The Development of the Jan de Jong Jujutsu Grading System 4.0: Nidan

In a previous post, I explained how the Jan de Jong (JDJ) jujutsu grading system was developed by JDJ to further his needs at the time. 

The kyu system was developed because he needed a grading system to support his new business of teaching jujutsu on a full-time basis that was to become his sole source of income. The shodan gradings were developed to provide him with black belt instructors to further his ambitions of teaching in Europe. The nidan and sandan gradings were developed to provide JDJ with a legacy.

The story goes that the technical gradings in the jujutsu system taught by JDJ's instructors, the Saito brothers, finished at sandan with 'Progression to higher grades [being] based on the yudansha's (black belt holder) contributions to ju jitsu, the ryu (style or system), or the school and at the discretion of Shihan Jan de Jong' (Jan de Jong: the man, his school and his ju jitsu system, Jan de Jong Self Defence School, 1997, p. 11). 

JDJ needed to develop nidan and sandan gradings so that Peter Clarke, Robert Hymas, and Paul Connelly could be graded as such in order for JDJ to be able to award them higher honorary grades. They were to be his legacy. 

Ironically, when I broached the subject of 'succession planning' with JDJ in the mid-1990s, me being a business/management professional, he did not want to have a bar of it. He literally said that he didn't care what happened after he died because he wouldn't be here. His focus was always on the here and now (possibly the product of his war time experience). That appeared to change when he saw his 'expiration date' approaching, and thus the nidan and sandan gradings were developed and introduced, and the rushing through of Clarke, Hymas, and Connelly to complete those gradings.

You will be familiar with the basic format of the nidan grading because the basic template for the dan grades was set with JDJ's ikkyu in the kyu system. You will recall from the kyu grading post that the kyu system was developed as a one-off, stand-alone grading system with ikkyu being the instructor grading. 

The titles of the below sections are taken from the nidan grading requirements in Jan de Jong: the man, his school and his jujutsu system (Jan de Jong Self Defence School, 1997, p.51).

Part 1: Kime no Kata

'Demonstrate locks and throws from counters to resistance to locks and throws.'

You will recall from the above referenced ikkyu post that kime no kata is broadly taken as being a revision grading within the JDJ jujutsu grading system. The term 'broadly' is appropriate for this grading.

A general description of this part is that it involves 'changing techniques.'

The requirements of this part are five different joint-locks and three different throws to be demonstrated for the nine basic joint-locks which are resisted. Three different throws and five different joint-locks to be demonstrated for five specified throws that are resisted.

The type of resistance became a matter of debate. Greg Palmer and I are the only other two to have completed nidan and sandan under JDJ. We came after the abovementioned trio and so JDJ got to have a 'second look' at the gradings that he'd developed and only seen once before when the abovementioned trio graded. Thus, the format changed, or improvements were made based on the second look.

The same was true of shodan shinken shobu no kata where the first ones to go through (including the abovementioned trio) performed the 140 attack-defence combinations as a demonstration whereas those who came after had to perform under true reflex conditions. In this case, the form of resistance for Greg and myself differed to that used by the abovementioned trio.

JDJ was against changing techniques because he considered it to mean initially training and performing ineffective techniques, so why did he include this grading in nidan? It is probably because everyone else was teaching changing techniques at the time, and JDJ did include elements into his grading system that he was 'not a fan of' simply because others were doing so at the time, e.g., shiai. This an explanation as to why he changed his ideas of the grading the second time round.

Part 2: Ju Jitsu no Jitsuen

'Arrange a demonstration using up to eight lower grades to show some aspect of ju jitsu. Twenty minutes of explanation type demonstration and ten minutes of fast action are required to be shown.'

Greg Palmer's demonstration has been posted on YouTube in three parts.

JDJ often said that Greg's demo was the best ever, in fact, when the video of the first demo did not work out, JDJ got us (I was a member of Greg's demo team) to do it again so that he had a good video of that demonstration. Why was Greg's demo the best? Because he was a teacher and therefore knew how to train us, a la four-time premiership coach, Alistair Clarkson, who was a teacher before becoming head coach for Hawthorn.

The requirement of this grading reflects JDJ's focus on producing instructors in the dan grades. The basic idea behind this grading is that the instructor should be able to explain to others what jujutsu is, not unlike the Ju Jitsu Rekishi parts in the ikkyu and shodan gradings.

It also reflects that putting on demonstrations was a big part of the promotion of the Jan de Jong Self Defence School (JDJSDS) and JDJ at that time. Demonstration stories abound, with the older generation of the JDJSDS.

Part 3: Shinken Shobu no Kata

'Reflex examination.'

52 attack-defence combinations down from 140 in shodan. There is an increased focus on defences against punches (19).

Part 4: Hantachiwaza no Kata and Kentai Ichi no Kata

'Demonstration with uke in seiza and tori standing.'

'Demonstration of katana and the unarmed application.'

The kentai ichi no kata is an extension of the idea of the Yoseikan Budo (YB) kata that JDJ included in shodan, however, the techniques taught within this kata are not from YB.

I'm not sure, nor have I attempted to find out, where the techniques in these two kata have been taken from. This will be a different case with the future sandan grading post.

Part 5: Tanbo Jutsu and Jo Jutsu

'Demonstrate defences with tanbo.'

'Demonstrate defences against jo.'

The tanbo (short stick) section includes two sections: one where the tanbo is concealed as in the photograph to the right (although only one tanbo is used), and one where the tanbo is 'open', meaning that it is held at the end but concealed behind tori's leg.

The use of the tanbo concealed is unique to JDJ's teachings. It comes from his pencak silat teachings where the short stick (gada) is used singularly or in a pair as in the photograph to the right, and both defensively and offensively.

The JDJ ryuha that offer courses and suggest that they teach to fight with this weapon are delusional and misleading. This grading only teaches a limited number of joint-locking techniques against punches (see below), some 'tricks.' If one wants to learn how to fight with this weapon, one needs to see Peter Clarke at Southern Cross Bujutsu who is the only person to have been graded 'black' in both JDJ's jujutsu and pencak silat, and who is the only person teaching JDJ's pencak silat. The use of this most versatile of weapons is well worth studying, so see Peter Clarke.

The two sections in the tanbo section include a single joint-locking technique inside and outside, left and right, with a straight arm or retracted. Eight defences in all, covering all possibilities, which is a tactical lesson that could be extended further within the grading system. It was well thought out.

This tactical lesson was also present in the original sixth kyu grading, the first grading in the kyu system (see reference above) which was JDJ's original grading system. There are three defences against morote-kote-dori suihei (two hands grabbing the forearm of uke). When I came to realise that JDJ's grading was disjointed and while the mon system was YB based and featured unbalancing, the kyu was not and did not. I asked JDJ about two of the defences that featured unbalancing because they did not fit this newfound realisation. He explained that before he introduced the mon system, he tried to introduce the YB unbalancing into the kyu system, and that in doing so he had changed two of the three defences against the aforementioned attack. The original defences were disengagements that placed tori to the right, left, or in front but away from uke/the attacker. It was a brilliant tactical lesson, but which has since been lost through the retention of JDJ's changes, which are no longer needed due to the introduction of the mon system. 

The defences against a jo (4'6" staff) include seven techniques from the outside and one from the inside and were probably taken from YB. The techniques involve throws, joint-locks, and takedowns.

Once again, the JDJ ryuha advertising that they teach how to fight with this weapon are delusional and misleading. They are teaching 'tricks' that are included in this and other gradings. They are not teaching how to 'fight' with this weapon because if one were being taught how to 'fight' with this weapon, or the short stick, the first and principal technique that would be taught would be striking techniques. And once again, if one wants to learn how to fight with this weapon, one should go and see the abovementioned Peter Clarke at Southern Cross Bujutsu.

