"KEIBO SOHO
Keibo soho is the police method of using the keibō, the patrolman's short wooden club, in hand-to-hand combat. The systematic use of the keibō is an essential subject of study in the training of all Japanese policemen.
The keibō became a standard part of the Japanese patrolman's equipment in 1946, during the Allied occupation of Japan. Formalised techniques for the use of the keibō appeared in connection with the creation of taiho-jutsu the following year. The first keibō used by the Japanese was a length of hardwood approximately a foot and a half long; it was necked at one end to distinguish the handle from the body. This design proved unsatisfactory. As a weapon it was too short, broke easily at the neck, and could not easily be reversed by a hand-sliding action. A keibō with a uniform diameter, and approximately two feet in length, was adopted in 1949, but this weapon proved to be too heavy. The short stick of the United States Navy Shore Patrol was finally adapted and standardised as the Japanese keibō in 1956. Shimizu Takaji, the highest authority on stick and club techniques in Japan, headed a technical commission for the study of keibō tactics and recommended the formalisation of effective methods. This commission made a constant study of techniques and tactics during the 1960s.
THEORY AND TECHNIQUES The concept of defence that is essential in law-enforcement work is basic in keibō soho. Shimizu has incorporated many of the defensive aspects of the jojutsu of the Shindo Muso Ryu, of which he is the current headmaster, in keibō soho; patrolmen are taught to use the keibo to respond to an unprovoked attack made by an aggressor, and to subdue the aggressor by knowledge of the kyusho (anatomical weaknesses). The actual techniques of keibō soho, however, are more closely allied to the jutte-juts the art of using the single-tined ironi truncheon) of the Ikaku Ryu, a seventeenth-century martial-arts tradition; Shimizu is also headmaster of this ryu.
These techniques include striking, thrusting, parrying, blocking, and covering actions.
All keibō techniques must be used in connection with fundamental methods of body management taught in taiho-jutsu; posture, evasive turning actions, and proper use of ma-ai are important."
- Modern Budō & Bujutsu by Donn F. Draeger (1974)
Illusations from Japanese Taiho-jutsu manuals and below; a Japanese police practice keibō and patroling officer's wooden keibō.