Jojutsu is a Japanese martial art using staves, similar to Bojutsu. The jo staff is usually about 3 to 5 feet long, about the average length of a walking stick (providing an effective self-defense for travelers?) Jojutsu is reputed to have been invented by the great swordsman Muso Gunnosuke about 400 years ago, after a bout with wooden swords won by the legendary Miyamoto Musashi. According to this tradition Gunnosuke withdrew to a Shinto shrine and after a period of purification, meditation, and training with the staff, created the art of the jo, blending techniques of spearfighting and swordsmanship with those of other, minor methods of combat. He named his style Shindo-Muso ryu and challenged Musashi again. This time, Gunnosuke mounted an effective defense and penetrated Musashi's own two-sword strategy.
The modern study of the jo, known as jodo (way of the stick), usually leads to other arts and weapons, such as the heavy club (tanjo), the chained sickle (kusari-gama), the fast draw (iai), as well as to blows in karate and kempo or throws in judo and aikido.
Today, jojutsu has also been adapted for use in the Japanese police force, who refer to the art as keibo soho, or police stick art.
