Kosen Judo and the origins of MMA

When I was in Japan in the mid-1990s almost no one outside of a small group of MMA fans had ever heard of BJJ or Gracie Jiujitsu. Sometimes when I went to a judo club to practice I would just explain that I was a "newaza specialist" (ground technique specialist) or even that I wanted to do Kosen-style judo.

The Imperial Universities that specialized in Kosen judo did so partially because they were nerds! One could become adept at newaza with less natural athleticism and less practice than was required to become a true tachiwaza (standing technique = dynamic throws) specialist. A relatively small amount of training in ground technique allows a fighter to completely dominate an untrained opponent. The Kosen competitors would simply drag their opponent to the mat without using any flashy throws or takedowns, and then submit or pin them. More video.

I cannot really tell from the video whether these Kosen practitioners have also adopted techniques from modern BJJ. I see some spider guard, but apparently that is an old Kosen style! Don't let the black belts fool you. In Japan you go from white to black belt directly, and 1st dan black belt just means you know the basic moves and are still very much a student. These guys in the video don't look all that advanced to me for the most part. (It's not easy to be admitted to Kyoto University, by the way.)

Here's a top-level Kosen guy. He's destroying those scrubs in Canada ;-)

Wikipedia: Kosen judo (高專柔道 Kōsen jūdō) is a variation of the Kodokan judo competitive ruleset that was developed and flourished at the kōtō senmon gakkō (高等専門学校)(kōsen (高專)) technical colleges in Japan in the first half of the twentieth century. Kosen judo's rules allow for greater emphasis of ne-waza (寝技, ground techniques) than typically takes place in competitive judo and it is sometimes regarded as a distinct style of judo.

Today, the term "kosen judo" is frequently used to refer to the competition ruleset associated with it that allows for extended ne-waza. Such competition rules are still used in the Nanatei Jūdō / Shichitei Jūdō (七帝柔道 Seven Imperials Judo) competitions held annually between the seven former Imperial universities. Similarly, there has been a resurgence in interest in Kosen judo in recent years due to its similarities with Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) was introduced to Brazil through the Gracie family by judoka Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda had significant experience fighting wrestlers and boxers; from this experience he developed a theory of combat that has evolved into modern MMA.

According to Renzo Gracie's book Mastering Jujitsu, Maeda not only taught the art of judo to Carlos Gracie, but also taught a particular philosophy about the nature of combat based on his travels competing and training alongside catch-wrestlers, boxers, savate fighters, and various other martial artists. The book details Maeda's theory that physical combat could be broken down into distinct phases, such as the striking phase, the grappling phase, the ground phase, and so on. Thus, it was a smart fighter's task to keep the fight located in the phase of combat that best suited his own strengths. The book further states that this theory was a fundamental influence on the Gracie approach to combat.

Jon Jones, phenom

Watch this great profile of 23 year old MMA phenom Jon Jones, who will fight Shogun Rua for the LHW (205) title later today.

Anyone who has watched Jones fight knows he is incredibly talented. His background is wrestling -- he gave up a scholarship to Iowa State when he started his pro career. I notice he hits a lot of Judo throws in his fights. Most fans think those are greco throws but they aren't -- he's using his legs, which is illegal in greco. When I investigated this, expecting to find that he had trained in Judo as many wrestlers have, I was amazed to discover that he taught himself using internet videos!

Las Vegas Sun: ... Widely regarded as an unorthodox and unpredictable fighter, Jones has built his style based on what he's learned in the gym from instructors and what he's taught himself using methods like YouTube.

While it's known that Jones comes from a Greco-Roman wrestling background, he's evolved that style into his own by combining it with moves he's picked up from studying judo on the Internet.

"A lot of the moves I'm performing aren't actually Greco-Roman, they're judo," Jones said. "You can't use a trip in Greco-Roman. I don't have an official judo coach but I've been, it sounds weird, getting on the Internet and watching a lot of Judo moves. I take it seriously."

This highlight video shows some nice throws, including by Jones.




Is Jones ready for Rua? The biggest question in my mind is whether Rua is fully recovered from knee surgery. If he is, he could give Jones a tough fight, maybe even a beatdown. Rua is a legend, but are his best days behind him? This is one of the most exciting match ups in some time.

On Japan

Readers of this blog have probably noticed that I regularly post about China and globalization. I've devoted much less space to Japan, even though I once lived in Tokyo as a JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Fellow. While in Tokyo I dated an All Nippon Airlines stewardess, trained in MMA with local fighters and spent too much time in Shibuya (pictures above and below). I scandalized my physicist hosts by (a) visiting Thailand on the way to Tokyo and (b) investigating all kinds of weird social phenomena in my spare time (see below).

Below are a few old pictures, the first four from Thailand (Ko Samui) and the rest from Kamakura, Japan.





While in Japan I wrote a travelogue which I posted on the internet. That may not sound very radical, but this was back in 1997, long before the appearance of blogs :-) The travelogue covers topics like girlie bars, muay thai and expats in Thailand, Judo vs BJJ in Tokyo, physics lectures in Kyoto and at KEK, Japanese youth culture, etc. Any Hollywood producers or directors interested in making this into a movie should contact me right away ;-)

For those who are interested in Japan but don't want to read my stuff, I recommend the following.

Lafcadio Hearn: the grandfather of foreigners writing in English about Japan. Hearn arrived in Japan in 1890 as a journalist, eventually becoming professor at Tokyo Imperial University. See here for a collection of his work.

The blog Neojaponisme, edited by Harvard grad W. David Marx (an expat writer and musician in Tokyo) offers excellent writing about Japan, often informed by the latest academic research. For example, The misanthropology of the late stage kogal is about the kogal (video) and enjo kosai phenomena, which very much puzzled me when I was in Tokyo. (Having access to this research at the time could have saved me a lot of field investigation ;-) Kyabaio Japan is about hostess clubs, a topic covered with much less insight recently in the Times.

Judo in the WEC

Last night's 170 lb title fight had some of the most beautiful judo throws I've ever seen in MMA. We call those "high amplitude" throws: when the legs of the guy getting thrown describe a big arc.

Miura ultimately lost to Condit, but the outcome might have been different if they had been fighting in a parking lot :-)

Note to physicists: WEC = World Extreme Cagefighting, a sister promotion to the UFC, not Weak Energy Condition.