Kosen judo

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Kosen judo (高專柔道) is the name given to the Kodokan Judo practiced at kosen schools in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Their training is famous for grappling and wrestling techniques. It is also called "newaza Judo."

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[edit] History: An Expansion of Kodokan Judo Newaza

Kosen[1] Judo is simply one style of Kodokan Judo. Kosen Judo has the same throws and other techniques as Judo but it emphasizes newaza (ground techniques) such as controls, joint locks and strangles more than Kodokan judo, having greater latitude permitted for ground techniques. This style of Judo is still practiced today.

The small students of the Kosen Universities were commonly pitted against larger opponents, as weight classes in Judo did not exist at that time. So, it was much easier for larger Judo players to throw smaller ones. In essence, the training that the Kosen teams utilized was groundfighting, as a way to gain points by stalling, submitting or wearing the opponent out for a pin.

The Kosen Taikai was an inter-school contest based on teams. In the case of a team draw, a lottery was used to decide the winner. Newaza training was useful because it is easier to get draws in newaza, and faster to get a beginner trained for team competition. Thus, techniques like Hikikomi (laying on the back) and Sankaku Jime (triangle choke with the legs) were popular and well researched.

[edit] The Kodokan Steps in

Newaza effectiveness and ease of learning by smaller opponents started to change the way judo matches evolved. It was easy to train a Judoka in newaza and have him stop the most fit opponent from a rival school, so Kodokan Judo started to be dominated by newaza fighting. Over time there was so much emphasis was on newaza, due to its success in competition, that Kano introduced new rules limiting the amount of time the judoka could stay on the ground. It was stipulated that techniques had to start from tachiwaza (standing stance) and if you pulled your opponent down more than three times he was declared the winner. In 1914 Kano organized the Kosen University Championships at Kyoto Imperial University. This sportive style of competition was formally called the "Kosen Taikai." Kosen Judo is being still practiced at some Japanese universities, particularly at the seven ex-imperial universities of Japan. Sometimes it is called shichitei-judo (七帝柔道). There is an annual competition held among those seven universities.

Eventually, in 1925, Jigoro Kano decided to re-vamp the rules of competition judo. One of those changes was to limit the time that competitors could spend grappling on the ground. This effectively stopped the trend that was going on in judo; however, the Kosen Schools were allowed to continue their matches and train the way they had been since the turn of the century. Kosen judo followed its own course, and continues under the old rules even to this day in the Seven Universities Tournament. Kano was careful not to obliterate Kosen judo when he introduced the new rules. He did this for several reasons:

  • There were relatively few judoka doing newaza-only.
  • He wanted newaza specialists in judo.
  • He could not convince himself that doing only newaza was in itself bad.
  • Kosen judoka also did tachiwaza despite their emphasis in newaza.

The new rules were devised as a means to emphasize tachiwaza, while maintaining newaza.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kosen is sometimes spelled "Koshen"