A Brief History Of Aiki Jujutsu

Author: Bret Gordon

When people think of Japanese martial arts, they often imagine individual schools like Judo, Aikido, or Daito Ryu Aiki Jujutsu. What many don't realize is that these arts didn't begin as isolated systems with individual founders. They evolved from the military traditions of Japan's great warrior families, where martial training was organized around the needs of an entire clan rather than a single style. No family illustrates this better than the Takeda clan.

During Japan's Sengoku period (1467–1615), the country was engulfed in nearly constant warfare. Survival depended on military preparedness, and every major clan maintained a structured system for training its warriors. Rather than studying a single martial art, samurai were expected to master a broad range of combat skills. This concept became known as the Bugei Juhappan (Eighteen Martial Arts), encompassing swordsmanship, archery, spear fighting, horsemanship, strategy, swimming, firearms, and unarmed combat. Training resembled a modern military academy more than today's martial arts schools. Specialists taught their respective disciplines under the authority of the clan, creating well-rounded warriors instead of specialists.

This is why early martial traditions often bore family names. A name like Takeda Ryu did not originally describe one particular fighting style. It referred to the complete military tradition of the Takeda family, which included numerous methods of warfare taught by different instructors. It wasn't until the relative peace of the Edo period that the majority of those specialists would branch out and open schools focusing on a particular aspect of combat, whether that was Kenjutsu, Sojutsu, or Jujutsu, and we see the development of the various ryuha practiced today. 

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