Jō Nage is using the jō to throw an opponent. But it is not an offensive technique. Throwing with a jō is weapon retention. Furthermore, I have shown that the use of the jō in Aikido is more closely related to bayonet than it is to staff work.
Because weapon work demands familiarity with the weapon being used, we covered basic dexterity drills.
To warm up and develop wrist flexibility and strength we performed the basic figure-eight flourish – twirling the jō in a horizontal “infinity” symbol. Starting one-handed, left, right, then transitioning to link the hands by dropping the spinning jō into the waiting open-hand.
I then demonstrated the one-handed vertical figure-eight starting with the thumb-up grasp and the jō placed perpendicular to the ground. The bunkai is to use the bottom of the jō as an overhand strike to uke’s head. To effect the strike the jō is “whipped” up and over – and because there is no contact with a target – momentum caries the jō through the arc and forces nage to perform another back hand strike. This too is a wrist warm-up and strength building exercise. It teaches your body to effect the vertical figure-eight in addition to the horizontal.
This use of the spinning jō is a potential shielding action.[1]
The basic warm-ups complete, we then performed chudan tsuki and junte tsuki.
From there I presented the 8-Count Kumijo to reinforce the foundational coordinated movements with the jō in a paired exercise and to help develop a better understanding of maai (spacing).
The jōnage techniques broader than the class outline, but especially for test-demonstration purposes, focus of the following six which are done sequentially. Mulligan sensei demonstrates the pattern with Asako. (Jō–tori follows with Alex Levens as uke.)
Mulligan Sensei 2010 Kagamibiraki
The matrix:
Time
Order
Nage
Uke
Hanmi
Throw
0:06
1
Chudan tsuki
grab jō
Left
Tsuki – counter tsuki
0:09
2
switch hands
grab jō
Right
Sweep the leg
0:10
3
switch hands
grab jō
Left
Hockey check
0:15
4
switch hands
grab jō
Right
Flowing shihonage
0:18
5
switch hands
grab jō
Left
Shihonage omote
0:22
6
switch hands
grab jō
Right
Nikkyo – wrist lock
0:25
7
lever roll uke
prone
Slip to arm bar pin
Kuden explications and presentations of bunkai applications are best covered live in the dojo – see you there!
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Variations
Gonzalez sensei provides context to empty hands and the Tissier sensei variations
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[1] A related concept to consider is the florette. Watch and listen to Master Keating‘s demonstration to further your understanding on “linking transitions.” It should augment your conceptualization of the jō.
If we take Musk at his word, he purchased Twitter to expand free speech: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” There are skeptics, of course, who doubt Musk’s sincerity. Nevertheless, Musk will likely reinstate banned individuals (including Trump), allow editing of posts, and in general have less control over posted content. This would be a move in the correct direction. The market-place of ideas should and must be unfettered.
Human-rights activists who fear a rise in “hate speech” miss the deeper principle. Hate speech is deplorable, but in an open society it must be defeated by argument, not suppression. Censorship grants ugliness moral glamour and drives it underground, where resentment ferments without reply. The better argument, the life-giving sword, is the antidote.
Deborah Brown, of Human Rights Watch, while rightly wary of state surveillance, reveals the contradiction of modern activism when she insists, “Freedom of expression is not an absolute right, which is why Twitter needs to invest in keeping its most vulnerable users safe.” Think through that statement. Freedom of expression is absolute, limited only by the libertarian maxim: one’s liberty ends where another’s begins. Speech acts certainly have impact, and there is harmful speech (which sometimes rises to criminal behavior) but we cannot and must not create safe spaces. The world is not a safe place. What needs happen is to create resilient, intelligent, and independent humans. Humans who are smart enough to evaluate information critically, who think broadly, and who are robust and assertive enough to discern and fight against evil acts. “Safety,” in the way Brown means it, requires protection from offense, not coercion. That is not liberty; it is infantilization.
To keep a platform “safe” demands surveillance. To eliminate “hate speech” requires the creation of censors. And once censors exist, they require doctrine. The instinct to protect swiftly becomes the habit to police. A population made “safe” becomes a population relieved of agency.
What Brown and the other anointed forget is that we have real-world examples of what “safe spaces” look like under enlightened censors. Erdoğan provides one. So does every tyrant who imprisons a man for speaking the wrong truth.
The digital town square has replaced the physical one, but the tension is ancient. The printing press, the radio, the television broadcast. Each age has produced its own chorus of reformers insisting that control equals virtue. Yet presses have always been privately owned, town criers always paid by the crown.[1] The illusion of “public good” has merely shifted platforms. Freedom of the press remains an ideal; in practice it has always depended on private ownership and the courage to publish what offends.
Technological democratization has lowered the cost of speech but not the price of courage. The crowd still decides what it will hear. Peckinpah’s The Osterman Weekend captured the dynamic perfectly: Rutger Hauer’s weary anchorman reminds viewers that the medium is not the villain, the audience is. “It’s a simple movement,” he says. “Done with the hand and what’s left of your free will. My bet is you can’t do it.”[2]
Consumption is a choice. So is outrage.
When Musk promises to make Twitter a freer forum, we should hold him to it but not sanctify him for it. The real test is not whether the powerful allow speech, but whether the public still has the stamina to hear what it despises.
Free speech is dangerous, impolite, and indispensable. Safety is comfortable, docile, and the first refuge of those who fear responsibility. Choose one.
