Combined Jiu-Jitsu
What happens when you ask Why?

By Nidan Tyler Pyne

Sport Jiu-Jitsu has been growing and changing in our country since 1962 when a Jiu-Jitsu instructor Ronald Forrester asked himself some questions.

Why would I only concentrate on one aspect of a fight? Why would I ignore what other martial arts teach if I think it works? And how do I make it better?

Over many years our Sport has evolved from these first questions, a need to answer them, and expand the technique base using many masters of various forms of martial arts.

I want to look at where we came from, where we went and how we grew into our current version C.J.A. or Combined Jiu-Jitsu Arts.

From what I can find or cannot find is that there is no certain and true origin story for Jiu-Jitsu and no fixed date has been found in any of the writings. However there is no doubt that it was a perfected form of attack and defense and is credited as being a true Japanese Art. Though some scholars believe that parts of Jiu-Jitsu can be traced back to China, one theory is that it is traceable to Chin Gempin who brought the art of “Kempo” into Japan around 1659 and is considered by some as the root of Jiu-Jitsu's striking. It is said that he taught three “Ronin” Samurai's his art, their names being Fukuno, Isogai, and Miura. After they had all mastered the art of “Kempo” it is written that they all started their own independent Jiu-Jitsu dojos. Kempo may have had some effect on their versions of Jiu-Jitsu it was a fairly one sided martial art at the time and concentrated solely on Kicking and Striking the opponent and nothing on controlling them. The other techniques the three Ronin were now passing on as their own were taught from various other martial artists in forms that can be considered more like the early 19 th century jiu-jitsu.

Another scholar has found written evidence that the foundation of “Takanouchi-Ryu” Jiu-Jitsu that dates back to 1532 may have had a part in the beginning of the sport. Takanouchi-Ryu is considered to have been originated by Takanouchi Hisamori and is one of the oldest forms of Jiu-Jitsu; they were an art of seizing the opponent. Another form of Jiu-Jitsu that was being taught was “Kito-Ryu” which was an art of throwing their opponent and form practice or “Kata”, this version was said to have been originated by Fukono Schichiroemon. Around the same time as Fukono another master was creating a form of Ryu known as “Jikishin-Ryu”, this art focused on the throwing but also the following up with ground control.

The three forms of Ryu were being taught and developed in Japan long before “Kempo” was ever introduced. There has also more evidence that concludes Jiu-Jitsu is of Japanese origin and it comes from ancient text that speaks of an incident that happened in 24 B.C. The Emperor Suinin ordered two men to wrestle in his presence. The so called incident involved a test of strength and involved not just wrestling but also striking, kicking, throwing and gaining advantage over their opponent without the use of weapons. This is considered by some as the earliest recorded competition of Jiu-Jitsu.

Some writings state that during the Feudal times in Japan there were many forms of Martial Arts being taught and practiced by the military and Samurai clans, and that Jiu-Jitsu was a very popular art during this era. Many forms and masters grew the art throughout the provinces of Japan and continued to do so until the fall of the Feudal Empire (1860 – 1865). With the Feudal system being outlawed Jiu-Jitsu came into one of its darkest eras in its history as it was now considered impracticable and fell into disuse and almost became extinct.

The new Emperor began making changes to his military and prohibited the Samurai from wearing swords and weapons, and then went further by making it mandatory that all males of the age of twenty register for military service. Jiu-Jitsu suffered this severe blow as it was no longer being taught to the warrior class and that the ordinary civilian was now raised to the same level as the former Samurai.

Around this time a man by the name of Kano Jigoro who is credited with the creation of Judo with his version of Jiu-Jitsu called “Kodokan”, began his education at a Ryu school of Jiu-Jitsu. It is said that Kano became so strong in his abilities and techniques that he surpassed the senior pupils and quickly rose to Shihan-Dal or the Masters Representative. Some of the techniques he mastered were considered far superior to many of the other versions of Ryu. These included Atemi-Waza or strikes to the body, Shime-Waza strangulation techniques, and Hodaku. It is not written when Kano moved from teaching Jiu-Jitsu to start Judo in his school but it is said that during a randori session he was able to consistently throw a Jiu-Jitsu master and block every move.

