Jodo is a formidable art that involves using the jo – a wooden staff approx. 128 cm long –  against a swordsman.  The introduction of the jo is attributed to Muso Gonnosuke in the first half of the 17th century.  Exact facts and dates are entwined with myth and legend but the most popular account is that after Gonnosuke was defeated in a duel with Miyamoto Musashi he set about devising a system that could beat Musashi’s superior Niten ryu. The legend states that Gunnosuke climbed the Homam Mountain at Chikuzenno-Kuni and confined himself to a shrine for thirty-seven days where he prayed intensely.  On the last day a message came to him in a ‘divine dream’ and he was instructed to attack the pit of Musashi’s stomach with timber. 

How much of the above is fact and how much is myth will probably remain subjective, however, Gunnosuke did go on to develop a system using a wooden staff that combined the skills of the spear, naganata and sword, which was the birth of jojutsu.

Gonnosuke was retained by the Kuroda clan where he developed and taught his new system.  Once again there is little information in historical archives and myth surrounds the advancement of Jojutsu but it is generally accepted that the teaching of the Jo was confined to the Kuroda clan.  There is however firm evidence that there were various styles of Jo that developed from this period.

Due to the Political changes that came about in Japan the Jo was introduced to the public in 1871.  The spread of Jo after this is attributed mainly to Shimizu Takaji and in 1926 he was responsible for introducing jojutsu to the  Tokyo police. There seems to be a school of thought that assumes the name jojutsu was replaced with jodo after the occupation of American troops in the wake of WW2.  The name was in fact changed to jodo in 1940.  The reason for this seems unclear but it was the 2600th anniversary of the establishment of the Japanese Empire and could have been a commemorative gesture.

Shimizue Takaji went on to develop a set of jodo kata and in 1964 approached the ZNKR to adopt this ‘new jodo’ as a training set. It was in 1969 that the ZNKR finally agreed and adopted this new set of kata and in the same year the ZNKR seitei jodo was demonstrated to the public for the first time (seitei iai was adopted by the ZNKR in the same year).

Today Seitei jodo consists of twelve single kihon, twelve paired kihon and twelve kata which together form the basis of a challenging, interesting and absorbing art.