BJJ in comparison to JJ

[sapatiero]

My point is, he's the real deal in terms of classical japanese arts, and a direct descendant of the samurai. Close enough for me.

"He obtained a 4th Dan when he was 25 years old. From his grandfather, a samurai in charge of the protection of the Emperor, he developed as a very young person a drive for learning Kobudo (old martial arts) of the schools: Yagyu Shinkage and Shingan, Muso shinden and Jikiden ishin ryu, Nen ryu and Shinto ryu, Asama ichiden ryu.. and was to earn a 5th Dan. He stopped practicing modern budo when he realized that it is not in conformity with the tradition of the culture of Bushido"

Anyway, it's a moot point as I don't do that poo anymore.

[Kirves]

I disagree. My JJJ Soke was Fumon Tanaka (pictured below) - a modern day samarai, with authentic lineage. I was taught that Karate/Aikido/Judo all stemmed from the original mother art.

Aikido yes, mainly from Daito Ryu Aiki JJJ.

Judo yes, it is a mixture of several original JJJ styles.

Karate, well, if he's talking about "all stemmed from what boddhidharma taught millennia ago in India" then maybe, maybe (as some people claim all human fighting arts came from there).

JJJ was developed on mainland Japan by the samurai/bushi class warriors. Their time ended when the class structure was rehashed and the samurai were sort of denounced (no longer legal to carry swords, or the trappings of the social class). This happened almost a decade before karate from Okinawa was ever introduced to mainland Japan! There simply is no link between those two arts. Karate was born on Okinawa, out of Chinese martial arts and some of Okinawan crude original fighting styles (mainly 'ti' boxing and 'tegumi' wrestling). Remember Gichin Funakoshi of the Shotokan fame? He was amonst the first people to immigrate from Okinawa to mainland Japan to start teaching karate there! By that time the samurai class that invented JJJ had already been abolished decades ago.

Of course the term karate is a word in japanese language and it has been used by some styles to mean some technique categories etc. but this is not to be confused with the art of Karate we know today, that was born elsewhere and of different origins.