Jiu-Jitsu was at this time not considered a true application of consistent principles but a selection of techniques that involved attack and defence brought together and taught by many masters. Each version of Ryu focused and tried to perfect a single style of techniques. This meant there was no single important principle by which they could be tested as each style excelled in different strengths.

Kano was possibly one of the first true masters who took many variations from the many forms of jiu-jitsu and created his own version and art. Kano decided to ask why would I teach techniques that do not work and why wouldn't I teach all that I find do work? In 1882 Kano started his own system and called it “Judo”, could it have been the original Combined Jiu-Jitsu? No, Judo did take a lot of what the Jiu-Jitsu systems were teaching and left out others but it still had a long way to go before it got to where it is today.

Judo was not received well by Jiu-Jitsu masters of the time, they did not believe in the practical merits of judo in combat. This started a rivalry between the Judo and Jiu-Jitsu Dojo's, however Judo won over many high power officials in Japan and became the martial art of choice for the Tokyo Police. As Judo gained popularity it exploded throughout Japan and made its way to North America.

A step toward our art came with the expansion of Kodokan. Two Students of Kano, Tsunejiro Tomita and Mitsuyo Maeda travelled throughout the world including South America entering into competitions and performing demonstrations. In 1914 the first Judo school was registered in Brazil, during this time Maeda performed in many demonstrations and tournaments throughout the region. Maeda was once labelled as the toughest man who ever lived and is considered now to be the Grandfather of the

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu System. During one of his demonstrations in 1917 a young boy by the name of Carlos Gracie was amazed at Maeda's skill and wanted to learn this new form of martial art.

Maeda accepted Carlos as a student and taught him the techniques and passed on his philosophy and theory that physical combat could be broken down into distinct phases, the striking phase, the grappling phase, the ground phase and so on. Carlos was quick to learn and when his family relocated to Rio de Janeiro he passed on his experience to his younger brothers. Carlos and his brother Helio went on to found of the Gracie School of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The Gracie family took Maeda's philosophy and took it one step further, the Gracie's believed that it was “A smart fighter's task to keep the fight located in the phase the best suited their own strengths”. Some believe that the Gracie's perfected the ground phase; they created an art that did what no one else was doing at the time. They realized most fights ended up on the ground and that if you took a boxer away from their striking abilities their training became ineffective.

Around the same time that Maeda was touring South America other masters were setting up Judo and Ryu-Jiu-Jitsu schools throughout Hawaii. Seishiro Okazaki was born in Japan but Immigrated to Hawaii in 1906, around this time he was found to have consumption or Tuberculosis. It is said that instead of giving in to his disease he fought hard and trained in many martial arts including Ryu-Jiu-Jitsu and Kodokan Judo. Seishiro was able to recover from his illness and in his own words he became the “Owner of a body as if made of iron”, from that point on he dedicated his life to further his education in martial arts. In 1924 Seishiro travelled to Japan and studied in various arts, including many various forms of Ryu, Karate, and Judo.

Upon his return to Hawaii Seishiro believed that he had finally found the ingredients to create the most well rounded martial art. Taking from Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, Hawaiian Lua, Okinawan Karate, Chinese Kung Fu, and American Wrestling, he created a new form of Jiu-Jitsu that he termed “Kodenkan” and named his Dojo “Danzan Ryu”. Danzan was a Chinese name for Hawaii. 1939 Seishiro founded the American Jiu-Jitsu Guild and is considered the oldest organization of its kind in North America.

We now had two very strong forms of Jiu-Jitsu/Judo expanding and breaking away from old Japanese traditions. Carlos and Helio Gracie perfected the ground game and Prof. Okazaki was perfecting the idea of taking the teachings of multiple martial arts and combining them into one.

