Ki 気 in Jūdō 柔道- Uchida Ryōhei and the Secrets of Budō 武道極意 – The Kanō Chronicles

Uchida Ryōhei 内田良平 (1873-1937)
(Photo Wiki Commons)

Many times I have been asked about ki 気 (pre World War II old style character: 氣) in jūdō 柔道 and other Japanese martial arts. In no way am I an expert on the matter, having practiced aikidō 合気道 only intermittently for a few years. My quest to understand it seemed pretty much hopeless when I tried seriously to learn later in life, at least given the typically amused reaction of my last instructor, the marvelous Inoue Kyōichi (井上 強一, 1935-2017, 10th dan Aikido, retired chief of instruction at the Yoshinkan), who often laughed aloud and said “Use aiki!! aiki to defeat them, not jūjutsu!!! None of your jūdō here, please!!” in response to my frustrated attempts to micmic his magic on the mats with opponents. They usually ended up off-balanced and thrown one way or the other, aiki or not, but it wasn’t necessarily a decent replica of his superb technique.

My early attempts to read up on ki from typical English language aikidō aficionado sources were bewildering. They ranged from frankly disjointed, unintelligible esoterica to serious attempts to describe something that seemed seriously indescribable.

Years later I began to read Confucian and Dàoist texts, first in English, then increasingly in modern Japanese, then in classic Chinese (with the assistance of excellent English translations by scholars whose works will live forever; thank you, Mr. Legge!)

Eventually, ki began to make some sense once I had some context for it. I asked myself, was explaining ki without some background simply too foreign a concept for an Arkansas farm boy from the 1950s? My first brush with Eastern philosophy was an all-too brief introduction in West Point, then a more serious dive in an East Asia area studies master’s program. There I realized that the basic philosophic underpinnings of China, Korea and Japan were truly foreign, and if I wanted to understand them, I had to get serious about reading up on them. A lot.

But later, far later than I wished, I found a remarkable text that I recommend to anyone interested in Japanese culture.

Japanese economics professor Dr. Michio Morishima (1923-2004) lectured at the London School of Economics, including introductory courses on the Japanese economy. According to his book Why Has Japan ‘Succeeded’? Western Technology and the Japanese Ethos (Morishima M, Why Has Japan ‘Succeeded’?, Cambridge University Press, 1982), as his (presumably primarily non-Japanese, non-Asian) students could not understand his economic lessons because of their complete lack of background regarding Japan’s philosophical and cultural milieu. He began to give short cultural and philosophical introductory lectures, and finally combined them into this remarkable book. Its cultural / philosophical historical introduction of Japan is the best I’ve seen in decades of reading, and is well worth the price despite it being only a small portion of the book, which is primarily an economic history (in fact, I can’t recall ever reading the entire book). A copy of it is available on the internet.

The book became my Rosetta Stone for Japanese culture, deftly explaining its melange of ancient Confucianism 儒教, Dàoism 道教 and Buddhism 仏教 with a modern constitutional monarchy and a representative democracy. Many people have thanked me for introducing it. But it works because Professor Morishima was knowledgable in multiple disciplines and able to present them to his students in a coherent, intelligible text, a man who could carve out a cultural Rosetta Stone using elements from multiple diverse sources – history, understanding of the impacts of ancient Eastern philosophies and their collisions with Western culture, and modern Japan’s unique history.

Uchida Ryōhei was such a man for jūdō.

Uchida Ryōhei 内田良平 (1873-1937) was an ultranationalist political theorist, Pan-Asianist, and martial artist, active in the pre-war Empire of Japan. (Wiki)

He was also an accomplished jūdōka, a favorite of Kanō shihan 師範 (master), one of the three most senior 5th dan rank holders in Kodokan history, and a noted street brawler. At the time of his prime, the early 1900s, there was a saying in the Kodokan:

When it comes to real fighting,
no one stands to the right of Uchida Ryōhei!
(Meaning: there was no one superior to Uchida in real fighting because in jūdō courtesies, senior students stand to the right.)

Uchida was born in 1873, the 6th year of the new Meiji era in Fukuoka, son of former samurai Uchida Ryōgorō who was a noted martial artist (teaching Shintō Musō Ryū jōdō 神道夢想流杖道and the inventor of Uchida Ryū tanjōjutsu 内田流短杖術), political hardliner and brawler, and ultranationalist organization Genyōsha founding member. When he was merely a teen, Uchida likely met Kanō shihan in the middle of the biggest political riot in Japanese history (a tale told herein later).

Uchida begin his classic education from childhood, studying the Chinese classics, the Four Books and the Five Classics 四書五経 , the foundational texts of Confucianism 儒教, in their original classic Chinese over 2000 years old. He learned a number of martial arts, most notably Jigō Tenshin Ryū Jūjutsu in Fukuoka’s Meidokan dōjō, an art in which he was notably successful. In 1893 he moved to Tokyo to live with his wealthy coal mine owner uncle Hiraoka Kōtarō, a supporter of the Genyōsha, and began to study Russian at a Tokyo school and jūdō at Kanō Jigorō’s Kodokan.

Over the next 20 years Uchida, moving throughout East Asia from Singapore to Shanghai to Seoul to Vladivostok, acted as spy and spymaster, cartographer, correspondent with Kanō shihan, agent provocateur and supporter of Korea’s 1894 Donghak Rebellion and China’s 1911 Xinhai Revolution, and supporter of Japanese forces in the Russo-Japanese War. As an Imperial Army reservist, he was recalled to active duty in 1894 for the Sino-Japanese War but because he was already in Korea agitating and assisting Korean revolutionaries’ combat against the Korean regime and Chinese garrison, by the time he returned weeks later to his assembly point in Fukuoka in accordance with his orders, his infantry regiment had already deployed to Manchuria, so he after a couple of weeks of sitting around doing nothing (something soldiers everywhere know very well!) he was released from active duty. In 1901 he established the Kokuryūkai, literally, the Black Dragon Society, which became the bête noire of half-informed Western intelligence and lurid press accounts that assessed it as the most dangerous and influential ultranationalist organization in the Imperial Empire, even exceeding his father’s Genyōsha.

