Reddit reviews The Canon of Judo: Classic Teachings on Principles and Techniques

My go to books other than Kodokan Judo are the Canon of Judo by Kuyozo Mifune and Judo Unleashed by Neil Ohlenkamp.

>That is a whole lot of stuff that's unrelated to the video.

Again, I put it out there because it's going to come up. It's the discussion that comes up every time "ninjutsu" is mentioned.

>Do you think Takamatsu is demonstrating good taijutsu in the video?

Answering your question before I babble on, I don't feel that Takamatsu's taijutsu in the video is the greatest, but he's also very old when they film it. And it's clearly meant to be some type of promotion video to show off. It's like when I watch this Mifune video. I know Mifune was a badass. I own a copy of own his book. But the video is clearly people trying to half-ass throw an old man who is essentially an honorable teacher. I also believe Morihei Ueshiba's videos show crap live technique, but having used wrist locks in a live situation, I do not doubt the ability of Aikido tehniques. I just heavily question the way they train in them, and feel that when it comes to self defense, Aikido is a terrible first art for a person.

>What do you think of taijutsu when it's trained "properly"?

About two years ago, my old instructor talked about the proper stuff looking much tighter, almost like krav maga, and he hated that "traditionalists" had gotten their hands on the Bujinkan. Hayes actually talked about this a couple of years back at a seminar. Where ichimonji movements weren't some huge movement, bu was basically a very quick foot and hand movemenet from jumonji. That is, you don't fight from ichimonji. I went to a seminar under Bud Malmstrom, and he also hated the traditional stuff, and was talking about the difference between the kata type training vs how the stuff actually manifests. Also, I learned that Bud hated belts, especially all the extra colors that have been added by various x-kan derevitaves.

Good taijutsu under the bujinkan really doesn't look like much. That is, it looks like so many other arts that it's not really distinct. This plays into my last comment where I broke down the techniques. Takagi Yoshin Ryu is not going to look a lot different from Judo or other Jujutsu techniques. In fact, aside from a couple of principles, you really won't find too much in taijutsu from the Bujinkan you wouldn't see in a number of other martial arts schools. I mean, I know the wrist loks alone I've seen in 3 or 4 other arts that were not aikijujutsu based.

Taijutsu, as a term, can be any unarmed fighting art. It literally means "Body techniques." From a strict standpoint, Krav maga and muay thai are taijutsu when you use the word. Technically, a tenet of ninjutsu is that the individual learn taijutsu, so you could learn any fighting art that you wanted. It wouldn't have to be something under the Bujinkan or similar.

The stuff that I personally learned while under the Bujinkan was very helpful. It translated well to the boxing and combatives classes that I had to take at the Military Academy, and in my day to day duties during that time of my life. I have trained in a number of different arts since (KM, DZR, BJJ, Judo), and each of those was chosen on a basis of needing things that were real. Looking back on my treining under the Bujinkan, it wasn't training that wasn't real. However, looking at it today, I would not go back to it because what they train isn't so real 99% of the time. When I was at Fort Benning, I found an old school guy that was retired and at Ranger Training Batallion that I was fine with training under.

Additional aside: For all the guff we give the Bujinkan, off the top of my head I know two things. Takamatsu received menkyo kaiden in Kukishin ryu, but because of the way stuff was passed on, and because he didn't receive main lineage, the "den" was added on to show that it's a branch ryu. Also that the chain techinques come from Masaaki Ryu manrikigusari (no relation to Hatsumi), which Hatsumi did train in and then brought the techniques into the Bujinkan.

kimura, americana, omoplata are in judo. no leg locks. not sure about darce or anaconda. there's also a ton of gi strangles that i dont know the japanese name of.
also some places are more traditional and teach a wide array of techniques and other focus specifically on competition stuff.

darce, anaconda, all exist in judo. i guess they just aren't that prevalent in competition judo https://www.reddit.com/r/judo/comments/9649sb/is_there_a_name_for_the_guillotine_choke_in_judo/

it's all documented too https://www.amazon.com/Canon-Judo-Teachings-Principles-Techniques/dp/4770029799

so bjj just popularized some less known moves of judo and gave them different names. that and a different ruleset + sport guards.

As an aside, if Jiu-Jitsu University is a must have book for BJJ folks, then The Canon of Judo by Mifune is a must for judokas.