ROOTS BJJ - The Samurai Spirit

The Samurai Spirit

You may have noticed that we have updated our logo. Why did we add “The Real Jiu-Jitsu” under our trademark red and yellow boomerang and rising sun? Well, the rising sun flag in Japan was used as a symbol of military imperialism, but it is still used now in Japan as a symbol of tradition and good fortune. At ROOTS BJJ, we like the traditions of Japanese Jujutsu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. So what is the real jiu-Jitsu and where does our samurai spirit come from?

Jujutsu (Jiu-Jitsu) as an art of fighting

The traditional Japanese martial art, jujutsu, was one of the 18 forms of fighting and defence that a samurai needed to master. The samurai, also known as bushi, were a class of warriors which gained prominence in the 10th century CE in what was then medieval Japan and which lasted until the 17th century CE.

Warfare in medieval Japan was as bloody and brutal as it was in any other region that went through war at that time. In the west, we have tended to see samurais through a romanticised lens where their lives centred on loyalty, and it is evident that from the 17th century CE once the need for warriors diminished, the samurai became important moral teachers and advisors within the community. From the list of 18 skills, there are some familiar terms, such as sword fighting, spear fighting, water training or swimming, and horseman ship. We are interested in one of the skills: Taijutsu.

​Taijitsu was the training in the fighting with no weapons. On a battlefield, it would be easy to lose weapons in the affray, so a warrior needed to be able to fight with his hands. The Samurai fought in armour, so the techniques needed to be effective against an armored man that is the reason for the locks and twists on the joints. The goal was to submit and then be able to stab or incapacitate the opponent. So here we come to one of the three components of Taijutsu – jujutsu.

JuJutsu (Jiu-Jitsu)

Jujutsu, literally means the “flexible art”. It is a style of fighting that was developed in Japan and was normally done without weapons. Jujutsu is based on Japanese battlefield grappling techniques, with influences from China and, more recently, the rest of the world. Japanese history records the grappling battles of great warriors, the earliest recorded in the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, ca. 720 CE). Jujutsu or as we call it, Jiu-jitsu, was designed to focus on physiological weak points using joint locks, throws, chokes, strikes, and kicks.

The fundamental principle of the original jujutsu is ju, a word meaning “flexibility” or “pliancy.” As jiu-jitsu techniques were potentially deadly or incapacitating, they were traditionally practiced via predetermined forms rather than free sparring. However, there are records of competitions between jujutsu schools, and over time, informal rules were developed that laid the groundwork for twentieth-century competition rules. In jujutsu competition rules, the most dangerous techniques were restricted, and bouts typically ended when one competitor was in submission, pinned, thrown flat on his back, or incapacitated. All these skill came together to give the warrior skill to work in any situation of unarmed combat.

The Real Jiu-Jitsu

​So, the jiu-jitsu was not fought on mats in five to 10 minute fights, it was fought on the battle field. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, we have a strong focus on self-defence so that you can defend yourself in real life. The benefit of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is that it was not just for a person with the skills of a samurai, it was for a smaller or weaker person to be able to defend themselves against a larger or stronger opponent. However, the fundamentals of the samurai spirit – Respect, honour, loyalty and family - still prevail regardless of age or size.