Part 6: Kyushowaza

'Demonstrate various pressure point attacks.'

This grading was included in nidan because in the 1990s, everybody was teaching pressure point techniques. Karate, jujutsu, aikido, wing chun, kung fu, everyone was teaching pressure point techniques. Much like ground techniques are now the flavour of the month due to Brazilian Ju Jitsu and everyone is teaching their ground techniques. I was previously unaware that wing chun and karate taught ground techniques. :/ 

George Dillman was at the forefront of this movement at the time. He couldn't sell karate because everyone taught karate so he 'differentiated his product' (marketing 101) by teaching pressure point techniques along with his karate.

I'm open to new ideas and while I was living in London, I attended a seminar hosted jointly by Wally Jay (Small Circle Theory Jujutsu) and Dillman. Jay taught his jujutsu, which basically involved bending a person's fingers backwards, and Dillman taught his pressure point techniques.

He demonstrated a technique where two hits to two different pressure points on the forearm would cause the person to fall to the ground. The explanation was that somehow the two hits caused something to travel along the nerves that caused the person to fall to the ground. His uke was an American airman who had travelled from his posting in Germany to attend Dillman's seminar. Two hits and American airman uke duly falls to the ground.

We pair up and my partner strikes my forearm twice in the designated areas and turns away, only to turn back to find me still standing. He's confused. He tries again but stays looking at me this time and sees the same result. After a couple of more tries, out of frustration, he calls Dillman over. Dillman does his two hits and turns away to explain that this is how it is done, only to turn back and find that I'm still standing. He then lays into my forearm with some almighty punches. Dillman is a short, stocky karateka and does possess powerful strikes as seen in his breaking demonstrations. His powerful strikes cause me to bend over, but not because of any pressure points but because he'd just punched the 'crap' out of my arm (I ended up with two bruises where he punched me). Dillman then walked away without explanation.

At the end of the seminar, Dillman demonstrated his pressure point knock-out technique. A hit to a pressure-point on the jaw that causes the individual to lose consciousness. He demonstrated this first on a teenage girl who was literally hiding behind a male participant at the seminar. Quick hit to the jaw and she's down. When it came to my turn, he was demonstrating this on all of the participants, lucky us, he gives me a short, sharp punch to the side of my jaw, and while I am dazed, I don't go down. I end up with a horrendous headache but not unconscious. No pressure point, just a good short sharp hit to jaw, while holding the other side of the head so that it cannot move and thus dissipate the force applied, moving the brain inside the skull and possibly causing a mild concussion.

Good times, but back to this grading. The pressure points are applied, not in a fighting context but while JDJ is sitting down. This leads to questions as to its effectiveness in a more fluid environment.

When I did my grading, the pressure points around JDJ's trapezius area were a bit pointless on his bull-like upper body. The only way a pressure point could be used effectively there is with a baseball bat. But on his 'chicken-like' legs, he felt every one, and would 'tap-off' to signify that I had got it right and he felt something. Unfortunately, his 'tap-off' was like a focused hit to the back of my head, and I was at risk of receiving a concussion, so much of that part of the grading was done at arm's length with me cringing so as not to be rendered unconscious from a 'tap-off.' This is a grading that required the wearing of protective equipment, e.g., a helmet. :)

Part 7: Shiai

'Free fight with tanto vs tanto.'

The description and issues associated with this section of the grading are discussed in a previous post.

Part 8: Jutsuri no Kata

'Oral examination conducted with at least two other candidates, discussing the technical aspects on any technique selected by Shihan Jan de Jong.'

The idea behind the grading is laudable, however, the technical knowledge within the JDJSDS and within JDJ was lacking at the time. However, a scene from Under the Tuscan Sun is pertinent here:

Martini: Signora, between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.

JDJ built the tracks, and my work goes a good way to providing that train (see previous post with this proposition and discussing this issue).

What would be some of my questions to candidates undertaking this grading?:

'Why is the final sword technique in ken tai ichi no kata that was taught to you, which you graded, and which you now teach, result in a mutual slaying?'

'What are the similarities and differences between o soto gari, o soto guruma, and o soto otoshi?' The answer to that question is complicated given that even though o soto otoshi is included in the grading system and that has been taught, graded, and is now being taught by the grading candidates, it was never understood or taught properly by JDJ and therefore by his instructors.

'Why is the te nage in the shodan shinken shobu no kata grading such a ridiculous, over complicated technique that has so many changes in direction that it makes one dizzy?' 

'Why are blocks used in conjunction with evasive body-movements in the grading system?'

'What is the purpose of the futari dori and shiai gradings in the grading system?'

Part 9 Ju Jitsu Rekishi

'Candidates are required to submit an essay with no less than 3000 words on a topic to be approved by Jan de Jong.'

My topic was an international franchise proposal for the JDJSDS. How this came about is discussed in a previous post involving our invitation to Jakarta, Java, Indonesia by a Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneur (CIE) in 1995.

It was a fantastic opportunity. One that the vast majority of start-up franchises never get.

The CIE was prepared to fund it all. A house in the Jakarta CBD to act as dojo and residence for instructors from the JDJSDS. A cook, cleaner, driver, translator, food, and a car. Marketing was taken care of as is explained in the abovementioned post. There were European instructors calling out to be included under the JDJ banner, so a successful establishment in Jakarta, fully funded by the CIE, would have gone a long way to establishing an international franchise of the JDJSDS.

JDJ and the CIE were both dead keen, but they were like two trains on different tracks heading in the same direction, but they would never meet. How do you establish an international franchise of the jujutsu taught by JDJ which takes a minimum of 10 years to be graded shodan without compromising standards? That was the question. I came up with the answer, which was the subject matter of my project that satisfied the requirement of this part of the grading.

JDJ never implemented my proposal, even though he was more focused on his international teaching than his domestic school in those days. Why not? That's a question for another day. :)

The next post will look at the final grading in the JDJ grading system - sandan.

 

The Development of the JDJ Grading System Part 2.8: Shodan (Part 7 Ju Jitsu Rekishi (History), Part 8 Kyoji (Teaching), and Part 9 (Examining)

This post will complete the review of the Jan de Jong shodan jujutsu grading.

The final three parts to the grading are all teaching oriented.

The translation of the Part title and the Part descriptions are taken from Jan de Jong: The man, his school and his ju jitsu system (Jan de Jong Self Defence School, 1995).

SHODAN PART 7: JU JITSU REKISHI

Rekishi is translated as 'history.'

'Candidates are required to submit an essay with no less than 1500 words on the history of ju jitsu and no less than 1500 words on any one aspect of ju jitsu.'

This Part carries on from ikkyu part 4 of the same name: 'Oral examination of the history of ju jitsu and a general history of Asian martial arts.'

The recommended reading for the shodan grading were:

Beginning Ju-Jitsu by James Shortt

Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts by Donn Dreager and Robert Smith

Classical Budo by Donn Dreager

Modern Budo and Modern Bujitsu by Donn Dreager

Secrets of the Samurai by Ratti and Westbrook

The Fighting Spirit of Japan by E. Harrison

Zen Combat by Jay Gluck

There have been some authoritative books published since Jan de Jong (JDJ) devised this grading and compiled the above recommended reading list. Two that should be compulsory reading are:

Legacies of the Sword: The Kashima-Shinryu and Samurai Martial Culture by Karl F. Friday (1997)

Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery by G. Cameron Hurst III (1998)

Friday is associate professor of Japanese history at the University of Georgia. Hurst was a historian of Japan and Korea holding academic posts at various universities in the U.S. and Japan. Unfortunately Hurst passed away before he could publish his promised accompanying Unarmed Martial Arts of Japan.