Over four decades Uchida became one of the most influential voices on Japan’s far right, a key leader of one of the ultranationalist, expansionist, Imperialist political pressure groups that propelled Japan on its ultimately doomed mission to control East Asia and suicidally confront the most powerful national forces around the planet. Well before his death in 1937, few men on the ultra-right were held in higher regarding, notably including his mentor and senior Genyōsha member and close friend of his father, Tōyama Mitsuru, the ultranationalist éminence grise, ultimate behind-the-scenes fixer and assassin – and Kanō patron (another tale to be told later).

But Uchida was also a very dedicated martial artist. Because of his prowess as a young man, he was quickly promoted, becoming the third most senior 5th dan in Kodokan history. He wrote one of the two earliest jūdō books, in which Kanō provided a foreword praising Uchida’s fighting prowess and understanding of jūdō and its history. Later he wrote other books on other Japanese budō.

In 1925 he published his magnum opus on the martial arts, Budō Gokui, 武道極意 The Secrets of Martial Arts. (Uchida R, Budo Gokui, Tokyo: Kokuryukai Shuppanbu, 1925.) In Chapter 24, entitled 柔能く剛を制す Jū yoku wo Gō Seisu, The Flexible Controls the Rigid, Uchida launched his discussion of ki from the heart of the very definition of jūjutsu.

To understand the background, the legend taught for hundreds of years in Japan even until today is that the term 柔 in jūjutsu 柔術 comes from an ancient Chinese military strategy text, The Three Strategies of Huang Shigong, 黄石公三略 (Chinese Pinyin: Huáng Shígōng Sānlüè – “The Three Strategies of Duke Yellowstone”) one of China’s Seven Military Classics, thought to date from around 200 BC to 0 CE.

The primary saying that is used to describe the core philosophy of jūjutsu is the four-character idiomatic phrase that is the first line of the Upper Strategy 上略 of the Three Strategies.

Jū nō sei gō 柔能制剛
    The flexible controls the rigid.

(More often seen today in English is the term “Softness overcomes strength”, but the author prefers flexibility – see Endnotes).

The original classic Chinese complete text of the Upper Strategy reads:
「軍識曰、柔能制剛、弱能制強。柔者徳也、剛者賊也。 弱者人之所助、強者怨之所攻。
柔有所設、剛有所施、 弱有所用、強有所加。兼此四者、而制其。」

The Three Strategies text is a masterpiece of early Dàoist thought. This section provides a list of dualities, Yin Yang 陰陽 (JA: In’yō) binaries that compromise its “strategy”; flexible / rigid, weak / strong, assistance / opposition, virtues / faults, and the admonition to use each in the appropriate measure and time. It quotes an apocryphal, even more ancient text is calls the 軍讖曰 The Military Wisdom.

Divided into phrases and translated into English, it reads:

軍讖曰 The Military Wisdom cites:

柔能制剛 Flexibility controls hardness,
弱能制強 weakness controls strength.

柔者徳也 The gentle have virtues also,
剛者賊也 the unyielding also have faults.

弱者人之所助 The weak attract assistance,
強者怨之所攻 the strong attract opposition.

柔有所設 At times be flexible,
剛有所施 at times have hardness,
弱有所用 at times use weakness,
強有所加 at times add strength.

兼此四者 One using all four
而制其冝 will then prevail.

To understand Uchida’s text and the it may help to ponder the nature of the Dàoist binaries that describe the duality of nature. In essence, this primary Dàoist concept is that a thing, or the nature or characteristics of a physical thing or phenomena, cannot exist alone; there must be and always is a paired, opposite nature. Some examples? Darkness has no existence, no way to be compared without light. Summer has no meaning without winter. Heat must acknowledge and be affected by cold. The dualities of phenomena are endless: elder / younger, male / female, Heaven / Earth, parent / child, weakness / strength, movable / immovable, static / moving, on and on, finite / infinite.

The famous Taijtu (Ja: Taikyokuzu) is a symbolic representation of the duality of nature.

This is the Taijitu (太極圖 JA: 太極図 taikyokuzu)
Black represents Yin 陰 and white represents Yang 陽. It is a symbol that reflects the inescapably intertwined duality of all things in nature, a common theme in Taoism 道教 (JA: dōkyō, modern Pinyin Dào). No quality is independent of its opposite, nor so pure that it does not contain its opposite in a diminished form: these concepts are depicted by the vague division between black and white, the flowing boundary
between the two, and the smaller circles within the large regions.
(Graphic: Wiki Commons. Text: edited by author from Wiki Commons to add Japanese)

To give a notion of how important these concepts are in East Asian cultures, take a look at the Republic of Korea (South Korea) flag:

Republic of Korea national flag, the Taegeukgi (lit. ’Taiji flag’)
The blue / red symbol is a stylized, simplified Taijutu
The diagonally opposed three line “trigrams” represent Dàoist dualist binaries:
Heaven / Earth
Sun / Moon
East / West
North / South
Father / Son
Mother / Daughter
Fire / Water
Etc….
Graphics: Wiki Commons

Uchida mentions the seasons often. Even in the deepest part of winter, the most Yin time of the year, the Yang of summer must inevitably come, blending Yin Yang in the spring. He urges the cultivation of the body to true flexibility to be able to move best when the time is right, and the cultivation of the mind to maintain vigilance and the knowledge that such a time must come. In this manner, he says, the weaker can overcome the stronger, using the “power of the heavens”, not in somehow collecting and directing those powers but rather in adding all too frail human power in the right direction at the right time to take advantage of the natural transitions.

From the chapter title itself, Uchida proceeds to describe how ki 気 fits into the practice of martial arts, using Dàoist and Confucian concepts up to 2500 years old.

