ATT: Merryprankster

[Water Dragon]

The name of the Ryu Ha where the majority of of Judo's groundfighting comes from is Fusen Ryu Jujutsu. Just thought you might be interested in a little piece of trivia.

[Merryprankster]

That's actually fairly interesting.

Did Maeda study under that Ryu? Or did he learn his groundwork at the Kodokan?

Just curious... it really doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things :)

[Water Dragon]

The story goes that Kano had already synthesized Judo, and was in the process of testing his stuff against different styles. The Fusen guys managed to trounce the Judo guys in a match, so Kano added their techs which became the basis of Judo groundwork.

That's where the $hit starts to fly. Some people claim that Fusen Ryu was a legit combat style (this sounds more feasible to me)

The other story is that the Fusen guys just made it up because they knew they couldn't beat the Judo guys standing. Personally, I think that sounds like a crock.

[Merryprankster]

Agreed:

The idea that a Ryu could come up with an entire system of groundfighting strategies in such a short space seems unlikely to me.