Aikido vs Jiu Jitsu

Hi All,

I would appreciate any info regardng this..

What are the major training differences between the two?

Does one use kata (practicing it over and over again) more than the other?

Any help would be appreciated!

It is not quite clear what jiu jitsu is, but it is probably the Brazilian phoenetic spelling of the Japanese word jujutsu. Most often now it refers to Brazilian jiujitsu, a ground grappling form developed from judo in Brazil in the 1920's.

Jujutsu is the Japanese term for essentially any combat techniques that do not use weapons, although they are often used against weapons.

Old forms of jujutsu are often called koryu (ancient schools). More modern forms include judo, aikido, aikijujutsu, and arguably karate.

In English usage the term is usually used to indicate some type of throwing and grappling art other than judo and aikido. Usually these are either pieced together from a bit of this or that, or in a few cases traditions that date back to the 1800's in Japan where some estimates place the number of jujutsu styles (ryu) at over 700. Virtually all of these were absorbed by and replaced by judo by 1910. Very, very few traditional schools survived intact.

Judo has in the last 50 year become mostly a sport to most of its proponents, althougth some old judo does survive and preserves its self-defense capabilities.

Aikido was created by Morihei Ueshiba from aiki jujutsu in the 1920 and emphasizes 'aiki' or blending energy over the leverage mechanics of most other jujusu. In other words you lead the attacker into the ground rather than forcing or throw him there. There are a variety of aikdo styles today ranging from fairly hard fighting styles used by police to some almost dance like varieties.

In short jujutsu is a catch-all term and even specific styles like judo and aikido can vary enormously from school to

I aggree

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my post - it was very helpful!

Carlos Borges

Jiu-jitsu is an old phonetic form of the word from English as well as other languages, it's been in use in English at least as long as in Brazilian Portuguese. The more commonly used transliteration today is 'jujutsu' though 'jujitsu' is also commonly used.

Koryu can also refer to schools specializing in weapons, as well. Niten Ichi Ryu, for example, is a sword koryu.

World War II had a great deal to do with the demise of many of these older schools. Many exponents of these schools were killed or maimed in combat. The schools had to stop teaching (or do so in secret) during the allied occupation after the war. And then the pacifism that has gained popularity in post-war Japan means there's a shortage of interested recruits. The popularity of gendai budo (judo, kendo, karatedo, aikido, etc) means that there's stiff competition for what younger people ARE interested.

As I've pointed out on the judo list, even the people who approach judo from entirely a sporting perspective retain a pretty impressive ability to defend themselves from most potential attackers.

That's definately true.

Kevin P. France

The sound in Japanese is pretty clearly 'juuju' like 'joo-oo-joo'. (joo like zoo) In Japanese the mouth is held open when making the 'u' sound not rounded as in French, and thus the opposite of the 'ee' sound that one would expect in the English 'jiu'.

In Portugese, I believe the 'jiu' softens the 'u' a bit which would make it sound something like the Japanese 'u'. More important, the i lengthens the sound, an important element in Japanese making it more like 'juuju' or 'joooojoo'.

My 15th century Portuguese is definitely not up to par so this is just speculation, but it makes a lot more sense than trying to get 'jiujitsu' out of 'juujutsu' in English.

Name any other European language where 'jiu' would approximate the Japanese 'juu'.

The Portuguese had missionaries in Japan in the 1500's. The English and Americans came much later.

The Japanese standard spelling is 'jujutsu'. styles.

In fact almost none (under a dozen) remained by the first world war.

Just not true. Kano was effective in making judo THE jujutsu of Japan. It was taught in the schools and in the military.

'Most' potential attackers are idiots.

Judo an Jiu Jitsu musten't be used to self-defense, Aikido has nagashi and defense movements.

The japanese guy I know, prononces it more like Zoo-juit-su

After how much biru and sake?

First English contact was before 1600, and the Dutch presence was strong enough for a VOC warship to assist in the Shimabara rebellion in 1638 and for Holland to be the sole trading partner after the isolation

And does any of that contradict my point the Portuguese had a strong presence in Japan before the English and that the Portuguese probably picked up words like jujutsu on their own. The linguistic tranfer went the other way too. The Japanese word for bread is the Portuguese word 'pan'.