Jiu-Jitsu Combat Tricks: Japanese Feats of Attack and Defence in Personal Encounter

Jiu-Jitsu is a style of combat that emerges from feudal Japan and has developed into various forms of other popular styles, such as Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In its original form, which developed in Japan during the 1500s, it was developed as a way to combat fighting techniques from China, which focused on striking. In contrast, Jiu-Jitsu was developed as a way to immobilize adversaries and throw items as a defense. Grappling skills were central to the fighting style, which was developed to handle close range contact. Jiu-Jitsu techniques proved to be valuable and have since enjoyed many new developments in the style to hone it to the user’s needs and interests. For example, during the 1700s a new form emerged, Edo Jiu-Jitsu, which focused on non-armored combatants in every day situations, rather than wartime usage. In Jiu-Jitsu Combact Tricks, author H. Irving Hancock has selected many of these close-range defensive techniques, with photographs to shed light on how to utilize them. This work, being a reprint of a historical, turn of the century volume, helps to illustrate sporting interests and styles of the era as well.