What are the opening hours?

Monday 7pm - 8:30pm Thursday 6pm - 8:30pm Saturday 9am - 11:30am

Kobukai Jujitsu Dojo - South Windsor

Nearby gyms & sports facilities

USA Ninja Challenge South Windsor, CT
Sullivan Avenue

Have you grabbed your copy of "Pioneers of American Jujitsu"? If you haven't yet - here is an excerpt from the book, and a link below to get your copy in either paperback or ebook.

SIGNIFICANCE OF JUJITSU IN AMERICA

Jujitsu changed America. Jujitsu, simply a battlefield art in Japan, became much more than that when it hit the American shores. In Japan it was a part of the personal arsenal of the soldier. Along with the martial skills of the sword, knife, spear, bow and horse, Jujitsu played an important part of the ancient Japanese soldier’s training. But in America, Jujitsu became the vehicle for the spreading of social ideology and a catalyst for change in the early 20th century.
Four areas of early 20th century society were significantly affected by the advent of Jujitsu in America. First and foremost was the concept of personal self-defense. In America, unarmed self-defense techniques came mainly from western boxing, with some smaller groups advocating the effectiveness of wrestling in self-defense situations. Jujitsu changed that misconceived notion. Boxing and wrestling were not for the average man, never mind women. Athletes and those into the physical culture wave that swept America at the beginning of the 20th century dabbled in these arts. But in general, there was no “self-defense” method practiced by the common man. When Jujitsu came to America that changed. Police forces found new ways to subdue criminals. Women found ways to resist and down “mashers.” Men of lesser physical strength found a way to defeat a bully, all while increasing general health and strength. Judo and Jujitsu classes sprung up across America, and a new concept of self-protection pervaded the minds of many, which increased over the years. After WWII, when many soldiers were exposed to other martial arts such as Karate, Hapkido, and Aikido, dojos sprang up all over the country. Competitions, belts, magazines, books, and martial art equipment became popular. By the 1970’s and the introduction of Tae Kwon Do and Kung Fu to America, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were learning the martial arts. Today, participating in a martial art is common to the same degree it was uncommon in the 1920’s.
Through the influence of Jujitsu, unarmed combat as practiced by the U.S. Military was changed significantly. Jujitsu had already come to America when WWI started, and was proven in battle. Soldiers of lesser strength could defeat enemy soldiers with the technical knowledge of Jujitsu. In the period after WWI and before WWII, the military whole-heartedly adopted Jujitsu as its unarmed self-defense methodology – something that has not changed since.
Two early “Fathers” of American Jujitsu were not even American. Both were British. John J. O’Brien was born in Britain but immigrated to America in early adulthood. He had learned Jujitsu in Nagasaki Japan in the 1890’s. After coming to America, the U.S. Military was very interested in his Japanese form of unarmed self-defense and hired him to teach the pre-WWI Army. He also taught President Theodore Roosevelt. The second “Brit,” William Fairbairn was trained by a Japanese Jujitsu sensei while working in Shanghai, China. Fairbairn returned to England after his stay in Shanghai and began to teach Jujitsu to police and the military. But word gets around between allies, and soon the U. S. hired Fairbairn to come to America and teach its military. With an introduction by O’Brien, and continued advanced training from Fairbairn, the U.S. military’s concept of unarmed self-defense was changed forever. The methods of these two men are still used by American military and police to this day.
Another area of social change, physical culture, used Jujitsu as a propaganda vehicle. It was one of the first areas that women could participate along with men and reap the same benefits. Now into this arena was tossed techniques from Jujitsu that allowed a woman of lesser strength and size to be able to topple a male attacker and “twist” him into submission. Jujitsu along with other sportive combat arts helped the women's liberation movement. The May 1905 issue of The Cosmopolitan featured a statement by a Japanese Jujitsuka named Katsukuma Higashi, that given six months, he could teach a person to "meet a man of twice his weight and three times his muscular strength and overcome him under all circumstances."
The first book to advocate women's Jujitsu in America was Irving Hancock's Physical Training for Women by Japanese Methods (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1904). A Judo/Jujitsu practitioner from England, Emily Watts also wrote an influential book called The Fine Art of Jujutsu (London: Heinemann, 1906).
The final area that changed, although to a lesser degree, was that of sportive combat. At the turn of the 20th century, boxing and wrestling were the only martial sports in America. As Jujitsu, and its less lethal version Judo came on the scene, it was inevitable that contests between the new foreign martial art and the old accepted American combat sport method would happen. Of the two, wrestling proved to be the most formidable. As a grappling art, wrestling was at least familiar with throws and takedowns and pinning opponents, whereas boxing was easily defeated by Jujitsu.
At the beginning, many wrestlers and boxers were defeated by Jujitsu, thus making a name for the Japanese art in America. But soon, a wrestling style that was not the most popular in America called Catch-As-Catch-Can wrestling stepped up to the challenges of Jujitsu and met that challenge. The significance of these sportive meetings did not lie in the fact that either boxing or wrestling disappeared as a result of defeat, but that Judo and Jujitsu were validated in America, and also that a new evolution began in the wrestling scene. Wrestling picked up many techniques and strategies from Jujitsu, as did Jujitsu from wrestling. This mixture of wrestling and Jujitsu would eventually evolve into modern day “Professional Wrestling.” Jujitsu, being the first martial art to be introduced to America, was the foundation art on which all other popular martial arts place their feet today. Without the introduction of Jujitsu to women, the police, the military, sports, and the general population – this cherished and traditional way of life would not exist in America today.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WTZXM37