Friday had this to say in the introduction to his book and martial arts literature:

Errors ... persist in Western writings due in large measure to the insularity of both the audience and the authors. The overwhelming majority of the literature on Japanese martial art has been directed at practitioners and other afficionados, and penned by journalists, martial art teachers, and others without formal academic training in premodern Japanese culture or history. Not surprisingly then, most English-language books and articles on the topic have relied almost exclusively on other English-language martial art books and articles, supplemented by survey histories. Thus, mistakes and misinformation tend to circulate and recirculate largely because those with the wherewithal to correct them - the community of experts versed in Japanese history and thought, and trained to read primary sources - have generally viewed the bugei with little more than bemused condescension. (p.8)

The English-language literature on the traditional bugei includes how-to manuals, biographies of master swordsmen, translations and commentaries on classical texts, and broadly synthesizing historical or analytical studies. Much of this work suffers from historical naivete, flawed by errors of fact or conception, but most is useful in one way or another and some is quite excellent. Even the best, however, suffers from limitations imposed by the sheer diversity of the bugei. (p.9)

JDJ introduced the history grading into both his initial instructor gradings because, as he explained, an instructor needs to be able to explain what jujutsu is to prospective students and others.

My writing journey began around 2000 when I started writing a book on the jujutsu that JDJ taught. The first chapter was, 'What is Jujutsu?' Answering that question was JDJ's intent when he introduced the history grades into ikkyu and shodan, however, I found knowledge of the history of jujutsu did not answer that question.

Instead, I found Draeger was the most thorough in answering that question. Dreager consistently analysed and explained jujutsu in terms of the generic nature of the term, its history, its technical content, and the practical application of the philosophical concept of ju.

Understanding the generic nature of the term is a must in understanding what jujutsu is. When martial artists say that jujutsu is [ ], there are always exceptions. Friday has this to say about attempting to understand phenomena in generic terms:

Analysing and explaining the bugei in generic terms is a bit like conceptualising world history, world literature, or world religion in similar fashion. Standing back far enough to examine the phenomenon in toto permits one to describe its outlines, but seeking deeper insights about its essence forces one to grapple with a volume of diversity and detail that quickly becomes overwhelming. (p.9)

In addition to the generic issue above, I found that the history of jujutsu, if there is even such a thing, did not add much to the understanding of jujutsu. Instead, I found an evolutionary approach was far more informative. An evolutionary approach looks at the same historical period but with a clear focus on function. It has a clear focus on explaining how what is under investigation came to be what it is today.

An important book in this regard is Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879 by Noel Perrin (1988). This book uses the evolutionary concept of speciation, albeit not explicitly, to explain the uniqueness of the Japanese warrior arts compared to that of European knights.

Another book that looks at the evolution of the Japanese warrior that is also helpful in understanding the generic nature of the Japanese warrior arts is Heavenly Warriors: The Evolution of Japan's Military, 500-1300 by William Wayne Ferris (1996). In fact, Ferris' principles of counter-response and symmetry - the tendency of one antagonist to reproduce the same kind of weapon as the enemy, which he suggests dominated much of martial thinking in the premodern era as it does today, explains the development of the modern phenomena that is 'mixed martial arts' as a martial art in itself and which destroyed the original concept of those competitions.

The technical content of jujutsu reflects the evolution of the Japanese warrior which is explained in the last four-mentioned books. Friday compares the Japanese warrior arts to the Chinese, Korean, and Okinawan boxing arts:

Japan, however, had no counterpart to Chinese boxing - at least not until modern times. The bugei practiced in Japan today descend directly from arts developed for the battlefield. Furthermore, until modern times the Japanese fighting arts were more or less the exclusive property of the samurai, the ruling class throughout the period in which the disciplines matured. Chinese, Okinawan, and Korean boxing forms, by contrast, were created by tradesmen, peasants, ascetics, entertainers, monks, rebels, bandits, and other political have-nots. (p.6)

The final element in Dreager's explanation of jujutsu is the practical application of the philosophical concept of ju. Dreager explains that the principle has been interpreted in highly individual and technically differentiated ways, all of which are subsumed under the generic concept of jujutsu. I won't go into a discussion on the subject, but I will note that it is an important part of an explanation of jujutsu and that it serves as a point of differentiation between different jujutsu methods.

You will recall from the description of this grading at the beginning of this section that the essay is to be comprised of one half on the history of jujutsu and the other half on one aspect of jujutsu. I cannot remember what my aspect was. 

One of my training partners, Gerald Woods, a very funny person, informed me that he'd submitted his essay. I asked what aspect of jujutsu did he write about? He was perplexed. He hadn't read the instructions thoroughly and wrote the entire essay on the history of jujutsu. When I point out his error, he said au contraire. The first half of his essay was on the history of jujutsu and the second half on an aspect of jujutsu was on the aspect of the history of jujutsu. I've got to give him that.

SHODAN PART 8: KYOGI

Kyogi means 'teaching.'

'Examination of the candidate's ability to teach all grades to Ikkyu. Candidates will be judged on manner of presentation, explanation, demonstration, correction, technical knowledge and attitude to and handling of students.'

This grading follows on from part 6 of ikkyu which is exactly the same except the grades are from ichimon (1st mon) to gyoku (5th kyu).

The 'sheepdog' approach was adopted to teaching prospective teachers at the Jan de Jong Self Defence School (JDJSDS). What I mean by that is that the candidates would assist an instructor in teaching classes and would basically learn to teach by observation, with very little if any instruction. 

There were no requirements regarding minimum time assisting before being eligible to attempt the teaching grading in the JDJSDS. A JDJ ryuha has introduced a minimum time assisting requirement before being eligible to attempt the teaching grade.  

In a previous post, I explained that JDJ asked me to take over a branch of his school after 1.5 years training, graded 3rd kyu (orange belt), and after having never assisted any instructor in the school. Maggie de Jong once attempted to 'explain' to me the the high calibre of our instructors was because they all had assisting experience and were graded shodan (conveniently forgetting that instructors were ikkyu when there was no shodan grading). I reminded her that her father had asked me to take over a branch of his school when I was 3rd kyu and that I had never assisted any instructor. She backtracked and said that I was the exception. I was the exception, but why?

I didn't stop teaching from the time I started, and I only ever assisted two instructors at the JDJSDS. One was Peter Clarke, who was one of the trio that JDJ awarded rokudan (6th dan). I requested to assist him because I thought I could learn something from him. The other was JDJ who asked me to assist him in his classes. I also assisted him teaching throughout Western Europe, the Eastern States, and Java, Indonesia. I came to be the main instructor at the JDJSDS teaching more classes and private lessons than any other instructor there at the time (mid-90s).

I also assisted Debbie Clarke when she was teaching the women's self defence courses that she developed and taught for the JDJSDS. I was the only male to do so for any extended period and I learned a great deal assisting her. One thing I learned that being a martial arts instructor does not necessarily prepare you for teaching women's self defence.

There was no consistency in teaching standards or methods at the JDJSDS. Teaching martial arts is still an amateurish affair. It is patently obvious that teaching prospective teachers how to teach would lift the teaching standard within the school and introduce some sort of consistency in terms of teaching standards and methods that can only benefit students.

SHODAN PART 9: EXAMINING

'Candidates are required to assist with 40 hours of gradings in an assistant examiner capacity. Twenty (20) hours must be completed with Shihan Jan de Jong. An official record signed by the head examiner is to be submitted.'

There is no similar grading in ikkyu. You will recall from a previous post that ikkyu was the instructor grading in the one-off kyu system that JDJ initially developed. Why is there no examining requirement in ikkyu? 

If there was no consistency in teaching standards within the JDJSDS there was absolutely no consistency in examining standards. The standard varied so widely that no candidate for this grading could have developed an understanding for what standard is required for any grading in the JDJSDS.

