An Art for All,

Butokukai Ju-Jitsu!

Butokukai ju-jitsu, of which grandmaster Surace is the sole remaining holder, is the result of a thousand-year effort, on the part of humanity, seeking to defend human beings against all attempts on their lives. Consequently it protects them against attacks from the outside (deadly physical assaults, both armed and unarmed) and from the inside (mental blockages which are at the origin of most physical and psychological illnesses and of more or less violent and antisocial behaviour).

In practising this «supreme» martial art, you not only learn, in a short space of time, to defend yourself from physical assaults with an astounding efficiency, but you are also freed, little by little, of your internal blockages and of their results. The true personality emerges in all its lucidity and rationality, resistance to illness increases, youth and life are extended...
In this light, we see even the most dangerous attacker as acting under the powerful influence of his blockages, of which he is himself the victim. He is not therefore someone to be destroyed, but only to be rendered harmless and if possible to be turned into a friend. This is why Butokukai ju-jitsu is fundamentally non-violent.

In this art, physical force is not used, natural forces are employed instead: inertia and gravity, one’s own force and that of the adversary, in combining them rationally. In this way, it can be used effectively against much stronger opponents.
Rational use is also made of the muscular force of the adversary and of his sensitive points as well as one’s own internal energy, concentrated in the ‘hara’ (a point in the body close to its centre of gravity).
The key to efficiency is in the movements made before applying a technique: the tai sabaki polyvalents.
Their common property is that each one leads to countering no matter what kind of unarmed attack, and of many armed attacks, even against guns at a short distance. One of these tai sabaki is chosen before the adversary even makes his first attacking move.
They are movements that give a great efficiency to self-defence.
Butokukai ju-jitsu techniques can be employed on the ground without warm-up: naturally you do not have the time to warm up in the case of an unexpected attack. Nonetheless, in training, highly sophisticated warm-ups are practised, including respiratory and energising exercises characteristic of the Butokukai.
For Butokukai ju-jitsu, a good technique must have the following properties, without omitting a single one:
·        It must be applicable against adversaries five times       stronger than oneself, without injuring them seriously
·        It must not expose, even for an instant, a sensitive point of its performer
·        It must be very hard to counter
·        If it should fail, one must be able instantly to follow through with another, ‘good’ technique, that is to say answering to the same conditions
·        One must be able to use it in one moment, that of the adversary’s attack, in two stages at most
·        It must be capable of being employed without warm-up, as one does not have the time to warm up in the case of sudden attack
·        It must be capable of being employed at any age
·        It must be polyvalent, that is to say applicable in highly varied combat situations
·        It must be practised with a particular mind-set: ‘the mind of the Bushi should be like the surface of a still lake, so as to reflect reality faithfully’

 

Photo no. 1:

  Back on the ground, her adversary is above her and covers her with his body. However, he is the one who is in a bad position! Marina uses a typical technique of Butokukai ju-jitsu against him, the ‘widow technique’: as she grips his waist with her knees she twists his neck with her hands.

Photo no. 2:

  Even in street-wear, she is in perfect control, as you can see! Her adversary is at her mercy as she covers him with her body, immobilising him entirely. She has a hand free to dissuade him from moving his head even an inch.