Virtūs et Honos
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[1] The town square has changed. No longer a geographic location where denizens meet and listen to speakers, the digital town square is a forum of ideas where people subscribe to content. Activists who fear that ownership of any given platform will have a “chilling” impact are both correct and historically naive. Not all speakers can elocute with equal charisma (q.v. Weber’s analysis and if you don’t want to read the original, >here< is the online course). Technological advances have lowered the cost of entry and made it much easier to distribute information, but the platforms are private companies. People who believe that Twitter, Facebook, whatever the company du jour, are a “public good,” or should be subject to regulation to ensure access, need to think more critically. (There is a very interesting thread by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey on the Musk/public good concept. Do note Dorsey’s very personally lucrative post-sale regret that one should own Twitter, but if it were to be someone, it’s Musk…)
[2] We have been here before – bemoaning the private control of the public forum. The Osterman Weekend is instructive.
Rutger Hauer and John Hurt
Based on the Ludlum novel of the same name, in the movie, CIA agent Lawrence Fassett convinces John Tanner, a famous television interviewer, to collaborate with him to unmask a Russian organization which counts some of Tanner’s old friends as members. I won’t divulge the plot because the movie is worth watching (Peckinpah’s last feature film). The movie is instructive because it is a pointed indictment of the power of television (then high-tech public forum). Tanner (Rutger Hauer) delivers the damning reminder:
What you’ve just witnessed is, in many ways, a life-sized video game. You saw a liar talk to a killer and you couldn’t tell them apart. But hey, it’s only television. As you may know, television programs are just the filler between attempts to steal your money. So if you want to save some, turn me off. It’s a simple movement, done with the hand and what is left of your free will. The moment is now. My bet is you can’t do it. But go ahead and try.
[beat]
Am I still on?
The culpability is with the viewer – consumption is a choice.
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Update 4.28.22 – The Economist published its position on Musk’s acquisition >here< and I agree with its penultimate paragraph:
This newspaper shares Mr Musk’s free-speech convictions. Nobody has a monopoly on wisdom. Experts are sometimes wrong and blowhards sometimes right. Even in the internet age, the best response to a bad argument is a better one. Moderation on many platforms has become heavy-handed and arbitrarily enforced. If Mr Musk’s talent for shaking up industries can help cut the Gordian knot of online speech, everyone will benefit.
A pithy summary, but read the full article.
Update 11.18.22 – Thomas Zimmer on Musk’s libertarian-to-far-right transformation and his destruction of the public square.
Update 11.21.22 – Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, Republicans have been gaining followers and Democrats losing them. Why? I am confused by the behavioral changes given an ownership change. Selective algorithms or self-fulfilling prophecy based on user bias?
Of course, many will point to Musk’s Thanos-snap reduction of the Twitter work force by half as a cause.
The Batman (2022) is another cinematic launch of the titular character. This version is a sad reflection of the current American zeitgeist.
Robert Pattinson portrays a broken and desiccated thing: skinny, sexually repressed, with disheveled hair and runny mascara. This Batman isn’t a cavalier playboy hiding his dark persona, he is a brittle shell of vengeance. He cracks upon learning Thomas Wayne had morally questionable associates within organized crime (echoes of Kennedy?).
Riddler is an antifa agent of truth whose intelligence and gamesmanship plays the Batman to bring to light all the broken promises of the white-male oppressor class. The only virtuous character is Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), steady and incorruptible, a conscience surrounded by cynics.
This Batman manages to move past his disillusionment to become the savior “hero” but he remains a sullen and psychologically broken one – isolated and ignoring the family fortune.
Zoë Kravitz has the best role and well-portrays Catwoman. She is the strongest character, with clear maternal protective-instincts paired with sexual assertiveness and a gritty “I can do it alone” attitude. But she rejects the idea of changing Gotham for the good and abandons it.
The bleakness of the built environment is exacerbated by the constant rain. The seawall breach provides the literal deluge, a “climactic” and climate-themed cleansing that washes nothing clean.
Fortunately, Riddler is portrayed as insane – a deeply disturbed orphan whose origin story is explanatory without being exculpatory.
I watched the film over two nights, the second after attending a Political Action Committee fundraiser for local Portland candidates. The political presentations were brief and boring, they were there to fish for funding. The more interesting presentation was of the independent polling data by dhm research.
Prime issues of concern for Portlanders are homelessness and crime – with point spreads unheard of (>30%) above other issues, which indicates an overwhelming concern.
What’s missing – education and taxes, the usual concerns
And not a concern that we need help these people but rather that they need be relocated.
Not in my back yard attitude – and get the police support (good luck finding them!)
Earlier that week, while walking the industrial park near Kyrian’s dance school, I spoke with a Beaverton K-9 officer, Doc. He told me homelessness there was manageable, but the issue wasn’t displaced workers—it was addiction and migration. “They’re not locals who fell on hard times,” he said, “they’re shipped in.”
The broader Oregon concerns – pay attention to the point spread
The broader Oregon data show the same divergence: economic anxiety trailing far behind the visceral fear of civic disorder. It’s Gotham in slow motion.
Nolan and Bale’s Batman Begins (2005) offered a virile, duty-bound Bruce Wayne. Seventeen years later, Reeves gives us a spectral heir, paralyzed by his father’s sins. Let’s hope this incarnation soon feels dated and that our heroes, fictional and civic alike, recover conviction.
Protective Arts 