There was one senior instructor who was so lenient in his marking that it was nigh on impossible to fail a grading under him (in terms of teaching standards, it was his students who tended to fail gradings). There were other senior instructors who considered JDJ too lenient and so tended to mark a lot harder than JDJ. In fact, one of the instructors went out of his way to show me what a 'high standard' he imposes on grading performances when I was 'assisting' him that he was in danger of failing the student who did not deserve to fail. In the second half of the grading, he overly compensated but passed the responsibility for those marks over to me, his supposed assistant.  

On a grading table, there is the examiner with either one or two 'assistants' sitting there with them. For the most parts, the assistants are 'bookends.' The do nothing, are taught nothing by the examiner, and learn nothing. I'm not a 'bookend' type of person.

The senior instructors who openly considered JDJ to be too lenient in his marking of gradings, I figured JDJ couldn't be that bad because he graded them, and they are not too shabby. So I decided to teach myself to grade to JDJ's standard.

I would assess the grading performance in my head and compare my marks to that of JDJ. If there were major differences, I would ask JDJ about them when the grading and awarding had been completed. In time, I got so good at this that I would regular get within one or two marks of JDJ's assessment. I can confidently say that I can grade to the same standard as JDJ. That is how I know that the other instructors were inconsistent with their marking, when it came to the standard being set by the head of the school, JDJ.

The current approach to this grading is generally a waste of time. There are better ways to develop examiners. For instance, formalise my approach. Have the assistants mark a grading sheet and then compare them with the examiner. Alternatively, technology can assist. Get examiner candidates to watch videos of gradings, grade them, and compare them to the standard set by the principal of the school. In this way, differences can be identified and clarified in real time (remember, this cannot be done during gradings as it would interrupt gradings).  

K. Saito

 This is a photo that was recently posted on the Facebook page of a school that was founded by a student of an instructor of Jan de Jong's who founded his own school after JDJ passed away.

The caption to the above photo posted on the abovementioned Facebook page read: 'Possibly K.Saito, in this Photo. Instructor of Master Jan de Jong.'

Oral history tells us that JDJ was originally instructed by 'the Saito brothers' - S. Saito (8th dan) and K. Saito (7th Dan). 

Why is the K. Saito in the photo possibly the instructor of JDJ? Is it because he's Japanese and is in a martial arts outfit?

Saito is apparently the 20th most common name in Japan!

I understand that the martial arts is a bastion of anti-intellectualism, but please, at least apply a modicum of intellectual effort.

The person who posted this photo would not appear to have the faintest idea where the photo came from or even what era it came from. Thank God there was a Western person in the photo to possibly narrow the era down to, what, late 1800s-early 1900s. If he wasn't there, would this still possibly be K. Saito, the instructor of JDJ?

The photo is included in Jiu-Jitsu Tricks: The Secret Science of the Japanese Against Which Weight and Strength Does Not Count, K. Saito, New York: R.F. Fox, 1905. There is no information in that book about the author - K. Saito. In fact, given the time and that R.F. Fox published a number of articles and books about jujutsu at that time, one could question the 'authorship' of K. Saito.

I tried to inform the abovementioned Facebook party that the K. Saito they were referring to was not JDJ's instructor. How do I know for certain? Because JDJ told me so himself. He had a copy of the abovementioned book and when I raised it with him, he brought it out of his library and told me that that K. Saito was not his instructor. The aforementioned Facebook party deleted that comment as it would not appear to support their efforts of establishing credibility through dubious means. They were also the ones misappropriating images from this blog to promote themselves and their school. A subject of a post that I have subsequently deleted when they 'saw sense' and deleted their misappropriated images. No need to continue to beat someone when they appear to have learned the lesson.

By the way, the Western gentleman in the photo is not the legendary E.J. Harrison as he explains in a letter to Robert W. Smith in a letter on October 20, 1957. It may have been the gentleman that went on to introduce jujutsu to President Theodore Roosevelt.

While we can learn very little from the lazy and ignorant directly, we can learn from them by investigating their unfounded assertions.

Did JDJ learn jujutsu from the Saito brothers? Firstly, why would he credit them with his early training if nobody knows anything about them? He could have picked any number of Japanese names if he needed a Japanese origin to gain credibility.

We do know for a fact that there were Japanese brothers living in Semarang at that time, one of which was a photographer and the other a florist, which is how JDJ described the Saito brothers. That independent source is provided in Jan Ruff-O'Herne's harrowing 50 Years of Silence. Shortly before JDJ passed away, JDJ also showed me a photographic book with a photo in Semarang taken by a K. Saito. The photo was of a market place at the bottom of a hill which JDJ said they used to ride either their bikes or go-carts down and crash into market stalls. JDJ said that that photo was taken by his K. Saito.

And now for something ENTIRELY new that God forbid someone might follow up on:

Kōji Saitō (斎藤 鵠児, Saitō Kōji, born 1893, date of death unknown) was a Japanese photographer.[1]

  (in Japanese) Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, editor. 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (『日本写真家事典』, Nihon shashinka jiten). Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8 

Is this the FIRST time we have a name for the 'K' in name of the K. Saito that was one of JDJ's jujutsu instructors?

Jan de Jong Side-Drive Kick

You will recall from my last post that Sensei Dan Newcombe, founder of Self Defence Central Dojo and Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu International, forwarded a number of photographs taken in the 1950s when his father and uncle trained under JDJ to me. This is the latest installment.

JDJ executing a side-drive kick. JDJ was never keen on the knife-edge for the foot, preferring instead to use the heel with the body weight behind the kick.

The other person's posture is interesting. It appears to be silat-like, however, JDJ had not formally begun to teach silat at that time. It may be a flowing bodymovement (nagashi) with a brushing block but JDJ had not traveled to Japan to train under Mochizuki where the taisabaki taught in his system originated.

The dojo is the Swan River Rowing Club. The mat is handmade by JDJ's first wife, as were the gis, as no martial arts products were available for purchase at that time.

JDJ often told the story of how when he first started teaching at the SRRC, they trained on floorboards and that after the first session or two, and when a student put both feet through the floorboards when executing a bridge fall, the class shrank to a few people. Obviously this mat was then brought out to encourage students to continue with their jujutsu.

Harry Hartman trained at this dojo and he informed me that the mat was rolled up and stored in a storeroom at the SRRC.

This is a photo for comparison over the years. The first photo was taken in the 1950s while the above photo was taken in the late 1980s. JDJ was in his 30s in the first photo and in his 60s in the second. The person executing the defence is JDJ's Indonesian pencak silat guru, Soehadi. This photo is taken in JDJ's home dojo with his silat senior students in the background, including Peter Clarke, fourth from the right.

Ave atque vale Matsuri

Unfortunately, I discovered today that another of the Jan de Jong icons had passed away - the Matsuri restaurant.

It was a tradition after the instructors class on Friday nights to go out to dinner. For many years that involved walking down Hay Street to the Matsuri restaurant. A Japanese restaurant with prices that defied inflation and food that was very good.

They had one poor serving habit though. They'd serve the trays with the hot miso soup (great miso soup) closest to the customer. First Debbie Clarke, the first female Jan de Jong yudansha, wore the soup in her lap. I was next. Steaming miso soup, not loose jeans, groin - not a pleasant combination. It was an odd scene when entering the men's toilet seeing me in my underpants drying my groin and jeans under the hand dryer. However, not before I'd patted down my burning groin with cold water.

All instructors of JDJ were introduced to both Japanese and Indonesian cuisine. It was difficult to find an Indonesian restaurant in Perth within a reasonable distance of the school, but on the odd occasion, for a short period of time, we sometimes did. I made my speech at the Garuda Inda (or was it Indonesia) when I was awarded sandan. I of course ordered rendang.

Love my rendang. Even from dodgy foodhalls. When I was traveling with JDJ through Java, Indonesia, I ordered rendang in a restaurant in a village that we were traveling through. As we were leaving, JDJ pointed out that there were a lot of dogs around which was unusual for Java. He then pointed out that this region was known for eating dog, and that I'd had dog rendang the night before, which he had neglected to tell me at the time of ordering.

