what does "jiu jitsu" mean?

G

Gavin LeFever

Guest
just curious what it means in japanese, at least, i think it's japanese.
 
Jiu-Jitsu is Portuguese transcription of the Japanese word "Ju Jutsu", which means "gentle skill" or "gentle art".

Japanese martial arts often have the suffix "jutsu", like kenjutsu, jujutsu, aiki-jutsu. Often these arts later get modified into sports, which also serve the goal of self-improvement and spiritual self-realisation, and get the suffix "do", which means "way".

So you get kendo, judo, aikido, karate-do, etc.
 
a 2om30 post pretty much ends most threads indeed. =(
 
Yep. Ju-Jutsu = Gentle art.

End of thread again
 
The thing that most people don't understand is the context of the word "Ju" or "Gentle." It doesn't really mean gentle in the sense that you're lightly touching something; at least not in this case. In Japanese, "gentle" is synonymous with "yielding." So sometimes people translate "Jujitsu" as "Yielding art."

In any case, the entire idea behind Jujitsu, both traditional and modern day, has been the emphasis of technique over power. It's yielding in the sense that you yield to your opponent's strengths; you don't try to go head to head. Instead, you use your strength to attack his weakness. That is what is meant by "gentle" or "yielding." Obviously, if you've seen some of the traditional Japanese Jujitsu moves, or even modern day techniques, you know that they never meant it as gentle in the sense that you're touching someone gently.
 
awesome reply. thanks man. that makes a lot more sense of the translation.
 
The ending jitsu emphasizes the martial/skill aspect, do emphasizes the way/path aspect.

Some schools refer to karate-jitsu, if they see themselves as very practical.
 
Iceman5592 said:
The thing that most people don't understand is the context of the word "Ju" or "Gentle." It doesn't really mean gentle in the sense that you're lightly touching something; at least not in this case. In Japanese, "gentle" is synonymous with "yielding." So sometimes people translate "Jujitsu" as "Yielding art."

In any case, the entire idea behind Jujitsu, both traditional and modern day, has been the emphasis of technique over power. It's yielding in the sense that you yield to your opponent's strengths; you don't try to go head to head. Instead, you use your strength to attack his weakness. That is what is meant by "gentle" or "yielding." Obviously, if you've seen some of the traditional Japanese Jujitsu moves, or even modern day techniques, you know that they never meant it as gentle in the sense that you're touching someone gently.

good post. very informative.
 
im just replying because someone said "end of thread"
 
Woah a 10 year old thread that nobody is banned in. Also that Gavin Lefever guy sounds really familiar and there is a picture of him on google standing in front of my teams banner, but I've never seen him. hmmmm
 
Its what them chinanese people say when casting their ninja spells.
 
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