Note: This translation of Uchida’s text is provisional, as I am not satisfied with certain sections. Portions of the original text are very complex and draw on obscure, perhaps even otherwise completely lost texts, so I expect I’ll make changes as I puzzle through those sections a bit more.

******Uchida Ryōhei’s Budō Gokui, Chapter 24: Jū Yoku Gō wo Sei Su *******

Ki 気 (EN 1) is the reason how flexibility 柔 (EN 2) can control hardness 剛 (EN 3).
This is the spirit that Mencius (孟子 372-289 BCE)(EN 4) said to foster in self-reliance and open-mindedness.
The kanji character for ki is synonymous with seasons and occasions,
and has important significance in mastering the secrets of martial arts.
Ki is the ki of heaven –
there are people born with that ki.
It is breath.
It is will.
Therefore, it should be said that
people must live by ki
and move by ki.
A season is the time of the four seasons when ki appears,
and it is said that the character for season means the end.
The end is a shifting thing.
The periods of such as the seasons are fixed.
But even things that are fixed are bound to change when the time is right.
Change is the law of nature, and opportunity arises here.
Opportunity is always in ceaseless motion according to ki,
as there are shades in the sky, the wind and rain.
Following the movement of opportunity is in order,
going against it is the opposite.
If things are in order, you will win,
but if things are in not in order,
you will lose.

In short, it is through the sublime use of heavenly principles that the flexible conquers the hard.(But) flexibility is not always superior to hardness.
Hardness does not necessarily win over flexibility.
The common difference between either winning and losing is that which lies in the skill of one’s changing movement.

The ancients explained that
“The flexible is Yang, the hard, Yin
because flexibility is the Yang of the Yin;
the utmost Yin
is the innermost Yang that becomes Yang.

The hard is the Yin inside Yang;
the utmost Yang
is the Yin that becomes Yin.

It was also said by the ancients:
“The utmost Yin becomes Yang,
the utmost Yang becomes Yin,
as we know the flow of the four seasons.”

But
spring is the time when winter’s utmost Yin turns to Yang;
then the growth force of new shoots of plants and trees seems superficially weak,
but it is impossible to suppress them.

In the summer, everything grows in the sun / Yang /
their shapes grow strong and hard;
be that as it may,
autumn falls / Yin /
the season about to change –
it cannot be stopped.

As you can certainly see, events always turn –
whenever there is a change of momentum,
whenever there is a change of direction;
if we apply our wills in accordance with the time and place of the change,
the weak will conquer the strong.

Certainly,
the Way 道 (EN 5) to ride energy / spirit / life is
to be firm in mind
and flexible in body.

In the Jigō Tenshin Ryū Jūjutsu (EN6) densho scroll of transmission (EN 7), it is written:

You must have a strong spirit
to perceive large and small matters
with keen insight.

If you attain a flexible body,
you can move quickly.

Therefore, it is said,
be not only flexible,
also be firm and true.

The Kenchō (“The Precise Sword”) (EN 8) explains it as follows:

Wei LiaoziWuyi Hen, Section 12 (EN 9)

Victory is like water –
water is the softest and weakest thing,
but at its touch,
the very hills must crumble;
there is no difference –
focused, sincere.

The heart of what is said
is that an army that overcomes an enemy is like water.
Everything it touches will crumble.
Those who follow such water,
even the weakest people,
the land it touches are the summits of hills,
and those tumble down;
the nature of water
is as a single-minded person –
touching becomes one.

You should be enlightened by the warriors. (EN 10)
Those who practice the arts today –
as soon as he meets the enemy –
shows his right and strikes left,
shows his lower hem and strikes the head.

Everything
depends on cunning and deception.
Therefore,
clearly, before penetrating the enemy’s gut,
the enemy is not thinking at all –
consequently – my murderous ki – I will do it at will.

Sad, so sad.

It is as if, suffering frost and snow all our lives,
as a matter of living to no purpose after all,
there is no chance of success.

But…..
Please sincerely touch the true nature of water;
by virtue of righteousness the hills crumble before it;
awaken (EN 11) with detachment,
act sincerely;
when you reach the sublime state of independence,
light shoots from your eyes – 
enemies cannot face it.

It’s almost like the dazzling morning sun.

******** END of Uchida’s Chapter 24********

So we have Uchida’s sense of the origins and importance of ki. He saw it in the changes, in the moments of movement and momentum. Not in some energy somehow cultivated from within a person, but in the inevitable, natural moments found in the fullness of things. The challenge to him was to achieve a flexible body able to move quickly and an attentive, focused, firm mind prepared for the inevitable change opportunities.

Uchida was not the first to note the importance of moving in accordance with the opportunity, in accordance with ki, to develop the best budō. Later we’ll examine the poem contributed by an Imperial Prince describing jūdō that used similar language; his poem still hangs in the Kodokan today.

Kanō shihan himself was certainly aware of traditional notions including ki but developed jūdō as a scientific martial art and means of physical and character education. He was more concerned with the developing field of early 20th century biomechanics rather than 2000 year old Confucian and Dàoist philosophies, even though his own social ideas were strongly affected by those same philosophies. He also provided several forewords to martial arts books that espoused theories of ki and seika tanden, writing of the importance of the maintenance of traditional budō martial arts without commenting on the details.

He did, however, publish articles on the importance of ki and how to develop the tanden in his Judo magazine in the early Taishō era, just before 1920. After he fully formed his own jūdō philosophies Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei around 1920, Kanō established the Kodokan Culture Club in 1922 and focused on proselytizing them to the world. ( See The Origins and Development of Kanō Jigorō’s Jūdō Philosophies 嘉納治五郎の柔道原理の原因と開発https://kanochronicles.com/2021/12/30/the-origins-and-development-of-kano-jigoros-judo-philosophies-%e5%98%89%e7%b4%8d%e6%b2%bb%e4%ba%94%e9%83%8e%e3%81%ae%e6%9f%94%e9%81%93%e5%8e%9f%e7%90%86%e3%81%ae%e5%8e%9f%e5%9b%a0%e3%81%a8/)

##

Endnotes:
1 – 気 (JA: ki, CH: ) Wiki:
In traditional Chinese culture, (also chi or ch’i) is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. The literal translation of “qi” is breath, air, or gas.”