At the Matsuri, my favourite dish was katsu curry. It's a classic example of Japanese culture. The Japanese adopted deep frying and curry from the Portuguese and adapted it to their tastes. Adopt and adapt, a classic trait of the Japanese. They adopted the gun from the Europeans and then adapted it and in the process made it more effective and efficient than the Europeans (see Noel Perrin, Giving Up The Gun).

My favourite entree was octopus in lime vinegar with seaweed. That was usurped by the thin slivers or raw beef in lime vinegar with chunks of garlic. Both magnificent and with a common theme - vinegar. Put vinegar on most things and I'd eat it. They also used to serve as a side dish these most magnificent pickled vegetables. Pickling of course involves vinegar.

Ave atque vale Matsuri. I will miss you.

The Way of Kaizen

The Way of Kaizen is the title of my article published in this month's Blitz magazine. It is what I consider to be Shihan Jan de Jong OAM 9th Dan's legacy. Would love to hear some feedback on the article.

Demo Bloopers

My previous post got me reminiscing. I remembered some of our demonstrations, and there were a lot of demonstrations, both domestically, nationally, and internationally.

I remember my first demonstration. Everybody was busy so myself and my training partner were to give the demonstration with Sensei Paul Connolly providing the initial guidance. He instructed us, orange belts at the time, to demonstrate unarmed defences against a bo (6'6" staff) ... even though we'd never used one before. Fair enough.

We'd trained jo and therefore could adapt to bo and did so quite well even if I do say so myself. I was attacking with the bo and my partner was defending. We'd gone through our routine and on the last attack-defence we both looked at each other ... nothing. We couldn't remember the attack or defence. We circled each other in the hope that one of us would remember, but nothing. In the end I just attacked with a roar and he defended with whatever.

Then there was the time that we were demonstrating nunchaku techniques at a Dutch festival in Perth where Shihan Jan de Jong was the patron. Our nunchaku techniques involve ensnaring to execute all manner of techniques rather than just striking. The very first defence ensnared my wrist and brought it back behind me to cause me to fall to the ground (a takedown technique). As the nunchaku passed my face, one end hit my nose and broke it.

I laid on the ground, snorted out blood clots from my nose, jumped up and attacked again to be once again dispatched with. This happened for the entire demo. I made sure that my attacks were directed so that I would not land on the blood clots I was snorting on the ground and that it would be fast and furious so that there was no time for blood to be seen on my face or uniform.

At the end of the demo, we bowed and walked towards our group, and then my nose cascaded with blood. We were arranged in front of the St John Ambulance display, and when they saw me walking towards them they stopped clapping and guided me into the ambulance for attention.

Then there was the time in Sweden where Sensei Maggie de Jong and I were going to demonstrate kenjutsu (sword art) techniques. When we were demonstrating, Maggie attacked and I defended. I was training third dan at that stage, Maggie was first dan. I was super fast, Maggie was not. I had defended well in advance of Maggie's attack resulting in her sword slicing through the top of my left pointer finger. There was so much blood that when I was at the toilet basin, the blood was coming out of the joints in the pipes. There is now permanent nerve damage to the top of that finger.

Lesson to learn from that experience. Speed is nothing, timing is everything.

There was also the time that Maggie and myself were practicing for a demo in Java, Indonesia at a motel. I got the slightest of grazes in the practice session. We gave the demo in a dried rice paddy field in the country, a scene that could have taken place in an Asian marital arts movie. A day later I had a high fever, sweating, and couldn't straighten my leg. Jan de Jong took one look at the red line running from my groin to my leg and drove me to a hospital in Semarang where I was diagnosed with blood poisoning. Apparently a day later would have been a day too late.

Then there was the Norway jujutsu summer camp. At the end of the week, all of the instructors at the camp were to put on demonstrations. Our team was comprised of Jan de Jong, Maggie, myself, and a Danish instructor who is a good friend of ours. I was to attack ... for everyone. As they announced who was to demonstrate it would be Jan de Jong and John Coles, Maggie de Jong and John Coles, Danish fellow and John Coles. Every group of defences, I was attacking. Maggie did this magnificent foot sweep with a jo that had me upside down and doing a 360 before landing on my head. Jan de Jong was demonstrating jo techniques and missed the initial catch but made up for it when he took me down and applied the jo to my throat ... damaging one of the cartilages in my throat. For six months there was this clicking sound in my throat when I swallowed.

I was suppose to have two groups of defences to demonstrate with the Danish chappy attacking. Jan de Jong some how forgot those groups and so nobody got to see if I could actually defend myself or not. Insult to injury I'd say.

The generation before me also had their stories. A demo at the WACA had one female student have a knife plunged into her leg but carried on as if nothing had happened. Another person, who will remain nameless but who is a police officer, was handcuffed by Jan de Jong only for them to find that they had forgotten to bring the key along with them. This police officer jujutska was taken home handcuffed.


Oh God, the memories come flooding back. De Jong would demonstrate the use of the short stick, a baton, where it is initially held in a concealed position. A use of the baton from that position is to flick it to the attackers groin when they are attacking. For the first and only time in my jujutsu life, I wore a groin guard on that European tour. De Jong flicked and it made contact with my groin guard with an audible noise. I reacted with a bit of a flinch and the audience went 'ooo ahh'. De Jong, ever the showman, warmed to this idea and the hits got progressively harder with the same audience reaction. One day in Holland, I attacked, De Jong flicked, no audible noise ... other than my groans as I lay on the ground with my knees around my ears grabbing my groin. I had forgotten to wear the groin guard. De Jong stood over me and said, 'You forgot to wear your protection today man.' No shit Sherlock.

And there was the same time at the same dojo where De Jong was explaining his lesson in Dutch and looked at me for an attack that he had just described. I DON'T SPEAK DUTCH. He was looking insistent and not wishing to embarrass him, I attacked ... with whatever attack I chose. The next thing I knew I was on the flat of my back with De Jong standing over me asking me why I attacked like that. 'BECAUSE I DON'T SPEAK DUTCH.' He laughed and explained to the audience, in Dutch, what had just happened and they all laughed as well. Very funny.

We did many demos, there were many people that did many demos, and I'm sure they all have their own stories. So many stories.

The Perfect Storm

Sensei Ross Taylor (right) is a highly respected aikidoka in Perth who has established his own aikido school. Sensei Taylor posted a message on Facebook yesterday commemorating the sixth anniversary of the passing of his instructor, Yoshiaki Unno.

Sensei Taylor's post gave me cause to consider the set of circumstances that had to come together in order for him to develop a passion for aikido which led to his founding of his school. It included colonialism, two wars, the force of nature, climate, language, politics, scarce resources, immigration, a dysfunctional relationship, and a 20 year old man who, in 1940, wanted to become a pilot.

The 20yo man was Jan de Jong and he lived in the Dutch colony of Indonesia pre-1940. In 1940 he travelled to Holland to fulfill his ambition of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately he got caught up in WWII, which fortunately meant he had to turn to teaching jujutsu in order to earn money and survive.

The end of WWII saw nature impose a harsher winter than normal on Holland. This winter came to be known as the 'Hunger Winter' because of the deprivations the occupation and the weather imposed on the Dutch.

In order to escape the deprivations of Holland at that time, De Jong returned to equatorial Indonesia. He returned to a nation which was violently struggling for independence.

After 10 years of war (WWII followed by the Indonesian War of Independence), De Jong decided to relocate to a more peaceful environment. His Hunger Winter experience disinclined him to consider the northern hemisphere, so the options were reduced to Argentina, South Africa, and Australia. Argentina was rejected on language grounds; South Africa was rejected on political grounds (apartheid); so through the process of elimination Australia was chosen. Perth was selected because of its proximity to Indonesia.

