Yanagi Hara Ryu Ju-Jitsu
Daito-Ryu Aiki Ju-Jitsu

Daito Ryu Aiki-jujutsu is a well-known Japanese combat art with a 1,000-year history of development. It has survived this long because of its acknowledged effectiveness in combat. Consequently, it has had numerous progeny – some well known like Aikido and other lesser known like Yanagi Ryu.

Yanagi Ryu is derivative from the family system of the legendary Yoshida Kotaro. The martial virtues of Yoshida Kotaro have been extolled by many. While some say that Yoshida Kotaro considered himself primarily as a Daito Ryu instructor, his family system specialized in small circle/in-fighting movements.

As narrated by Donald J. Angier, Yoshida Kotaro's son Kenji, came to the United States , was interred during World War II at Treasure Island , settled in Upstate New York, taught the Yoshida family system to teenager Angier, and ultimately passed his art to Angier by giving him the name of Sansuburo.

John B. Clodig began instruction with Don Angier in February 1970 and received a teaching certificate and title of Renshi in August 1980. Since then, John Clodig has continuously taught students, including other senior martial arts teachers.

In recent times, Don Angier exercised his prerogative and made a major organizational and structural change to his system. This publicly announced change freed John Clodig to pursue his own mission.

To reflect the above change and new mission emphasis required John Clodig to also change the organizational name he has instructed students under since 1980 to “Yanagi Hara Ryu of San Diego ”. 

John Clodig's curriculum is now known as Yanagi Hara Ryu. This change reflects respect for both tradition and innovation.

Yanagi Hara Ryu will continue with the same structure of techniques that John received from Don Angier, including the traditional Samurai weapons arts. However, Yanagi Hara Ryu will also include John Clodig's preference for emphasizing different principles of physics and geometry, and different sequences of movements to achieve more effective results in modern combat while reducing the learning curve for students.

Yanagi Hara Ryu's goal is to keep the traditional/classical art viable by increasing its ability to compliment modern eclectic styles of combat. The emphasis is on understanding principles of movement well enough to apply the essence of classical techniques within modern methods of combat. Further emphasis is given to inserting principles into everyday movement, thus reducing the dependence upon athletics in martial practice.

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Arts such as sumo, judo, karate, and wrestling, are often called "fighting arts." While it is not our purpose here to argue whether or not this term is appropriate for these budo and sports, we can state definitively that Daito-ryu aiki jujutsu is not at all a "fighting art" in the sense that these others might be considered to be. A look at the history of Daito-ryu shows clearly that it was developed in large part as a means of self-defense, particularly one to be used by warriors while inside the palace. This may be seen in the inclusion and emphasis on oshikiiuchi. In short, Daito-ryu was developed as a way to effectively and efficiently neutralize violence, not cause it. This is in perfect agreement with the Chinese character for the "bu" in budo, one interpretation of which is "to stop halberds." This is why that although we have forms used to demonstrate aikijutsu, there are no competitive matches.

One distinctive feature of Daito-ryu is that it has incorporated many of the essential elements and principles of other schools of budo, most notably the Ono-ha Itto-ryu. This was done to better allow the student to capture the essence of budo and to transform the art into a comprehensive one.

Daito-ryu goes beyond being a simple means of self-defense, and aims at putting mind and body in balance with the spirit that pervades the universe, developing oneself as a person, and contributing to society. One might recall that while Shinra Saburo Yoshimitsu, the distant founder of Daito-ryu, was skilled in martial techniques and the arts of war, he was also a skillful player of the sho. One story tells that while accompanying the shirabyoshi dancers on this instrument, he came to understand that despite the dancers' elegant, fluid and ever-changing movement, they admitted no openings (suki). From this he perceived the principle of non-form (mukei) and mastered the deepest essence of aiki. It is in this anecdote, perhaps, that we find a hint of the true essence of Daito-ryu.

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