Wally-Jay is considered one of Kodenkan‘s most notable students and though he did not study directly under Prof. Okazaki, he was recognized in 1948 by Okazaki for his ability to master the Kodenkan techniques.

Wally-Jay spent his teenage years training in many martial arts and other activities including weight training, boxing, judo, aikido, kung fu and more. It was through the knowledge and original philosophy of Prof. Okazaki and Kodenkan that traditional Jiu-Jitsu could be improved and that all martial arts could have strength to learn from. And it is said that his training with Ken Kawachi may have been influential in his creation of the Small Circle theory, he was taught that through the use of wrist action leverage over your opponent could be gained.

Throughout the 60's Wally-Jay continued to perfect his theory and went on to apply it not just to Jiu-Jitsu but to Judo and other martial arts as well. Wally-Jay was entered into the Black belt hall of fame in 1960 for his contributions to the sport and was said to have taught Judo and Jiu-Jitsu to Bruce Lee in 1962.

In 1978 Wally-Jay created a new organization as he broke away from the American Jiu-Jitsu Guild, the Guild which was originally created as away to break away from traditional Japanese methods was in their own way no longer able to see past Kodenkan. As they believed their form was the final and most adaptive variation. Wally-Jay was asking himself why? Why wouldn't I want to change and create a better martial art as it was the reason why Kodenkan was created in the first place? Wally-Jay believed that there was always a way to change and that he had found a new way to make what he was taught better. The Small Circle Theory was seen as a separate martial art but was not declared so until 1987.

Around the same time as Wally-Jay was making drastic changes in Hawaii and throughout the U.S. a revolution in Jiu-Jitsu was starting to occur in Canada. A student by the name of Ron Forrester who in 1958 was training under Judo master Frank Minoru Hatashita. He is credited with opening one of the first Judo schools in Toronto in 1947. Henk Jenssen, who originally trained in his native Holland and under Hatashita, started teaching Jiu-Jitsu out of the Hatashita Judo club. Ron transferred from the Judo classes to the Jiu-Jitsu classes after watching what was being taught; he found interest in the multiple phases of Sensei Jenssen's art. Jenssen at the time was teaching Judo style throws, limb locks, immobilisation holds and various forms of strangulation holds. However it is of note that there were no striking techniques.

In 1962 Henk Jenssen returned to Holland and Ron Forrester was promoted to chief Jiu-Jitsu Instructor. It was at this point that Ron started to ask the questions, he had been taught striking in his old Karate Dojo, and he had heard about what was happening in Hawaii and Brazil. He knew that Jenssen had taught him a lot but not everything; he also knew that there was something was missing from Jiu-Jitsu at the time.

In his very first class as chief instructor he broke away from tradition, he introduced free sparring and striking with his techniques. He wanted to take Jiu-Jitsu away from its roots and move forward into the 20 th century, he brought in masters from various forms of martial arts including Wally Jay, Nick Cipriano, George Sylvain, Joe Lewis, and Bill Wallace to name a few. Through their multiple teachings and methods Ron Forrester created a new variation of Jiu-Jitsu. And as was what had happened in other countries Ron created an Organization to represent their ideologies and theories. In 1963 the Canadian Jiu-Jitsu Association with help from his former instructor Frank Hatashita was started.

Sensei Forrester didn't want to stop there he wanted the world to see what Canada was doing with Jiu-Jitsu. He formed a national team and started to compete worldwide. In 1977 Team Canada travelled to Hawaii to take top honours in the first recorded Jiu-Jitsu team tournament. In 1978 the Canadian National Exhibition showcased our superior training by once again winning top honours over teams from the U.S. and the West Indies. The Canadian Team continued its winning ways as it participated in the first World Jiu-Jitsu Championships in 1984 and again in 1986 taking first place in the team heavyweight and lightweight categories.

