Sugano Shihan made extensive use of weapons work in his teaching. His research and development into sword work culminated in the "go no ken" system of paired practice, which is described in another article, here.

By the time Sugano Shihan arrived in Australia in the mid 1960s, he was already an accomplished user of the jo, or wooden staff. A video clip from the time shows his movements with the jo to be fluid and co-ordinated. For Sugano Shihan, practice with the jo was not a matter of 'stick-fighting', but an opportunity to develop full co-ordination of mind, body and intent.

His jo work was also always purposeful. He disapproved of what he described as "dancing with the jo".

In this Youtube clip, with uke Peter van Marcke, you can see how the graceful solo movements (from 1:18) remain unchanged in the subsequent paired practice, but the intent, purposefulness and effect of each move becomes abundantly clear.