In Perth, De Jong started teaching work colleagues jujutsu during their breaks and after work which led to his founding of the Jan de Jong Self Defence School. This would eventually become his full-time occupation.

I have argued throughout this blog that De Jong developed his jujutsu system. He would tell us that the Dutch would think him insane because he would always run to his apartment during an air raid to retrieve his suitcase of martial arts books which he would take with him to the shelter. I now appreciate that this was in no way a collector's idiosyncrasy. These books were the source of his continued professional development. De Jong was the epitome of a life long commitment to continuous improvement.

In Perth, De Jong became involved with Phillipe Boiron who introduced him to Minoru Mochizuki's Yoseikan Budo. In 1969, aged 48, De Jong travelled to Japan to continue his professional development by training under Mochizuki.

Wishing to continue his professional development, De Jong petitioned Mochizuki to send an instructor to Perth to teach in his school. Mochizuki sent Yoshiaki Unno.

Unno teaching for De Jong was always going to end in tears. Unno held the grades of 7th dan aikido, 7th dan karate, 6th dan kobudo (weapons), 4th dan bojutsu and 2nd dan judo. He also taught kenjutsu. At that time, De Jong was only graded 3rd dan jujutsu and 1st dan aikido (in addition to his pencak silat qualification). The inevitable happened and Unno left the employ of De Jong to establish his own school.

One of Unno's many students was Ross Taylor who then went on to found his own school. Quite amazing. But I suppose it is just one amazing story of many associated with people's involvement in the martial arts.

Jan De Jong Pt 10 - Indonesia 1995 Pt 3

The 1995 Indonesian tour continues.

The photograph to the right was taken when we visited a pencak silat school/instructor in Bandung. It would appear that pencak silat has far greater respect in Indonesia than most martial arts in other countries as the tourist maps of the city included a number of silat schools to visit. We visited one such school which taught Mande Muda style of pencak silat.

The instructor's young son was playing with toy cars on the ground when we introduced ourselves. Jan de Jong paid some attention to the young lad who, when invited by his father, put on the most amazing impromptu display of pencak silat. The instructor showed some of his tactics and techniques using, you guessed it, yours truly as the receiver of the techniques. He then asked if we wanted to see how they condition their arms for combat, to which De Jong expressed his interest.

I was instructed to sit on the ground with a specific leg configuration (see photograph). The instructor then proceeded to beat my forearm from wrist to elbow along the ulna with a short stick. He only stopped when there was an unbroken, raised welt the full length of the ulna. He then proceeded to massage a truly revolting smelling liquid into the bruised flesh (see photograph). Then the bashing continued, followed by more massaging of the bruised flesh. I'm not sure what hurt more, the bashing or the massaging of the bruised, tenderised flesh that was my forearm. Not wishing to embarrass De Jong, I didn't object to this assault and tried not to register any expression of discomfort or pain. After repeated cycles of this process I must confess to having thoughts about what other uses the short stick could be put to. I ended up with a perfect, unbroken, raised, deep purple bruise running the full length of my ulna. Apparently they go through this process twice a week before moving onto harder materials to condition their forearms.

We ran into one of De Jong's pencak silat students in the back blocks of Java. The tourist 'attraction' where we ran into this student was a place with bubbling, grey, sulfur-smelling mud. Sulfur-smelling meaning it smells of rotten eggs. Why sulfur-smelling mud is a tourist attraction is beyond me, but, that is where we ran into De Jong's student. De Jong of course remembered who he was. He had an amazing memory in this regard. At one of the seminars in Holland in the mid 1990s, a grandfather of one of the young seminar participants approached De Jong and asked him if he remembered him. De Jong looked at him for a moment or two then said he did and that he was one of his students during WWII, nearly 50 years previous. The grandfather confirmed De Jong's identification and then tearfully and proudly showed him his membership card he'd kept all those years.

We visited many places of significance to De Jong. The house where he grew up, various places he practiced as a physiotherapist after WWII, and of course the place where the Saito's dojo used to be. De Jong pointed out the school he used to attend in Semarang and told of the time when his father visited the school to check on his son's progress. His father was somewhat surprised to learn that his young son had not attended the school in the past six months. De Jong had been attending his jujutsu classes instead of his school classes. De Jong explained, with a rye smile, that his father was not pleased.

We also visited Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city. Shortly after writing the blog concerning De Jong's return to Indonesia after WWII, a newspaper article was published which told of an Australian 'who had a front row seat as history unfolded' (http://www.smh.com.au/world/artist-had-a-front-row-seat-as-history-unfolded-20101119-1810k.html). British Brigadier General A.W.S. Mallaby was killed by Indonesian independence fighters in 1945 to which the British responded 'with a terrifying and vengeful sweep of Surabaya aided by a huge air and sea bombardment.'

'That was the cruelest thing I had seen,' says Rafty. 'They didn't care who they bombed. They killed many women and children. There was no justification for what they did to the city of Surabaya and its people.' It was a bloodbath, which Rafty vividly recorded in a series of sketches. Some 10,000 Indonesians died and many more fled the city as the British gradually asserted control after three weeks of ferocious fighting. The day the bombardment in Surabaya was launched, November 10, is National Heroes day in Indonesia, its equivalent of Anzac Day. And, like Anzac Day, it honours a terrible defeat.

This was in addition to the deal Lord Mountbatten made with the Japanese to disarm the Indonesian's before they surrendered to the British in order to pave the way for the Dutch to reclaim their colony. Interestingly, it was Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, who advised the British of Mallaby's assassination which sparked this post WWII bombardment.

Don't you find it interesting (or hypocritical) that a basic tenet of our legal system is that only proportionate force is legally allowable to an attack in cases of self defence. However, our governments, in our name, have often used force against others which is out of all proportion, e.g. the bombing of Vietnam and the British bombing of Surabaya.

Jan de Jong Pt 10 - Indonesia 1995 Pt 2

Recall from the last post that Jan de Jong, his wife and daughter (Maggie), and myself travelled to Java, Indonesia in 1995 to meet with a Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneur to discuss a possible franchise opportunity. De Jong took this opportunity to nostalgically tour the country of his birth and to visit various Javanese martial artists. It really was the most amazing of experiences. Among the many highlights was a visit to the world heritage listed Buddhist temple, the Borobudur (see photograph right). It is the most amazing structure with the most amazing history (see http://www.unescoworldheritagesites.com/borobudur.htm).

I'm not sure how it was arranged, but De Jong was the honoured guest at a jujutsu event held in the Javanese countryside. It was like a scene from an Asian martial arts movie. We arrived in SUVs to find Javanese jujutsuka in pristine white gis standing in military precision, row upon row, in the very hot tropical sun. The location was in a dried paddy field bordered on three sides by rice paddies, tended by a local farmer in his conical hat leading a row of geese with a long stick and a rag hanging off it. He didn't seem to pay much attention to this odd scene of white-gi clad martial artists in the middle of his rice fields. The paddy field had coloured banners planted around its borders, and the mountains in the distance shimmered in the heat haze.

The Javanese put on a demonstration before a ceremony was held to award a number of them higher dan grades. De Jong was the honoured guest overseeing the ceremony and participated in congratulating the awardees. We then put on a demonstration.

Our demonstration 'team' consisted of De Jong, Maggie, and myself. Guess who did all the attacking? The attendees loved it. So did the villagers who sat on the outskirts, and the youngsters were enjoying themselves but were also so respectful. The gentleman to the right of De Jong in the above photo was known as 'the Tiger'. He had a moustache and was missing his front teeth, but he had a smile that could only enlarge. He was the 'sergeant major' who stood in front when the jujutsuka were on parade and directed them. De Jong used him to demonstrate a particular technique/trick/principle in which he disengaged the Tiger's strangle using the thumb and pointer finger of both hands, and with no force. The Tiger loved it! He proceeded to chase De Jong around the field, his smile getting wider, attempting to strangle De Jong to which he responded by disengaging the Tiger's hands with no effort whatsoever.