Ki is the middle character in aikidō 合気道 and while greatly stressed and studied in that art, is not commonly thought to be a factor in modern jūdō.

Pre World War II there was more interest in the study and use of ki in traditional jūdō, particularly among classically educated jūdōka such as Uchida who studied multiple budō martial arts and the Chinese classic texts.

2 – Flexibility 柔 (JA: in compounds, yawara in a single word) is often translated as softness, gentleness, or weakness.It is the initial kanji in the word 柔道 jūdō, “Flexible Way”.
Kanō shihan,who spoke and read English well, cited both gentleness and flexibility on different occasions over decades to translate the in jūdō into English.

The author prefers flexibility to capture the totality of the term, as jūdōka should respond to force by giving way flexibly yet with control and appropriate tension, not with softness or weakness.

3 – hardness 剛 (JA: ) Hardness, or stiffness, is the opposite of 柔 flexibility, as evident in the binary jūgō  柔剛 flexible/hard, flexibility/hardness.

4 – Mencius  (孟子, JA: Mōshi, 372-289 BCE) Wiki: Mencius was a Chinese philosopher who was arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself.

5 – Way 道 (JA: in compounds, michi as a single character word)

Wiki:  is the go-on vocalization of the Japanese kanji , corresponding to Mandarin Chinese (pinyindào, meaning “way”, with connotations of “philosophy, doctrine” (see Tao).

6 – Jigō Tenshin ryū Jūjutsu 自剛天真流柔術. A Japanese jūjutsu school prominent in the Fukuoka area and the Meidōkan dōjō associated with the Genyōsha 玄洋社 “Dark Ocean Society” ultranationalist organization. Uchida himself, son of a founding member of the Genyōsha, practiced the art as a young man and later at the Tenshinkan dōjō he founded in Fukuoka.

7 – “Scroll of transmission” is an English translation of 伝書 densho, which are traditional scrolls used to record budō techniques, traditions, and lineage, given to senior practitioners upon their promotion to various senior positions including full license to teach independently.  

8 – Kenchō
Hirayama Heigen and Takai Kunimoto, Kenchō, unpublished manuscript, 1870.

9 – Wei Liaozi – 尉繚子 This text is known as one of China’s Seven Military Classics. Master Wei Liao is thought to have written the Wei Liaozi during the Warring States period (475 – 221 BC).

The Uchida citation is a portion of the Wuyi Hen 武議篇 – Military Commentaries Chapter, Section 12, which in its entirety reads:

勝兵似水、
夫水至柔弱者也、
然所以觸、
丘陵必爲之崩、
無異也、
性專而觸誠也。*
今以莫邪之利、
犀兕之堅、
三軍之衆、
有所奇正、
則天下莫當其戰矣。

* Uchida stops here….

10 –  Warriors 武人 (JA: bujin) Although Uchida was born the son of a samurai, the traditional, hereditary warrior caste was abolished around his birth. (His father Ryōgorō, a political activist / former samurai, stopped carrying the traditional dual sword set of the samurai when it was outlawed in 1870, and almost paid for it with his life; he was attacked one day by political enemies, two men wielding highly illegal swords. He barely escaped with his life, and was inspired to develop Uchida Ryū tanjōjutsu 内田流短杖術, a series of cane or short staff drills used against an attacker armed with a sword. Today it is taught as a part of today’s Shintō Musō Ryū jōdō 神道夢想流杖道 curriculum).
Most of the men that followed Uchida were not former samurai, but many practiced martial arts, at least in their youth, and urged its practice upon young Japanese to forge their minds and bodies to be effective ‘warriors’ for the Emperor.
The ‘arts’ mentioned in the next line are the warrior arts.

11 –  Awaken. The term Uchida uses is the Chinese word 醒悟 xǐngwù, meaning realization, awakening, awakening from hesitation (to action).

It could be understood as a form of “reaching enlightenment”.

##

Thank you for reading this far – it’s a bit long. I should probably reduce the introduction.
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Les douze préceptes du jūdō – Kanō Jigorō (1930)

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My internet budo bud Jihef in Belgium sent me his French translation of the Twelve Precepts of Jūdō by Kanō shihan. This is the webpage of the budo website where he posted it.

Many thanks, Jihef!!

Les douze préceptes du jūdō – Kanō Jigorō (1930)

Message non lu par Jihef » Hier, 13:57

Bonjour à tous. ^^
Je partage avec vous un texte de Lance Gatling. Il a publié une traduction d’un texte de Kanō, essai publié en 1930 par Kodansha.
Voici son texte, suivi d’une première tentative de traduction.

Lance Gatling a écrit :

柔道十二訓 The Twelve Precepts of Jūdō – Kanō Jigorō
Jūdō practice as budō
1. Practice kata and randori as carefully as if your opponent is armed with a live sword.
2. Do not forget that the objective of jūdō study is to improve every day, not to win or lose.
3. Jūdō practice is not limited to the dōjō.


Jūdō practice as Physical Exercise
4. Avoid dangerous techniques and optimise your exercise to train your body.
5. Do not neglect proper food, sleep and rest.
6. Exercise correctly, not carelessly, in accordance with proper principles.

Jūdō practice as Spiritual Training
7. Conduct kata and randori with your best effort.
8. Endeavor to practice not only with your powers of judgement, but also with your powers of intuition.
9. It is necessary to consider others’ reactions to you in your self-reflection.

Jūdō principles applied to Daily Life as practice
10. In the basics of your daily life, bear in mind the principle of Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei.
11. When faced with occasional inconsistencies in your teachings, keep in mind the principle of Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei.
12. When faced with many pressures, even the daily necessities of life, consider your problems one by one, keeping in mind the principles of Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei.