One of Sensei Forrester's early black belts was Robert Krantsz; he was always an eager student and perfected his knowledge of Ron Forrester's style. A short time after receiving his black belt under Forrester, Sensei Krantsz moved away from the Hatashita club to form his own and didn't find a permanent home until 1974 when he established the Milton School of Jiu-Jitsu.

An Early tradition with Robert was always expanding his own knowledge and understanding what other martial arts were perfecting and teaching. He has always been considered a pioneer in his vision of expanding the version of Jiu-Jitsu he taught, he brought in such masters as Renzo Gracie, Wally Jay, Kevin Blok, Bill Wallace, Jean-Yves Theriault, Dan Severn and Kyoshi John Therien to help him achieve his vision.

In his early years of teaching Sensei Krantsz became very influential in the Canadian Jiu-Jitsu Community. He took over as manager of the Canadian National Team and led them to many world victories, including becoming a three time world champion.

During a trip to Ottawa which he made to attend an event being held by the World Kubudo Federation and promoted by Robert's friend Kyoshi John Therien, he saw something that he felt was being missed under the current organization of the Canadian Jiu-Jitsu Association. He saw an open invitation and forum of various forms of jiu-jitsu and other martial artists instructing and teaching their various strengths. He was impressed with their openness to further their skills and knowledge through the teachings of other masters. This was already something that Sensei Krantsz had been doing in his own club but on a much broader scale.

As we have seen over the last several thousand years a change was starting to happen, Sensei Krantsz asked himself Why?

Why wouldn't I want to learn from other masters? Why wouldn't I incorporate the teachings I find of use into my own?

Robert spoke to the Canadian Jiu-Jitsu Association about what was happening in Ottawa with the World Kubudo Federation. And as what the American Jiu-Jitsu Guild did to Wally Jay all those years ago in Hawaii, they stood by their own ideologies. And even though their original association was built on the idea of moving forward, and incorporating new forms of arts to their own, they felt theirs was the final variation.

Now Sensei Krantsz did not start his own organization as one already existed that reflected how he felt towards learning. He joined the World Kubudo Federation and opened his doors and his mind to learn and create a better and more complete form of Jiu-Jitsu.

Combined Jiu-Jitsu Arts is a new form of Jiu-Jitsu created by the constant learning and changing of Robert Kratsz's education. From the various forms of striking experts, Jiu-Jitsu and Judo Masters, to Brazilian and Chinese arts, Sensei Krantsz always took what he learned and changed it to make it his own. He integrated these forms and teachings to become practical in today's everyday environment.

Over the past 45 years of teaching and his own continued education Sensei Krantsz created the modern rules and regulations for international Sport Jiu-Jitsu competition. It has been said that this ranks as one of his highest but not only contributions to the Canadian and World Jiu-Jitsu Community.

As was in the past and as it has been for thousands of years, a martial art can never understand how practical it is and how well it works until if finds its own weakness.

We have found that In 24 B.C. the Emperor Suinin ordered two fighters to find out who was the superior competitor. In the dawn of Ryu, multiple disciplines would battle with one another to see who had the stronger variation. In the beginning of Judo many competitions between Judo and Jiu-Jitsu were held. As Maeda toured the world he took on many of the world's top competitors to try and prove his version was the best.

And today it is no different with the ever growing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts we can see this original concept of bringing two different disciplines into a single event to find out who ranks the best.

Over the years many Masters and Sensei's have opened their minds to the thought and reality that maybe their art was not the final and best form, and they decided to do something about it.

Robert Krantsz comes from a long line of proud Jiu-Jitsu Sensei's that have taken a new look at what Jiu-Jitsu can become. C.J.A as a whole is the beginning of strong and long lasting tradition in Canada and a strong variation of Jiu-Jitsu. With his open minded teachings it is easy to see that C.J.A. will never become the final and full martial art because it will always be changing and adapting to new forms and ideas.