Our demonstration was met with enthusiastic encores which De Jong happily satisfied. Why not? He was not the one being flung to what was fast becoming a muddy surface, or having painful locks applied to various joints of his body by the consummate martial artist, or being on the receiving end of various weapons-based techniques.

A couple of days later, we were in a bungalow in the hills above Semarang. We were going to ride horses up some mountain-side to some temple and watch the sun rise. Apparently it's a wonderful experience. 'Apparently', because that morning De Jong found me profusely sweating and unable to straighten my leg. He took one look at me, and my fever, and the red line running the length of my leg up to my groin, and diagnosed me with blood poisoning. Maggie and I had done a little practice in our motel room prior to the paddy field demonstration and I had slightly grazed my leg. Voila: muddy field + tropics + soft Westerner = blood poisoning + fever + a possibly fatal outcome.

De Jong immediately took me to the local hospital. As it turns out, it was the hospital where De Jong practiced physiotherapy when he returned to Indonesia from Europe after WWII (see previous blogs). It was also the hospital Hans de Jong was born. The room I was treated in turned out to be the room De Jong practiced in. I had my antibiotic injection within five minutes of arrival, but De Jong did not emerge for another 30 or 40 minutes. He got talking to the doctor who, as it turned out, knew the doctor De Jong practiced with and who had only retired a couple of years ago.

Jan de Jong Pt 10 - Indonesia 1995 Pt 1

In 1995, Jan de Jong was invited to Jakarta, Indonesia by a Chinese-Indonesia entrepreneur (CIE) to discuss the possibility of francising Jan de Jong jujutsu using the Jan de Jong brand. De Jong took this opportunity to visit various jujutsu contacts in Java, Indonesia and partake in a bit of a nostalgic tour. De Jong was accompanied by his wife, daughter, and myself.

De Jong and his wife travelled separately to Maggie (his daughter) and myself. On arrival, Maggie and I were confronted by stern faced, gun-toting, military who were performing customs duty. They started searching our luggage and came across some brochures with a gi-wearing De Jong assuming a pose using short sticks in (what I consider) a very pencak silat manner. When Maggie explained that this was her father in response to their questions, the stern faces quickly turned into the most welcoming smiles as they helped us re-pack our luggage and assisted us to our awaiting transport. I've another story to tell where De Jong's name helped me through customs, but that's another story for another time.

Not long after we'd arrived, we gave a demonstration on the seventh floor of a high rise office building the CIE had built in the Jakarta CBD. When I say 'we', I mean that I attacked and De Jong and his daughter demonstrated various defences. Again, always the uke never the tori.

The building was newly constructed and the floor we were on had not been fitted out. The CIE had imported tatami (mats) from Japan specifically for this demonstration. The photograph above is of this demonstration location. De Jong is center, Maggie is left and I am right. The tatami are underfoot and you may or may not be able to see they are still covered in plastic wrapping at the time the photograph was taken. We removed the wrapping prior to the actual demonstration. The Jakarta CBD skyline is outside the windows. I can tell you it is a surreal experience being thrown with a tomoe nage (whirl throw or more commonly stomach throw) and seeing any CBD skyline seven floors up at eye level while you're upside down in the air. The demonstration was attended by over a dozen national newspapers and magazines, three national television networks, and various dignitaries including many from the military, including General Eddie Nalapraya of past blog fame. One of the Jan de Jong Self Defence School's younger members would return from holidays to explain how surprised he was to see his instructor (Maggie) demonstrating jujutsu on Indonesian national TV.

When in Jakarata, we stayed with an old friend of De Jong's who was one of the Indonesian jujutsuka who had visited De Jong in Perth (see previous blog). Very hospitable. He lived in one of the 'suburbs' of Jakarta with earth roads rather than paved. Each morning I'd sit on the tiled veranda drinking the strong kopi tubruk (mud coffee) listening to the bread man calling 'roti, roti, roti' (bread, bread, bread) which was echoed by the neighbour's mimicking bird. After we'd returned from our travels, the grandmother washed my dirty gi. She literally boiled them in a tub over an open flame. Unfortunately, the badges we wore on our gi were red and white, so, my white gi became a pink and white tie-dyed gi. I've seen camouflage gi in recent times, but my pink and white tie-dyed gi never caught on.

The CIE was very keen on franchises. His most recent venture had been the franchise of Korean restaurants. After one particular meal, he drove us to his palatial home. Once there, De Jong provided an unofficial private lesson for the CIE which explained his 'school of thought'. We sat on the floor of the CIE's private ballroom at his home, complete with chandelier, to discuss the franchise opportunity. He explained he owned a house in the Jakarta CBD which was earmarked for the first dojo, and which was to be the accommodation for a De Jong instructor, and he had a car and driver already assigned to the instructor. The CIE had some tatami (see above) and explained how he intended to obtain more. There was a great deal of interest expressed from both the CIE and De Jong.

When we returned from our travels 'in-country', the CIE showed us his sporting complex where he hoped the Indonesian international tennis open would be played. That same night he took us to a colonial style restaurant as he knew De Jong (a) enjoyed Indonesian cuisine, and (b) had certain nostalgic feelings for the Indonesian ristafal (literally rice table, an Indonesian banquet). The old colonial building complete with black and white checkered tiles reminded De Jong of a restaurant he worked in as a young man. When the Indonesian women came to our table with the various dishes for us to choose from, De Jong was quite emotional. It took him back to a time long since past.

This is but a small part of this most remarkable of adventures.

Jan de Jong Pt 5 - The Perth Years

In the last blog we left Jan de Jong and his young family emigrating to Perth, Western Australia in 1952. There are various subjects of interest during this period until his death in 2003 which will be discussed in detail in future blogs.

De Jong arrived in a very provincial Perth in 1952. When discussing this subject he would use as an example that Perth had only one Chinese restaurant at that time. His physiotherapist qualifications weren't recognised in Australia so he initially worked as a labourer. It wasn't long before his work colleagues started to ask him to teach them martial arts. He initially taught them during his lunchtime break for no charge on what has now become the site of the West Australian parliament. This then laid the seed of an ambition to teach martial arts as a full-time profession. In the forward to my Jan de Jong: The man, his school, and his ju jitsu system, De Jong explains:

Looking back at my own early years in Australia (1952-1963), self defence was often considered a rather peculiar and odd thing to do. The term 'judo' was known by some, but most people had not even heard of 'karate' or 'kung fu,' let alone 'jujutsu'. My expressed intention to make the teaching of this art into my living was almost always met with doubt, if not ridicule. The idea that anyone could teach an oriental self defence professionally was not considered possible. However, I had the confidence that I could and would do this. When I did make it my full-time occupation in 1963, to the best of my knowledge I was the only full-time martial arts instructor in Australia.

Later that year he took his first steps in realising that ambition by offering classes in a premises located in North Perth. That same year he relocated his school to Victoria Park and then finally to his residence in Scarborough. Hans de Jong, his son, who would go on to make teaching jujutsu his full-time profession as well, recalls students being inadvertently thrown over balconies and through walls during lessons held at the Scarborough residence.

In 1955, De Jong's school was relocated to Swan River Rowing Club located on the city's foreshore. Attending the first class were ten students. After demonstrating a bridgefall and putting both his feet through the floorboards into the river, only three students returned for the next lesson. It was suggested that the use of mats may encourage more people to take up jujutsu, so, as mats were not available in those days, they made some mats by hand. Rodney Miller, a student in the 1960s and later an instructor, recollects training on these home-made mats: 'Can you imagine training on canvas mats? Well, that's what we had in the early days. They were especially good for mat burns and broken toes.'


