What is the difference between Karate and Jijitsu?

Question

I would like to get my daughter involved in martial arts. I heard that jijitsu translates more to the current times, instead of the past with Karate.

Answer 1

All Jujitsu includes karate, but not all karate is considered jujitsu. Jujitsu means the gentle art, while karate means 'empty hand'.  I like Brazilian Jujitsu more than most forms of karate because it is more practical and effective for self defense and there is no bowing to the sensei or kata that do you no good in a real fight.

Katana17 sent me a threatening email because he didn't like my response to this question. I will give whatever response I want to any question I feel like answering.

Answer 2

Karate is a striking art, and is generally more initially aggressive than Jiu Jitsu.

Jiu Jitsu is a maneuvering art, and depends more on using your opponent's movements to execute a throw, and/or outmaneuvering the opponent in order to get a hold or choke or perform some other action (sometimes devastating and very aggressive) upon them.  

Jiu Jitsu also has many escape techniques, which might come in handy for a girl who needs to get away from an overly pushy date, and the techniques work well both out in the open as well as in the back seat of a car.    (of course, so does an elbow to the nose, so I cannot fault Karate in that regard).

Answer 3

I started Jujitsu when I was about 8 and I think it is better because Karate is more of a striking art. They break boards there. In jujitsu you learn defensive moves and some good self defense. It has helped me through a lot.

Answer 4

In a nut shell - karate deals with punching, blocks, and kicks -   while JJ deals more with small joint locks (wrist and arm).  

Any decent dojo (either karate or jj) should have a customized program for age appropriateness, regardless of what the art encompasses.

Even when I am teaching a children's aikido class, there still is a need to kids to kick stuff, so check both arts out.

Answer 5

Jujitsu is better for self defense.  Your daughter would have a better chance to choke or armbar an attacker is she needed to.  Of course is the attacker is 250 lbs and your daughter is 90 lbs there isn't much any martial art can do.

Answer 6

Yea jijutsu will be a better art for your daughter for self defence

Answer 7

katana172's answer sums it up for me not much else to add :)***

Answer 8

Actually there is not a whole lot of differance between Japanese ju jitsu and Okinawin karate if both are taught well, although there are variations. Karate is every bit as effective today as it used to be, the same as Ju jitsu is. Ju jitsu is probably heavier on grappling motion, but does have strikes. To the uninitiated karate looks like all blocks kicks and punches, but in Okinawin karate there are numerous locks, throws, take downs, sweeps, chokes, and techniques for fighting in a clinch, the only bad thing is many instructors in America today do not know how to pull these out of the kata.

There are many different forms of karate, so it is a dis service to just label them all karate. Either ju Jitsu or Okinawin karate if taught and trained correctly would be great for your daughter. There are many who will tell you on here that you have to be big and strong to do karate, but they do not realize that Okinawins are actually very small compared to the average american. for example Tatsuo Shimibuku the founder of Isshin-Ryu was 5' 2" and weighed roughly 120 lbs, and delighted in throwing around full size American marines, so size is really not an issue.

Again I would do some research, as there are many good answers on here about what to look for in an instructor and school, and what to avoid, just use the search feature, and rather then decide by style, decide based on the best instruction you can possibly get for your daughter. Karate and Ju Jitsu are basicly just different sides of the same coin. Both work if taught and trained well.

Edit for those that say Ju jitsu is better for self defense...we have quite a few much smaller females in class and they do not seem to have any problem handling themselves. I would like to ask what are your qualifications for recomending Ju jitsu. just curious.

Here are Juan's qualifications..

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

wow almost 5 months of Muya thai make s you qualified to recomend styles you have never trained. Amazing.

Edit for Ksnake- Ju Jitsu is definetly not karate, never was, never will be. Also saying BJJ is better for self defense you make yourself look like a fool. BJJ is great one on one, but if there are more then one attacker or weapons involved, you are in trouble. Also kata are not useless in the least. If they are then shadow boxing is also, but I see MMA people do it all the time. The more of your answers I see, the more I realize how actually ignorent of things you are.

Another edit for ksnake- There was nothing threatining in my e-mail, I simply stated that you needed to get your facts straight, and quit using answers that you have no knowledge of because it makes you look ignorent.