Yawara

Yawara is the first kata of Danzan-Ryu Jujutsu and is translated as gentle or pliant. The kanji for Yawara is and is usually read as Ju. This is the same character in Jujutsu, Prof. Okazaki chose to use the hiragana (phoenetic syllable characters), so that the name of this list would be read as Yawara instead of Ju. In addition, Yawara is one of the earliest names used for Japanese unarmed combat.

This is the most important list of techniques in the entire system. After one learns the last list of the Danzan-Ryu Jujutsu techniques, they will return back to Yawara. 

Practice Yawara diligently. Perfecting the use of leverage and smoothe transitions.  These techniques can flow together to form a fluid self defense hand art that transition easily into the rest of the lists (Nage, Shime, etc.) to follow.

An Interesting Note: All techniques from the Hawaiian art of Lua that are incorporated into Danzan-Ryu are found in five of the Yawara