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Jodo is the way of the Jo, or wooden staff. The most practiced form of Jodo today is the training set adopted by the Zen Nihon kendo Renmei known as Seitei Jo. While developed in the late 1960's, seitei jo is derived from the jo techniques of Shindo Muso Ryu. This koryu or old tradition, which includes a variety of weapons (jo, ken, kodachi, nito, tanjo, jutte, tessen, kusarigami, ...) was founded around the end of the 16th century by Muso Gonnosuke (Katsuyoshi), a student of Katori Shinto Ryu and Jikishinkage Ryu.

Very little concrete information is known about the life of this person. Most accounts associate his invention of the jo-sized staff techniques with an encounter and a subsequent vision. The encounter was with the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (Shinmen Musashi No Kami Fujiwara No Genshin), founder of Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu and author of the Gorinnosho (the book of five circles).

Click here to see an example of Jodo