Kosen judo

Kosen judo (高專柔道) is the name given to the style of Judo practiced at kosen schools in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Their training is best known for the extra focus given ground grappling techniques, referred to as newaza Japanese martial arts.

History

Kosen Judo was a ruleset of Kodokan judo practiced at the scholastic level prior to rule changes in 1925 and is simply one style of Kodokan Judo today. 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 and time permitted for ground techniques. This style of Judo is still practiced today.

Kodokan Judo was introduced into the school system of Japan in 1914. Starting in the middle school years the sylabus was almost entirely newaza (ground fighting) to prevent injury. Through high school and post-secondary years more and more tachiwaza (standing fighting) was introduced. The term Kosen is actually a contraction of:

Koutogakko 高等学校 = High School and Senmongakko 専門学校 = Technical or Professional College, producing Koutosenmongakko 高等専門学校 = High Schools & Universities i.e. "Scholastic," in this case referring to what we might label an Interscholastic Judo League.

The Kosen Taikai (Interscholastic Competition) was an inter-school contest based on teams in which individual bouts could also end in a draw. 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.

Rules

The rules of a Kosen Judo match were the same set of rules of pre-world war Judo, which, in contrast with current Judo rules, allowed direct transition to newaza (ground grappling) without the mandatory skillful application of a movement to unbalance the adversary first. This allowed for scenarios where one less skilled Judoka could drag down the other into newaza (a tactic modernly known as pulling-guard), and this was exploited by some university teams that matched their less skilled students against the more skilled students of the rival teams, aiming at a (generally easier to achieve) draw in newaza.

To achieve victory under the Judo rules of the time the judoka had to score Ippon (full point) as there were no intermediate scores, or a draw was declared at the referee's discretion. Since Kosen Judo followed the same rules, only techniques resulting in ippon determined the winner. Ippon could be achieved via submission, a perfect throw (a throw displaying control, force and speed, landing the opponent largely onto his back), osaekomi/pin hold (only tate-shiho-gatame - mount position - was considered) or by stoppage due to the impossibility of a judoka to continue (unconsciousness, broken limbs, etc.). Differently to modern Judo rules leg-locks were allowed.

The matches had no time limit and were usually contested on a mat 20x20 meters in total size. A starting zone 8x8 meters was marked on the mat as well as a danger zone which ended at 16x16 Meters. If a Judoka went out of the danger zone the match would be restarted. If they were actively engaged in newaza the referee would call sono-mama to freeze them into position, drag them to the middle of the competition area, and call yoshi to restart the match in the same situation. This device was common in Judo in general and is still part of the official Judo rules, addressed in article 18 - Sono-mama, but has since fallen into disuse, allowing modern Judoka to escape newaza by going out of the competition zone.

Kodokan

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 Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, 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 seven of the nine ex-imperial universities of Japan. (Only Seoul National, formerly Keijo University, and National Taiwan University do not practice Kosen Judo in some form.) 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 decided 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.

Bibliography

• Osaekomi by Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki
• History of Kosen Judo
• Kosen Judo
• A Kosen Judo posting
• Judo History Archive