Contrasting BJJ and Atemi Jujitsu?

Atemi Jujitsu is a very traditional style. It is geared toward self-defense. I would just go check it out and see if it is for you. The class will be vastly different from BJJ. Most BJJ classes are brutal and involves heavy sparring.

My advice if you are serious about MMA is to check if they do any heavy rolling/wrestling at the end of class. This will be a good indicator of whether this is a good starting class if you want to get into MMA.

You've got lots of good answers here. True Kano removed elements from Jujitsu to make it safe to practice. Elements were added back later when Then (1900's) Judo was easily defeated by grappling based Jujitsu. Grappling techniques were re-introduced to Judo. Since then Judo has been edited and re-edited repeatedly. Japanese Jujitsu has gone through similar evolutions and re-inventions. There is only so much you can do to the human body. Gracie Jiu Jitsu is based in the early Judo which had a very jujitsu slant. Helio Gracie was an inovator, a man who refined techniques to work for the small framed man. Now we get to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which is more like Gracie Jiu Jitsu Plus. By this I mean non-Gracies have introduced addition techniques and styles changing the mix, examples Rubber Guard and Twister Side Control is a system that is included in BJJ but is not Brazilian in basis rather American. So is BJJ an outgrowth of JJ - Yes and no. The basics are there but BJJ is a more technical ground fighting art. Has BJJ taken only certain aspects - Again yes and no. While BJJ is more focused on grappling aspects it is a self defense system that has stand up techniques and defenses against weapons. Are there techniques that only exist in on - not really. In either system if you needed to pop an attackers eye ball out to defend yourself - well that techniques is there. What makes them the same and different is simply the human body. The real difference is one was a system utilized by samari when unarmed and or on the ground. When your primary weapon is removed you need a system to defend yourself until you can regain that weapon or anothers - Japanese Jujitsu. BJJ does not have and never has had that focus.