Hokutoryu Ju-Jutsu

Sōke Auvo Niiniketo, (born. 1954) (10. dan) "Father of Finnish Ju-Jutsu" has been training martial arts for most of his life, starting with boxing at the age of eight and winning the national youth championship in 1972 at 75KG and winning bronze in national championship in 1974. Niiniketo was introduced to Ju-Jutsu in Stockholm, Sweden, during a boxing trip, which immediately appealed to him, seeing it as a complete martial art. After ending his active boxing career, he started practicing Karate, finding its kicks to be particularly effective. Though he enjoyed kihon, it was kumite that appealed to him the most.

Niiniketo later decided to start training Ju-Jutsu. Niiniketo received his first Ju-Jutsu belt ranks up to blue belt in Sweden, as Finland did not have a Ju-Jutsu dojo at the time. In 1977 he started the first Ju-Jutsu courses in Helsinki and soon after this he opened his first dojo in Helsinki, which was also the first Ju-Jutsu dojo in Finland. This was the founding of Hokutoryu.

In 1978 Niiniketo met English senseis Richard Morris and Robert Clark from World Ju-Jitsu Federation and co-operates with them to this day. This co-operation initially led to Hokutoryu losing all of its belt ranks when switching to a new system but Hokutoryu made quick progress in the new system. In 1979, Niiniketo received his Ju-Jutsu black belt from Morris and Clark.

During his time in Sweden, Niiniketo continued to cross-train in Karate and he ultimately won the Finnish national heavyweight championship in 1979.

In 1980, Niiniketo brought kickboxing to Finland and started courses and building a national team for Finland. He works with kickboxing to this day and presents Finland at WAKO.

In 2007, in Hokutoryus 30th anniversary celebrations, Niiniketo received the rank of 9. dan and the title of Sōke from Richard Morris.

In 2014, in his 60th birthday celebrations, Niiniketo received the rank of 10. dan in Hokutoryu Ju-Jutsu and 6. dan in kickboxing, making him the highest rank holder in both arts in Finland.

In 2015, Niiniketo received the honorary title Councelor of Exercise from Sauli Niinistö, President of Finland.[5][6][7][8]

Hokutoryus rank system is based on the standard Japanese belt color rank system developed by Kanō Jigorō, founder of Judo. Rank system consists of kyūs (color belts), dans (black belts) and mons (junior color belts).[9] On top of learning the required techniques, grading requires the jujutsuka to have spent a certain amount of time as their current belt rank, as well as having partaken in a certain amount of classes as their current belt rank. Grading also requires the jujutsuka to have participated in a certain amount of national training camps, though in their case, only the total amount of participations is required, rather than amount of participations as a certain belt rank. There are four national camps each year.

Ranks include:

• 6th kyū/mon, white, starting rank
• 5th kyū/mon, yellow, no time, class or camp requirements but learning the techniques generally takes 2–3 months.
• 4th kyū/mon, orange, requires six months and 40 class participations as a yellow belt and one national camp participation.
• 3rd kyū/mon, green, requires one year and 110 class participations as an orange belt and three national camp participations.
• 2nd kyū/mon, blue, requires one year and 110 class participations as a green belt and five national camp participations.
• 1st kyū/mon, brown, requires one year and 110 class participations as a blue belt and seven national camp participations.

Dan ranks go from 1 to 10 and rank holders generally use a black belt, though at higher dan ranks, red-and-black, red-and-white and red belts may be used. Holder of a black belt is generally known as a sensei. Higher dan ranks might have other titles as well such as shihan, hanshi or kyoshi. Even the 1st dan belt tests are highly demanding and roughly half fail the test.[10]

Black belt requires the jujutsuka to have spent at least 2 years as a brown belt and at least six years in the style in total and have some experience as an instructor of a class. One cannot apply to a black belt test themselves. Instead, their sensei must send an application to the Sōke if they believe their student is ready for it. If one successfully completes a black belt test, they received the title of sensei.[11]

Randori or free sparring is an important part of the style and a requirement in belt tests from green belt onwards. Randori in Hokutoryu is full-contact. The intention of a jujutsuka is to use powerful striking techniques to either knock the opponent out or weaken their defence so that they can be thrown or swept down and if necessary, finished with a jointlock or a chokehold.

Randori consists of three parts: stand-up fighting, clinch fighting and ground fighting. Randori always starts with stand-up fighting after which the jujutsuka can move from one part to another.

In stand-up fighting, the jujutsuka is free to use any Ju-Jutsu striking techniques against the torso. Punches or knee strikes to the head are not allowed but kicks are. Low kicks are allowed as long as they aren't straight kicks. Elbow strikes are not allowed to any part of the body. A grounded opponent may be attacked with a kick only if they have their knee on the ground.

In clinch fighting, the jujutsuka may throw, sweep or takedown their opponent by using any technique provided it does not stress the neck or the spine. Jointlocks and chokeholds while taking the opponent down are not allowed but they are still allowed in clinch fighting as long as no attempts at a takedown are made while applying or trying to apply them.

In ground fighting, twisting jointlocks on knees are not allowed under any circumstances. Other than that, any jointlock is allowed as long as it doesn't target the neck, spine or a small joint. Chokeholds are allowed, both ones which use ones own hands and ones which make use of opponents jujutsugi.

Jujutsuka wear blue and red belts in randori to make it easier to tell them apart.

In addition to standard Hokutoryu, the style also contains three special types:

• Junior Ju-Jutsu: Made for children between 7 and 14. This type removes techniques which are seen as too dangerous for children, such as chokes, weapon techniques and most jointlocks.[13]
• Police Ju-Jutsu: Made for law enforcement and security guards. Main focus is on facing a violent person, seizing them and controlling them. As such, this type mainly uses techniques which are useful for controlling the opponent, such as wristlocks, as well as use of special equipment which are not used in standard Hokutoryu, such as handcuffs. Type is used by some police departments in Finland, such as Turku, where a group of police trains twice a week.[14]
• Military Ju-Jutsu: Made for soldiers. As such, it contains lethal techniques which are generally not used in other types of Hokutoryu, though many techniques cross-over with Police Ju-Jutsu. Military Ju-Jutsu is a part of training for cadets, military police and frogmen in the Finnish Defence Forces.[15]