柔道十二訓 Les douze préceptes du jūdō – Kanō Jigorō

Pratique du jūdō comme budō
1. Pratiquez le kata et le randori avec autant de soin que si votre adversaire était armé d’une lame.
2. N’oubliez pas que l’objectif de l’étude du jūdō est de s’améliorer chaque jour, pas de gagner ou de perdre.
3. La pratique du jūdō ne se limite pas au dōjō.

La pratique du jūdō comme exercice physique
4. Évitez les techniques dangereuses et optimisez votre exercice (physique) pour entraîner votre corps.
5. Ne négligez pas une bonne alimentation, le sommeil et le repos.
6. Entraînez-vous correctement, et non négligemment, conformément aux principes appropriés.

La pratique du jūdō en tant qu’entraînement spirituel
7. Pratiquez les kata et randori avec votre meilleur effort.
8. Efforcez-vous de pratiquer non seulement avec vos pouvoirs de jugement, mais aussi avec vos pouvoirs d’intuition.
9. Il est nécessaire de tenir compte des réactions des autres à votre égard dans votre (auto) réflexion.

Principes du jūdō appliqués à la vie quotidienne comme pratique
10. Dans les bases de votre vie quotidienne, gardez à l’esprit le principe de Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei.
11. Face à des incohérences occasionnelles dans vos enseignements, gardez à l’esprit le principe de Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei.
12. Face à de nombreuses pressions, même les nécessités quotidiennes de la vie, considérez vos problèmes un par un, en gardant à l’esprit les principes de Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei.

m(_ _)m
La source, ici : (Source, here!)
https://kanochronicles.com/2022/10/15/the-kano-society-bulletin-54-the-kano-chronicles/

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The Kanō Society Bulletin #54 – The Kanō Chronicles

For the October 2022 Kanō Society Bulletin, the editors chose three essays of mine.

• The Twelve Precepts of Jūdō
Sen, Go no Sen, Sen no Sen, and Sen Sen no Sen – What are they?
• Fine Art at the Kodokan

The Twelve Precepts of Jūdō is an updated version of a shorter essay I posted a couple of years ago.

Sen is ‘initiative’ in Japanese. Certain martial arts cultivate the understanding of reading your opponents’ body language, movement, eye focus and other details to understand their intent and to steal the initiative from them – sometimes before their very thought is fully formed!

Finally, although Kanō shihan did not write or speak much about art, he was taken with a certain artist’s heroic and massive depiction of ‘Wildly Galloping Horses’, and had a large, two piece screen set commissioned that were apparently kept in his office most days but displayed in the Kodokan on special, ceremonial or formal occasions. The screens survived Kanō shihan’s death in 1938 only to be burned in one of the final air raids of Tokyo in 1945, when the Kodokan nearly burned down. (see the story of the 1945 Firebombing of the Kodokan here:

https://wordpress.com/post/kanochronicles.com/43


Enjoy!

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer, The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
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Kanō shihan calligraphy on the power of education – The Kanō Chronicles Oct 2022

Examples of the calligraphy of Kanō shihan are abundant. Beyond a number of apparent fakes available (some pretty accurate simulations of a number of his different writing styles), Kanō offered to and did brush any number of calligraphy 掛け軸 kakejiku hanging scrolls and other materials for jūdō dōjō opening ceremonies, decorations for established dōjō and individuals (most often when overseas), and for other occasions. The overseas calligraphies of Kanō are notable in that most lack the red-inked seals he normally used while creating calligraphy at home in Japan.

I find one in particular very striking. In it Kanō shihan speaks of the importance of education and its ability to affect a “thousand far generations”.

「教育之事天下莫偉焉徳教 
一人徳教廣加萬人
一世化育遠及百世」

The difficulty of roughly dating Kanō’s calligraphy, as they are seldom dated, is considerably eased by his use of pen names, names he changed over time at significant ages. On this calligraphy, Kanō shihan’s pen name is written by the three small vertical characters on the far left of the scroll, 進乎斎 followed below by two seals stamped in read ink.

The three pen names Kanō shihan used were: 「甲南」・「進乎斎」・「帰一斎」. This is marked with the second, which is a reference to a tale 2500 years old……

(to continue reading, click on the READ MORE link below)

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An Interpretation of Musashi’s “Shrike on a Withered Tree” 枯木鳴鵙図 Koboku Meigeki Zu (Sep 2022)

As a bit of a change from our normal content, please see the attached presentation with my interpretation of 宮本武蔵 の 枯木鳴鵙図 Miyamoto Musashi`s Koboku Meigeki Zu “Shrike on a Withered Tree”.

枯木鳴鵙図
Koboku Meigeki Zu
“Shrike on a Withered Tree”
(Image: Wiki Commons)

In the philosophy of Kanō Jigorō, a well-rounded human pursues the study of 文武両道 bunbu ryōdō “the martial and the arts, both Ways”. This concept, that the study of both martial Ways and the Way of the arts is vital to balanced humanity is widely spread in the Far East; years ago I visited an ancient Buddhist temple in Vietnam and leaned my shoulder against a huge pillar to steady myself to take a long-exposure photo inside in the dim light. After I took some shots, I put my palm on the vermillion pillar to push myself upright, and only then noticed that my hand fell next to an intricate pattern carefully carved into the huge pillar and painted in black to stand out – 文武両道.

Although a miserable artist and calligrapher myself, I’ve always been fascinated by the ability of true artists to create a separate reality on canvas, and, for me, the fewer strokes, the better.

In Japan a genre called 墨絵 sumie, ink painting (sometimes ink wash painting) has a tremendous history. Classically written Japanese and Chinese are written with a brush dipped in ink. Traditionally the ink is made by rubbing soot ink from a 墨 sumi inkstick, a dried block like a soot crayon stabilized in glue, on the 硯 suzuri inkstone, and mixing it with water and adjusting for darkness. Practiced by hundreds of millions around the world for thousands of years, such calligraphy also provides a basis in the techniques of sumie ink wash painting, using the same basic simple tools.

