bō is known as bōjutsu, although in the Masakatsu Bō Jutsu school, founded by sensei Morihei Ueshiba (also the founder of the martial art of aikido), it is trained as part of the curriculum.
In the island of Okinawa, where the martial art of karate originated, bō techniques arose from a mixture of Chinese, native, and Japanese techniques. The long stick was used to carry buckets of water and was also adapted as a weapon by the royal guard, where its form was modified by sharpening its ends, aiming to penetrate the armor of invading samurai, through the correct transmission of power and body alignment. Several schools of the art of kobudo currently prevail on the island, such as yammani ryu and Ryukyu kobudo. The long stick is also trained in various styles of karate, both Japanese and Okinawan, as part of their curriculum.
The Jō in Aikido
The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, incorporated the jō into the Aikido curriculum following the teachings of Shinkage-ryū, a traditional school of Japanese martial arts. It is also used in the offshoots of Aikido, such as Shin'ei Taidō and Yoseikan Budo.