KARATE OR JIU-JITSU

The quest is much deeper than plainly Karate or Jiu-Jitsu. To be a complete Martial Artist a practitioner has to be able to do and deal with kicking, punching, wrestling or grappling and joint locks. Each of these were split into various fighting traditions when they were created or reached the shores of Japan. Karate deals with kicking and punching; Judo deals with grappling and wrestling; Jiu-Jitsu with joint locks and grappling and Aikido with joint locks and throws, added to this comes defence from weapon attacks and of course in some Karate attacks with weapons, in Wado we only defend against weapons.

The highest form of Martial Art is not to fight at all and the principle of “WA” fulfils this. In 1968 on his visit to the UK Ohtsuka Meijin asked the assembled students why they wanted to train in Karate. Many said to lean to fight or defend themselves but he pointed out that we should train to make ourselves better people. This was puzzling to us at the time but we learned.

It appears to me that in creating Wado Ryu Ohtsuka Meijin produced a single Martial Art that dealt with all the requirements; kicking, punching, grappling and joint locks. The kicking and punching mainly from Karate; grappling from Jiu-Jitsu and Judo (remember there were many Judo throws in Ohtsukas’ original syllabus); joint locking from Jiu-Jitsu but also Aikido, (Ohtsuka was a friend of Morio Veshiba), which also added throws. Ohtsuka also trained with many other styles of Jiu-Jitsu in his youth and other Karate Sensei (Mabuni and Motobu) as well as Funakoshi.

Looking at his original syllabus it is easy to see the wide scope of his vision.

Ohtsukas Kumite Gata go from distance counter and attack to closing (irimi) to further disrupt to unbalancing (kuzushi) which leads by implication to throws (nage waza). Kihon Kumite also have similar moves closing, unbalancing, striking and throwing (e.g kihon 2, 5, 8 and 10). Joint locks appear in knife defence and in kihon kumite 5. If you compare Wado kata to Funkoshis’ kata in his book ‘Karate Jutsu’ it is easy to see the modifications Ohtsuka Meijin made to them, personally I see throws, grips, strangles, kicks, punches, unbalancing and redirection. Of course, others will see what they will in the kata and that is as it should be.In short Karate or Jiu-Jitsu, I agree with Ohtsuka the second that, “if Wado was a bowl of soup Karate would be a pinch of salt”. In the mix with Karate would be Jiu-Jitsu and other Koryu Martial Arts. Bearing in mind Ohtsukas- long association with Jiu-Jitsu probably that would be the largest part of the mix, so maybe it would be better to say his Art was largely Jiu-Jitsu with input from Karate, Judo, Aikido and Ken Jutsu. In other words probably the first mixed Martial Art and the best.

Contributed By David Allsop 7th Dan Black belt Wado Ryu Karate & sensei of the Mansfield Karate Club