One of the best known proponents of 文武両道 studying both the martial and the arts is the famous swordsman 宮本武蔵 Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645). Swordsman, strategist, philosopher, author, ronin masterless samurai and sumie artist, Musashi, as he is commonly known today, was never bested in 61 recorded duels. In his first duel at age 13, he wielded a wooden staff to best a grown man armed with a sword, stunned him with a blow between his eyes, then beat him to death…..
(continued at “READ MORE” link below,
including a PowerPoint presentation that can be downloaded.)

Continue reading “An Interpretation of Musashi’s “Shrike on a Withered Tree” 枯木鳴鵙図 Koboku Meigeki Zu (Sep 2022)”

Kanō shihan’s First 35 Years – The Kanō Chronicles

Recently I provided an essay to the Asiatic Society of Japan, the “oldest learned society in Japan” of which I am a member. See https://www.asjapan.org for an introduction to the Society.

It was founded in Yokohama in 1872, when Kanō Jigorō was only 12 years old and had just moved to the new Japanese capital ofTokyo with his family. By 1888 Kanō was one of the first Japanese members, and became a member of the first Japanese board of advisors. The Society membership was like a Who’s Who of a wide range of Japanese and Asias diplomacy, science, natural history, languages, cultures, and more.

The essay was provided to the Society’s Transactions 134 years after Kanō and a colleague at the Gakushin where Kanō was the vice-principal gave a lecture in 1888 then a demonstration of his new jūdō, making it one of if not the first known demonstration of jūdō to a foreign audience.

Later I made this presentation based on the essay, and gave it to an informal group of Japan-centric academics called Informasia.

Please enjoy, and let me know if you have questions or comments.

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to give us feedback.
Thank you!

The Origins and Development of Kanō Jigorō’s Jūdō Philosophies 嘉納治五郎の柔道原理の原因と開発

The paper linked herein was published in December 2021 in the International Judo Federation’s Arts and Science of Judo online ‘zine, Vol. 1, No. 2.

The Origins and Development of Kanō Jigorō’s Jūdō Philosophies
By Lance Gatling. Pages 50-64.

Kanō’s jūdō philosophies – Seiryoku zenyō Jita kyōei – adorn tens of thousands of judo dojo across the world, but what exactly do these phrases mean? They are typically translated as ‘Best use of energy / mutual benefit’, even this does not clarify the origins and precise meaning of the phrases.

精力善用自他共栄

Despite many searches, I can’t find anything else like this paper. It details what Kanō proposed as the true philosophy of jūdō and how he adopted Western Utilitarian philosophy taught in his youth, blending in elements of traditional Eastern philosophies of Confucianism and Daoism.
…….. (to continue reading, click on the READ MORE link below)

Continue reading “The Origins and Development of Kanō Jigorō’s Jūdō Philosophies 嘉納治五郎の柔道原理の原因と開発”

The Most Valuable Martial Art of All – The Kanō Chronicles®

Just as national defense is necessary for a country,
individuals must know how to defend themselves.  
 
If another person comes at you wrongly with violence,
you must know how to defend yourself;
if you give up without even a thought, or without even a second thought,
you will lose face.
 
Also, even as a people, when the time of need arises,
you must be prepared to fight for the country.
 
In order to do this, in this day and age we must unceasingly learn jūjutsu,
as a martial art the most valuable of all, 
and as individuals and as a nation
we must be prepared with the necessary qualifications.
 
– Kanō Jigorō, Jūdō Kyōhon , 1931
 


NOTE: ‘losing face‘ is losing one’s honor and prestige
because of an improper act or failure to act

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to give us feedback.

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The Historic and Philosophic Origins of Kanō Jigorō’s Jūdō Philosophies: Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei (Best Use of Energy / Mutual Benefit) – The Kanō Chronicles® 

Efforts to ascribe philosophical meaning to various martial arts seem perennial, but documents supporting origin claims are often transparently contrived or unsupported. Notable exceptions are China’s Shaolin kung fu, developed centuries ago and still taught at the Chan (Japanese: Zen) Buddhist Shaolin temple in China, and Japan’s Shorinji Kempō, developed to popularize the school’s Zen practice. Many koryū (ancient Japanese martial arts) claim unique philosophies but cite tales of inspiration by intense, training-inspired visions or even visitations by tengu (long-nosed goblins). But the genuine philosophical roots of one modern Japanese martial art practiced worldwide were misunderstood, overlooked, then finally lost to history. That art is jūdō, a modernized version of jūjutsu, the ancient samurai martial art of fighting barehanded.

Although Kanō spoke about his jūdō philosophies frequently in Japanese and occasionally in English for decades, he never disclosed their origins, and their exact meaning escaped jūdōka for nearly 100 years. While his writings were clearly influenced by ancient Eastern philosophy more than 2,200 years old, this paper, adopted from the forthcoming manuscript The Kanō Chronicles: The Untold History of Modern Japan,® will show how the core of his philosophy came from 19th century English philosophers.

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to give us feedback.
Thank you!
©2021 Lance Gatling, The Kanō Chronicles

The evolution of the jūdō keikogi (‘gi’) – The Kanō Chronicles®

The evolution of the jūdō keikogi (practice clothing) is one of the many minor mysteries of the history of judo. Many details in jūdō history of interest to some today simply were not recorded in any evident form available today, surely for a variety of reasons, including the likelihood that no one thought that many events were actually noteworthy. The evolution of the keikogi is simply another detail of history that changed, evolving over time, and at the times it changed, no one thought it important enough to record those changes in detail.

When Kanō shihan (master) started his jūjutsu practice (yes, jūjutsu, not jūdō) we know everyone wore street clothes. Over 30 years later he said that he noticed great differences in the quality of the clothes, as his students included very wealthy aristocratic children, the scions of noble Imperial court members, former samurai of various means, as well as poor street urchin / houseboys, a number of which he alone supported with room, board and an education. He wrote that he took note of the large differences in quality and condition of the clothing of the commoners versus the aristocrats. In order to ‘level the playing field’ so to speak, he had everyone change into early versions of the keikogi – the date was unspecified, but was apparently in the early to mid 1880s, as he wrote about it in the late 1880s.

