Kumijo Demo

Jay Bell and Richard Hutchison demonstrate Sugawara Sensei's kumijo at the 2001 Saito Sensei Seminar in Rohnert Park, California

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• weapons
• aikido
• bokken
• sword
• jo
• staff
• martial
• art
• sugawara
• saito
• kumijo

[TakemusuAikidoNL]

Uuuuh, isn't the attacker holding a bokken??? I would call it ken-tai-jo rather then kumijo which refers to "jo against jo"

[HutchR62]

Sugawara Sensei created these kata and named the sword vs jo katas "kumijo" and the jo vs jo katas "jo-ai".

I asked a Japanese speaking frriend about this and his response was "It doesn't really translate directly to any word in English because it can mean so many things."

The verb form is KU(MU): braid, plait; construct; assemble; cross (legs); fold (arms); unite with, co-operate with; grapple with.

[HutchR62]

My friend (Thanks Paul) states "But, I'd say the closest match would be the 'scrimmage' or 'paired' meaning. But remember that it's a foreign word that encompasses more meanings than either word (apparently).  Also, I think it has more connotation as a 'set' of things rather than a 'unity'. This is why we can say 'kumi-jo' for ken-tai-jo while saying 'jo-ai' for jo-tai-jo... where other schools may not. It works in Japanese both ways really."

[FredDude27]

This is the kumi-jo as practiced by Tetsutaka Sugawara, an exponent of Aikido and Katori Shinto-ryu. Kumi-jo is an mixture of Katori Shinto-ryu principles and weapons designed mainly to be a compliment to Aikido weapons-training. The sword-strikes are mostly the trademark "maki uchi" of Katori, and the Jo is taken mostly from Katori-Bo (bo=183 cm, Jo 128 cm). Sugawaras aim was to make it more realistic, though with all due respect to Aiki-ken and Aiki-jo. This is still a new invention though.

[HutchR62]

Nicely said, FredDude.

Sugawara Sensei's 2nd book, Aikido and Chinese Martial Arts: Aikido and Weapons Training v. 2, explains these weapons practices in detail. As well as illustrate parallels between Chinese Martial arts and Aikido's principles. The book contains numerous pictures allowing for a detailed study of the body mechanics relating to techniques. ISBN 0870409638

[TakemusuAikidoNL]

Thanks for the explanation.

[cameron997]

That is Budo

[aikidosilly]

Very nice Demo! Thx :-D

[mattbodomtully]

this is incredible, i don't know much about sword play but this looks like profesional stuff, nice work

[OneCelticGirl]

Awesome Demo!!! Very fast, very cool!