Did you know Aikido is a school of Jujitsu? In fact our head teacher is on the board of the Australian Jujitsu Association. The ancient martial arts of Japan were clan based and known as Koryu arts practiced only by the samurai class. These schools were typically secretive and scrolls such as the mokuroku, menkyo kaiden etc were awarded, blood oaths were not uncommon. These schools (Ryu) practiced many arts including swimming, horsemanship, stealth, archery, weapons and openhanded arts (jutsu). Ju means soft. Many modern martial arts such as Aikido, Judo, ninjutsu are based on these ancient Koryu schools. (note there are many ways to spell jujitsu depending on translation).Aikido was formed based on the Daito-Ryu AikiJujitsu taught by Sokaku Takeda to the founder of aikido Morehei Ueshiba. As competition does not take place in this school it retains many of the original techniques from the Daito Ryu. Aiki forms part of many Koryu arts and is said to be the highest level of practice, though it has been lost in many Ryu. Aikido encompasses mind training, atemi (vital point or distraction based striking) based on movements and footwork from the sword arts. Thus Aikido also studies the sword and staff to further understand Aiki principles, some feel this has lead to an incomplete transmission of weapons practice in aikido.