In 1960, the school was relocated to 870 Hay Street, Perth, which is located in the Perth central business district. The photograph to the right is of training at the 870 Hay Street dojo. You might note how thin the room is. One can only imagine the difficulties this imposed on training. Also look closely and you'll see the home-made mats that Miller was so fond of. De Jong is kneeling centre.


In 1963 the school was moved to 996 Hay Street where it remained until De Jong's death in 2003. The building was full of character ... which is another way of saying it was a dodgy old building. It was a large building with four (five in the earlier years) separate large matted areas.


It was around this time that De Jong imported a large number of tatami from Japan. Towards the end they were moved around and tapped up due to the wear and tear they sustained over the decades. The photograph to the right was taken around 1963 according to Warwick Jaggard (aka Zak), a colourful character who went on to become an instructor for De Jong. He joined the school in that year and said that he 'always always loved the smell of the tatami as you walked in off the street.'

The building only had a ceiling in the upper area. Down stairs in the main training areas there was no ceiling, only a tin roof. On hot summer days when it was 30 degrees plus outside, it was another 5 or 10 degrees hotter inside. On some Saturdays you could not stand still in one place on the mats because of the heat radiating off the mats onto your bare feet.

Classes were held at the 996 Hay Street dojo six days a week. The dojo was open from morning until late at night so there was always somewhere to train. For whatever reason, when I commenced training in 1983 I attended two lessons a day, six days a week and took the opportunity of also doing training at the dojo in addition to the classes.

In 1965 the first branch was opened and over the years there would be many more branches opened throughout the Perth metropolitan area. In 1975 the name of the school was changed to 'Jan de Jong’s Self Defence School'. The school grew to, at its peak, having 800 to 1,000 students, without sensationalisation nor inflated promotion. Standards were never lowered as De Jong had a qualitative rather than an economic imperative when it came to his teachings.

From 1955, attendance at De Jong's pencak silat classes was by invitation only. In 1968 he offered classes in pencak silat to the public for the first time. Given the informal nature of pencak silat, De Jong would have to develop an entire grading system which he did. He placed an age restriction on admittance to the class as he considered jujitsu, and later aikido, provided a more appropriate ethical foundation for young people as they emphasised acceptance and control rather than initially teaching a child to punch or kick another person.

In 1968, De Jong was introduced to aikido by Phillipe Boiron. Boiron was a student of Minoru Mochizuki and taught his Yoesikan style of aikido. De Jong said that he was very impressed with Boiron's technique and Boiron began teaching for him in that year. After training with Boiron, De Jong developed an ambition to visit Japan to train. Professional development if you will. In 1969, age 48, he realised that ambition. While he was in Japan he visited a number of schools before finally becoming a live-in student with Mochizuki. More will be said of the 'Mochizuki influence' on the 'school of Jan de Jong' in a future blog.

Two more children were born in Australia before De Jong was divorced. Only Hans, born in Indonesia as explained in the previous blog, would go on to make teaching martial arts his full-time profession. De Jong remarried a few years later. Margaret, his wife, would go on to become his partner in establishing a thriving business teaching martial arts and selling martial arts supplies in Perth. Their first born, Maggie, would go on to make teaching martial arts her full-time profession and become principal of his school when he passed away. Maggie would accompany De Jong on most of his European teaching tours in the 1990s. Maggie would be followed by a brother who trained martial arts but never took it up to the same extent as his sister.

Jan de Jong began teaching aikido when he returned to Australia. In 1974, he sponsored Yoshiaki Unno from Mochizuki’s Yoseikan to become an Australian resident and to teach aikido and karate at his school. More will be said of Unno in a future blog.

Accompanied by his family, De Jong returned to Europe for a holiday in 1978. He took this opportunity to make contact with various jujutsu instructors throughout Europe and to peruse the jujutsu scene. The European jujutsu community was impressed with him, his knowledge and his expertise, and were quick to embrace and court him. When he returned home he was lobbied to become the Australian representative for the World Ju Jitsu Federation (WJJF) which he eventually accepted.

This began, what appeared to be, the political life of De Jong. In 1985, through General Eddy Nalapraya of the Indonesian Army, the man responsible for the promotion of pencak silat on behalf of the Indonesian Government, De Jong was appointed the Australian representative for the International Pencak Silat Federation. This was followed by his appointment as President and National Coach for the Australian Ju Jitsu Association (AJJA) in 1987, and Vice President of the WJJF in 1989. Whilst these were political offices, De Jong was anything but political. His focus was always on improving techniques and 'on strengthening both jujutsu itself and the image it holds'. Briely Baily OAM, National Secretary of the AJJA, credits the presence of De Jong within the AJJA as having brought jujutsu together around Australia and moved it forward in world circles. His achievements were officially recognised by the Australian Government when he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1990.

De Jong had been graded third dan in jujutsu since 1939. After his initial visit and subsequent involvement with the hierarchy of the WJJF, he was awarded fourth dan in 1980. Following his first teaching tour of Europe in 1982, the WJJF awarded him sixth dan and then eighth dan in 1989. I've been advised that the AJJA also awarded De Jong eighth day in the same year though I am yet to verify this fact.

Actually, De Jong was 'awarded' numerous higher gradings from various individuals and organisation including a number of tenth dans. I was present when he and Margaret were both awarded tenth dans by a German instructor (who was not invited to the seminar but proceeded to take it over anyway). Margaret should have been chuffed because she never graded first dan under De Jong or anyone else for that matter. These certificates were put in the draw along with so many others.

De Jong wasn't concerned about higher grades for himself and lamented the increasing frequency with which higher grades were being awarded. In an interview published in 2002, De Jong said:

I never worried about [accepting the higher grade], you just know what you know. That's all you do, you do not worry about Dan grades very much. Dan grades don’t say very much anymore. In my time it said something. … I'm still learning too. Dan grades are not important – it is what you can give the people, that is what is important.

Following his initial visit, De Jong received many invitations to conduct seminars throughout Europe. In 1982, he returned with a team of his instructors for what became an annual tour. Over the next two decades, he would conduct seminars in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the United States of America, as well as throughout Australia. As a consequence of his increasing international reputation, students/instructors from around Australia and Europe would travel to Perth in order to train with De Jong and his instructors. More will be said of these tours in a later blog.

Another watershed in De Jong’s professional life was his appointment as the Chief Instructor and Adviser to the Australian Special Air Service Regiment ('SAS') in 1979. Major Greg Mawkes MBE had been tasked with updating the Australian Army’s capability for unarmed combat training and after considerable research had identified De Jong as the man that could help him fulfil his mission.

I had very firm ideas of what was required. I needed a man with a vast knowledge of and skill in several martial arts. Someone who knew that unarmed combat has both offensive and defensive applications. A man who understood that aggression has to be developed but controlled. A man who could appreciate what works in the dojo may not be effective on the battlefield. And if possible, a man who had experienced combat. I approached several martial arts schools in Perth, but although they were willing to help, none could offer the total solution I was seeking. Without exception though, they felt that Jan de Jong was my man. In de Jong Sensei I found a man who was not only genuinely interested in helping me solve the problem, but a man with exceptional skill and knowledge. Before I even set foot on a tatami mat we spent many hours discussing the likely situations that SAS men could face in hostile environment. When training actually commenced I found him to be flexible in both mind and approach to the task, but above all patient.

The 1999 tour of Europe was the last tour for De Jong. He suffered heart problems during that tour and was hospitalised. From that time he was plagued with ill health until he passed away on 5 April 2003, coincidently, a couple of months before Mochizuki passed away.

PS: I have since been advised the photograph included above which was identified as being the 870 Hay Street school was not in fact that school. To date the location is unidentified and it would be greatfully appreciated if anyone can identify the location. This is one of purposes of this blog, albeit not originally intended, for the Jan de Jong story to be 'filled in' with other people's information which I have not contacted as yet.