United States Jendo Association

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What is Jendo? 

Jendo, is a fighting art that utilizes empty hands and traditional Filipino weaponries such as the bangkaw, baot or arnis, dulo-dulo, siit and bladed tools like punyal, itak or buneng as a means of self-defense formulated partly based on the ancient oriental systems of discipline. 

Jendo is very much different from many existing systems. Some are limited to the principles of linear and/ or the circular movements and most in the Filipino martial arts as observe and articulated in their systems official logos are into the angular format. The methods of Jendo defensive and offensive techniques moves within the context of its own concept and principle called “buo”. This term coined to represent the linear, the circular and the angular motion tag along the art’s (Jendo) universal concept of existence – called Tres-Enerhiyas.  The wordbuo was derived from the Filipino Tagalog word meaning “whole “or “complete”. 

Jendo is considered to be one of the very few practical self-defense systems, that, if not comparable maybe more advanced than any system that employs the principles of economy of movements and the immobilizing methods of defense and counter.         

Prominent followers and practitioners of the art translate Jendo as "The Economical New Fist Way". The word Jendo actually is an acronym. The first letter of the word "Jendo", J - was derived from the originator's first name - Jonathan or June; E - stands for the word Economical or economically; N - stands for the word Non-classical or Non-conventional; the fourth letter, D - stands for the word Defense and the last, the letter O - stands for the word Order, which means, the method, the system or the way it is arranged. In Grandmaster Abaya's Weapon's Fighting System, he defines Jendo as June Abaya's Espada y Navaja Depensa Orihinal meaning - June Abaya's Original Stick and Knife Fighting System. The word Espada represents the tools stick, itak or thebuneng and the word navaja represents daga, punyal or knife.  Grandmaster Abaya introduces his stick-fighting art as Traditional Arnis or “Katutubong Arnis” in Tagalog with a goal of uncovering and preserving the historical values and techniques of the art and developing its effectiveness into a highly scientific art using the concepts and principles of Jendo.  

The art of Jendo empty hand and weapons fighting method was founded on a systematic principle of physical movements that develop its practitioner into a healthy, physically and mentally well-coordinated person. It is a complete art and a science dealing not just with the study of self-defense but also with the study of human existence, his behavior and relationships with all the things that surround him.  Jendo is not just an expression of martial arts defense and counter-attack, it is an expression of one's inner self; a means of attaining life's true meaning. It is the path by which something is and should be achieved.

Understanding Jendo is learning how to be both physically and mentally free; the art is simple in its entirety, direct and natural. It is not fixed and it is alive, ever changing and always searching for new ways; it has room for improvements just like the world or the universe we are living in, never constant, ever vibrant.

This is Jendo….