Can Jodo be discussed as a "sword art"?

I would guess so, seeing as most of the time it is usually ran by governing bodies teaching Kendo. And I could be wrong but isn't there Jodo Kata against a sword?

There isn't much traffic here at the moment iaibear, so I can't see why anyone would find it objectional if you wanted to put Jodo conversation on the Swords Forum.

Thank you kindly.

The Aikido dojo I attend has been teaching us several "well known" Jo kata, such as the 13 and the 31. However they are not the "accepting", "non-initiating", "unbalancing" martial art that I have come to associate with Aikido. Jodo seems way more wham-bam-spear-and-pound.

It seems every time we have a seminar and the visiting Sensei does "weapons" (bokken and Jo, usually) he has his own version of the Jo Kata with 31 moves. Is there an "official" version?

My bad. Every time I go to class the 31 move Jo kata has been "edited". I hope sometime soon they settle on one sequence at least for moves 20, 21 and 22. My old legs have trouble with move 21 (get outta Dodge).

Please forgive my rant.

Good question! I've only ever learnt the first part of the Tomiki/Shodokan Jo kata. I don't know if that is the same or different from other Jo kata though! I understand the issue though; people showing the the same kata done 100 different ways can be confusing!

Shindo Muso ryu is the school that created the use of the jo. According to their history, it was supposedly created by Muso Gonnosuke in the early 1700's after being defeated with swords by Miyamoto Musashi. The kata of the Shindo Muso ryu are an "official" version. In 1969, a 'seitei' or 'common' set of jodo kata were introduced by the Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei for use by their folks. These were very similar to the original SMR jo kata, but there are differences. This could also be considered an 'official' version. Anything else that is out there has been created by someone that has either done ZNKR jodo or Shindo Muso ryu jodo. I am unaware of anything 'official', but most aikido dojo will do some version of jo work as they almost all do some version of sword work. I learned a couple of (very) different jo kata from a couple of different aikido dojo. Haven't yet had the opportunity to learn any SMR jo yet.

Sorry, that's probably way more non-answer information than you wanted.

<<kata were introduced by the Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei for use by their folks>>

Thank you. That explains a lot.