The origin of those earliest keikogi is almost certainly a type of kimono undergarment – likely the 襦袢 juban or 半襦袢 han juban. Today the various types juban are typically made of very light, fine material, particularly for summer use, as they are under layers of heavier cloth. Fine silk or cotton / synthetic blend cloth juban worn under kimono could never stand up long in jūdō keiko practice, but in the 1880s, daily use juban, particularly of commoners of modest means, were simple, sturdy cotton. Some 20 years later in the last days of the 19th century, Kanō shihan describes the final, premodern keikogi jacket as 白木綿 筒袖 袷襦袢 – white cotton, tight sleeved, lined juban – modified with triple layers of cloth above the waist, sleeves extending so far beyond elbows, longer coat tail to reach mid thigh, gathered in the front and held by an obi like a standard juban, etc., etc. He describes the pants as 白木綿 下穿 – white cotton ‘underpants’ – a term used more widely today to include exercise pants, etc.

Many such clothes were probably at least semi-custom made in the day, anyhow, so buying something incorporating the triple layer fabric and narrow, long sleeves Kanō specified was likely pretty simple. But some time early on, it seems likely that some enterprising tailor realized that thick, woven white cotton material was more suitable for tough outer wear and would be easier to assemble than three layers of standard material (and his customers would stop complaining about getting their keikogi ripped apart). Such thick, woven or even padded cotton material is commonly used in happi 半纏 short outer coats, famously used in matsuri festivals today, and winter hanten 法被 long outer coats. (This would seem to be a natural evolution for any half clever tailor, but the vague similarity between a modern keikogi top and a happi coat has made speculation about a relationship between them a popular pass time over the years. Kanō, a noted clotheshorse given to wearing rather fancy Western and Japanese clothes, certainly knew the difference between a juban and a happi, so I’m happy to accept his description of a modified juban as the basis of the keikogi.)

(Some Westerners call this ‘kimono underwear’, which it is, in a way, but I’d point out that casual seminudity was an aspect of life in the lower Japanese social classes, public baths and manual occupations that scandalized Western visitors well into the 20th century. So, I prefer ‘foundation garment’ as there was no apparent shame in men being seen dressed in such indoors, while at practice, while porters, laborers and jinrikisha ‘rickshaw men’ of the day might wear nothing but fundoshi loincloths or even less. Women and their modesty are a very different matter, and really didn’t become an issue until the 20th century when Kanō ended his secret lessons for women and began teaching them openly.)

After nearly two decades of experience he (mostly like both Kanō and his teaching staff) realized that longer sleeves and pants legs would better protect practitioners’ knees and elbows from abrasion from the rush straw tatatmi (mats) they had standardized as a floor covering. The longer sleeves and pants legs were probably being used experimentally starting in the 1890s; their use became mandatory around 1906. The change was probably enacted over time as students wore out their old ones, which also helps make the precise date of the adoption of the change vague. In 1909 Kanō wrote at length about the development of his notions of the keikogi, noting that in the old days of jūjutsu that competitors sometimes fought near naked, but that modern modesty and health, along with practical safety considerations, made traditional clothing and even the wide varieties of modern Western clothing less practical for instruction of jūdō.

法被 Happi short outer coat, marked with Matsuri (Festival)

Also there was always a lot of variation in keikogi until recent competition driven detailed rules – as late as the 1930s jūdō instruction books often included patterns for homemade keikogi, and even instruction methods that did not require keikogi.

Frankly, what’s always been more interesting to me than the keikogi is the origin of the modern obi – as the original belts were thin, single layer cloth strips tied in a bowtie – look closely at photos of Kanō shihan and Mifune sensei. And I can’t find any evidence, but think it was an invention of clothing makers postwar, upselling judoka with fancy, thick and even embroidered belts.

NOTES:

Modern long sleeve juban

‘Tight sleeves’ as opposed to traditional loose sleeved juban 
https://item-shopping.c.yimg.jp/i/n/wasakura-an_okmsj-1 
or optional sleeveless, summer use han juban ‘half juban’. 
https://image1.shopserve.jp/teratomo.jp/pic-labo/60475_31001.jpg )

Sleeveless modern juban

Ads for keikogi appear in Kodokan publications pretty early on and carry on today.

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
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Kano’s 12 Precepts of Jūdō – The Kano Chronicles®

The 12 Precepts of Jūdō – Kanō Jigorō 1930

(updated 10.6.2022) This rare text by Kanō shihan (master) is very indirect and complex.  The below is simply a truncated paraphrasing of that list in an obscure early Showa era book.    

NOTES:

The ‘practice’ mentioned is 修行 shugyō, which the excellent www.jisho.org defines as:

1. ascetic practices (Buddhist term)
2. training; practice; discipline; study
3. Wiki: Shugyo – Sādhanā (Sanskrit साधन, Tibetan སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་, druptap; Wylie sgrub thabs), literally “a means of accomplishing something” is ego-transcending spiritual practice. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Muslim traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.

Seiryoku zenyō Jita kyōei are the two phrases of Kanō shihan’s jūdō philosophy,
typically translated as “Best use of energy / Mutual benefit” (see postscript)

柔道十二訓 Jūdō‘s 12 Precepts – Kanō Jigorō, 1930

Jūdō practice as Budō

1. Practice kata and randori as carefully as if your opponent is armed with a live sword.

2. Do not forget that the objective of jūdō study is to improve every day,
not to win or lose.

3. Jūdō practice is not limited to the dōjō.

Jūdō practice as Physical Exercise

4. Avoid dangerous techniques and optimize your exercise to train your body.

5. Do not neglect proper food, sleep and rest.

6. Exercise correctly, not carelessly, in accordance with proper principles.

Jūdō practice as Spiritual Training

7. Conduct kata and randori with your best effort.

8. Endeavor to practice not only with your powers of judgement,
            but also with your powers of intuition.

9. It is necessary to consider others’ reactions to you in your self reflection.

Jūdō principles applied to Daily Life

10. In the basics of your daily life, bear in mind the principle of ‘Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei’ .

