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USJJF's Police Defensive Tactics Instructor System/Program
The Police Self-Defense Instructor (PSDI) Program was originally formed under the United States Karate Association (USKA),
which has been reconstituted under the United States Ju-Jitsu Federation (USJJF) and United States Martial Arts Federation (USMAF).
The USJJF/USMAF National Program of Defensive Tactics & Restraint for Law Enforcement & Military Personnel is now known as:
UNITED STATES TAIHO JUTSU (USTJ)
Our Mission is to create and grow a USA and worldwide network of serious students and instructors of Taiho Jutsu and defensive tactics, with respect for the historic foundations of Japanese Police Taiho Jutsu, yet recognizing and further developing (in this changing society) an evolving modern mindset with tactical skills and leadership.
We invite members of the martial arts, law enforcement, and military community to join us in this important endeavor by submitting articles on self-defense and the martial arts as they relate to law enforcement.
As the USA national governing body for Jujutsu/Ju-Jitsu/Jiu-Jitsu, USJJF selects, prepares, and sends the official USA teams to
Continental, International, and World-level competitions.
Taiho Jutsu is a term for martial arts developed by Japan's feudal police to arrest dangerous criminals who were usually armed and frequently desperate. While many taiho-jutsu methods originated from the classical Japanese schools of kenjutsu (swordsmanship) and jujutsu (unarmed fighting arts), the goal of the feudal police was to capture lawbreakers alive and without injury. Thus, they often used specialized implements and unarmed techniques intended to pacify or diable suspects rather than employing more lethal means.
Japanese law enforcement officers trained in self-defense and arresting techniques primarily based on the unarmed fighting styles of jujutsu. As a result, feudal-era police officers became proficient in a variety of specialized techniques for arresting both armed and unarmed individuals. They also developed and perfected the use of a variety of non-lethal implements for capturing and restraining suspects, such as:
Juttejutsu (truncheon arts), Toritejutsu (restraining arts), and Hojojutsu (binding and tying arts)
Many traditional Japanese martial arts schools once included elements of taiho jutsu. Although most have since been lost to history, a number of taiho jutsu techniques have survived and are still taught and practiced in their original forms by specialists in jujutsu, as well as kenjutsu and iaido (swordsmanship).
The modern version of Taifo Jutsu was created during the Allied occupation of post-World War II Japan. When Japan was demilitarized, the practice of martial arts was prohibited and the Japanese police force was unable to cope with the violence of outbreaks during that period of time. The Tokyo police bureau convened a technical committee, headed by kendoist, Saimura Goro; judoist, Nagaoka Shuichi' the 25th headmaster of the Shindo Muso Ryu, Shimizu Takaji; Founder of the Wado Ryu, Otsuka Hidenori' and a pistol expert, Horiguchi Tsuneo.
The committee reviewed the techniques of classical kenjutsu, jujutsu, and jojutsu, and adapted several techniques from each of those disciplines for police use. The committee also selected techniques from the modern disciplines of jujutsu, karate-jutsu, kendo, and judo for incorporation into the proposed system of self-defense, to include further ideas gained through a study of Western boxing. In 1947 a system comprising all of those elements was called Taiho Jutsu and Taiho Jutsu Kihon Kozo (Fundimentals of Taiho-jutsu) was published as an official manual for policemen.
Taiho Jutsu was introduced to the United States when the Strategic Air Command (SAC) began sending combative measures instructors to the Kodokan in Japan for 8-week training programs. The 8-week course was a Japanese-designed mixo of Judo, Karate, Aikido, and Taiho Jutsu. Kokokan officials contacted the Japanese Karate Association (JKA) to manage the karate instruction.
The JKA responded by sending Nishiyama, Obata, Okazaki, and Terada. Judo instruction was provided by Kokokan greats: Kotani, Otaki, Takagake, Sato, Shinojima, and Yamaguchi. Aikido instruction was led by Tomiki, along with Yamada and Inuzuka, while the instruction in Taiho Jutsu was given by Hosokawa and Kikuchi.
The SAC airmen attended class at the dojo for 8 hours-a-day, 5 days-a-week, for 8 weeks. At the end of the 8-week course the airmen had to compete and be evaluated by 10 black belts before being certified as Taiho Jutsu instructors.
Upon returning to the United States, those airmen certified as instructors were assigned to every SAC airbase where it was deemed important to develop combatives courses for crewmen-in-training.
Taiho Jutsu has had several revisions since 1947 and is still studied and examined in order to brign in refinements and adapt it to new conditions of street-fighting. Taiho Jutsu makes great use of a short police baton (Keibo), in a range of techniques called, Keibo-soho, as well as the extending tubular baton (Tokushu Keibo), which was adopted by the Japanese police in 1966.
NOTE: Our Sensei, David Wilson, is the official State of Mississippi representative for Taiho Jutsu instruction.