User:NJG302/Kokondō

Kokondo Karate (古今道 空手) and its sister style, Jukido Jujitsu (柔気道 柔術) are Japanese-based martial arts developed by Paul Arel. Jukido Jujitsu was founded in 1959 followed by Kokondo Karate in 1970. The two styles are taught internationally, primarily in the United States. Within the United States, the largest concentration of dojos is near South Windsor, Connecticut, where the honbu dojo is located. The International Kokondo Association (IKA) is the global governing body of Jukido Jujitsu & Kokondo Karate. All instructors of the Kokondo arts have a direct link to the IKA and its honbu (World HQ) dojo.

"Kokondo" translates as "the way of the past and the present"; this is embraced by the art in that it emphasizes modern application of timeless principles found in traditional systems. "Jukido" means "the way of gentle flowing power"; its meaning is similar to that of aikido, although technically it is considerably different. Technically it is a gendai budo that resembles early Judo with a focus on self defense over sport. The techniques of Kokondo Karate are drawn from several styles of Asian martial arts, but principally early Kyokushin Karate and Sankata Karate-jutsu. The term "Kokondo" is used to refer to the two arts jointly.

Over its history, the International Kokondo Association has had thousands of members in countries such as Israel, Belgium, Finland, Japan and Central America as well as across North America.

History
The history of Kokondo karate and Jukido jujitsu is bound closely to the history of their founder, Paul Arel. His formal martial arts training began in 1950, when he began studying Sanzyu-ryu Jujutsu in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. By 1952, he had earned his shodan and began teaching jujutsu. In 1956, he entered the United States Marine Corps; he was stationed in North Carolina first, and later Japan. His travels as a marine were an excellent opportunity to study a variety of martial arts, including Isshin-ryu Karate under Don Nagle, Sankata under Ishikawa, Kodokan Judo, and other jujutsu and karate styles. After his honorable discharge in 1959, he returned to Hartford, Connecticut, where he opened "Karate, Inc.," the state's first karate school, where he taught Sankata karate. In 1959, Arel began using the term "Jukido" to describe the curriculum and approach to the jujitsu he was teaching. This marks the founding of Jukido method of jujutsu although the approach continued to evolve.

In 1962, Arel was invited to train with Mas Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin Karate, along with his top students. During this time, Arel was involved frequently with tournaments; he authored the rules for the first North American Karate Championships,  and hosted several other championships over the rest of the decade. By 1970, Arel resigned from the Kyokushinkai-kan to found Kokondo Karate, along with the IKA, the official governing body of both Kokondo Karate and Jukido Jujitsu.

Paul Arel died on January 2, 2009. He was 73 years old. Before his passing, Paul Arel announced that Gregory Howard would be his successor. Greg Howard is the highest ranked member of the Kokondo arts (kudan) and a direct student of Paul Arel since 1972. After the passing of Paul Arel (Shihan), Kokondo's founder, Greg Howard officially became the head of association and system, taking on the title of Kaicho (会長).

Principles
The central principles of Kokondo Karate and Jukido Jujitsu are:


 * Jushin: the center line. The horizontal and vertical center lines of an opponent's body are critical to the effectiveness of techniques. Attacks should be on the center line; containment techniques should be applied along the center line, and throws should break the center line.
 * Kuzushi: unbalancing. Motion (either your own or the opponent's) creates an imbalance. Creating and controlling this imbalance leads to effective techniques.
 * Shorin-ji: points and circles. Neither straight line techniques (as in many Japanese systems) nor rounded techniques (as in many Chinese systems) are ideal separately: each has their strengths and when combined, the result is more effective.

Philosophy and rules
The focus of the two arts is on effective, realistic self-defense. Master Arel was quite preoccupied with ensuring that both karate and jujutsu maintained their integrity as practical forms of self-defense in the contemporary society and didn't become exclusively sport, exclusively physical art form, or outdated classical forms of combat. He emphasized the preservation of the original purpose of these arts, self preservation. Kokondo-ka (Kokondo practitioners) are discouraged from focusing heavily on martial arts tournaments; it was Arel's stance that overemphasizing training for tournaments is frequently disruptive to self-defense training and mindset. With that stated, Kokondo does endorse and practice freestyle training methods such as randori in jujutsu and kumite for karate. These are incorporated for aliveness in training with resisting opponents. There are various forms of self defense training that quite free in format as well.

The seven codes of Bushido (benevolence, courage, honor, justice, loyalty, politeness, and veracity) are considered particularly important ideals for Kokondo-ka, in their karate & jujitsu conduct while training, and also their behavior generally.

Kokondo dojo are run in many cases by volunteer sensei, though there are exceptions. The IKA rejects the practice of student contracts, and attempts to retain students through excellence of instruction. Kokondo welcomes women, and has equal expectations of both female and male kokondo-ka.

Belt ranks
There are 11 ranks before black belt in Kokondo karate: In Jukido Jujitsu there are thirteen ranks before black belt: The brown ranks are numbered in decreasing order, corresponding to the rank of the kyu; 1st kyu corresponds to Brown 1, 2nd kyu to Brown 2, and so on.

There is no fixed timetable for advancement through the ranks, but it takes an average of about 4 to 7 years for a student to earn their black belt.