11. When faced with occasional inconsistencies in your teachings,
keep in mind the principle of ‘Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei’.

12. When faced with many pressures, even the daily necessities of life, consider your problems one by one, keeping in mind the principle of ‘Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei’.

Translation ©Copyright 2022 Lance Gatling, The Kanō Chronicles

Postscript: For a full explanation of精力善用自他共栄Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei
Best Use of Energy / Mutual Benefit, the jūdō philosophies of Kanō shihan, please refer to
The Origins and Development of Kanō Jigorō’s Jūdō Philosophies by Lance Gatling, International Judo Federation Arts and Science of Judo , Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2021, pages 50-64.
http://tinyurl.com/yxxtvvbu

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to give us feedback.
Thank you!
©Copyright 2022 Lance Gatling, The Kanō Chronicles

Kanō and his 7000 Chinese students at the Kōbun Gakuin 嘉納歴代 • 嘉納師範と弘文学院 – The Kanō Chronicles

One episode of the life of Kanō shihan (master) not generally appreciated by jūdōka is his extended effort to educate Chinese students. This effort saw him undertake a Meiji government sponsored months’ long, thousands of kilometers official trip through Q’ing dynasty China in which he met mandarins, had secret conversations with overlords, visited the tomb of the founder of orthodox neo-Confucianism, contacted future revolutionaries, and dodged pirates.

Beginning with a small private juku in a rented facility Kanō developed a purpose built school that inducted almost 8,000 Chinese over years, hundreds enrolled at any given time. He first named it 亦楽書院 Jiraku Shoin, a name derived from an ancient Confucian classic text, then again changed the kanji for the new name after being informed by some of his students that such a name violated an obscure ancient naming taboo by using the name of a Chinese Emperor, an affront to traditional Chinese. Today in Japanese we know it as the 弘文学院 Kōbun Gakuin, in Chinese history it is known as the Hongwen Academy.

It was essentially a preparatory school, primarily intended to bring the diverse group of polyglot Chinese students to an acceptable level of comprehension and communications in spoken and written Japanese and a foundation in other topics so the students could later enroll in regular advanced education in Japanese higher education institutes, including Kanō’s own 東京高等師範学校 Tōkyō Kōtō Shihan Gakkō Tokyo Higher Normal School, Japan’s highest teacher training academy. There they would study to become the new teaching cadre that backwards China so desperately needed to modernize its education system. They were joined by a number that went on to study at military or police training facilities until the Japanese government banned the practice.

In teaching Japanese to so many foreigners at once, almost inadvertently the school became one of the foremost working laboratories of teaching the Japanese language, which Kanō himself helped to codify. In mid-Meiji, the school developed a Japanese language training program which it published; the book, Nihongo Kyōkasho, A Japanese Textbook and its training program was so well regarded that it stayed in print for over thirty years.

日本語教科書 Nihongo Kyōkasho Japanese Textbook
Kōbun Gakuin ed.
, 1906

The school remained in operation for years until political propaganda fostered by Europeans and Americans fueled anti-Japanese sentiment to the point that enrollment fell off sharply. Kanō, who lived on the school compound bought for the project in a large house he had built, acquired the huge plot of land years after the school closed and lived there until his death in 1938, when his eldest surviving son and future Kodokan president Kanō Risei inherited the compound.

In the years of the Kōbun Gakuin, Kanō met many men and women who would become key figures in the future of China. Some became founders and political leaders of all three rival Chinese governments vying for power in World War II and its subsequent Civil War, contributing to the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese, as well as teachers and businessmen desperately trying to bolster the faltering China. Some stayed in touch with Kanō for decades afterwards.

The students included future Communists, Nationalists, collaborators with the invading Japanese, soldiers, artists, authors, and even Mao’s father in law. They included: 陈天华、黄兴、李待琛、杨度、胡汉民、牛保才、杨昌济、张澜、朱剑凡、胡元倓、李琴湘、方鼎英、许寿裳、鲁迅、沈心工、陈幼云、陈师曾、陈寅恪、劉勳麟、鲍贵藻, 李四光、侯鸿鉴、郑菊如、李书城、林伯渠、邓以蛰、趙戴文、and 程鴻書.

********

Kanō wrote a forward to the Japanese Textbook in classic Chinese that would be understandable by the Chinese despite their different spoken dialects and varying levels of Japanese skills. It reads:

近時中華文運方興。

Recently there is a Chinese cultural movement.

斯講新学者。

These new scholars.

多資於我日本語日文。

Skilled in our Japanese language and grammar.

而日語文實為中華士子今日必須之学者日増月盛。

And Japanese is actually getting more and more important every day for Chinese scholars。

而教科之書。

However, educational books.

未見其善者。

I have not seen good ones.

定為憾耳。

I regard that as regrettable.

顧言語文字之為学。

The study of speech and writing.

如容易其然。

As easily as possible.

而其實不然者存焉。

But what else?

我宏文学院。**

Our Kōbun Gakuin.

教養中華学生有年。

Educated Chinese students for many years.

我邦語文教授之方。

Our national language professors.

講究已久。

Studied how for a long time.

其成績頗有可觀者。

Men of considerable achievements.

因使教授松本氏編纂日本語科書。

As a result, Professor Matsumoto* compiled this Japanese language book.

諸教授賛助之。

Various professors supported it.

其口語法用例先成。

Its colloquial use cases are established first.

皀以刊行。

And is published with.

而會文法讀本等。

Grammar and a reader, etc.

亦已就諸

It is complete.

其訖助之日

Finally the day of its release!

興此書相待

We welcome this book!

而教授日語日文之資料。

And its teaching material for Japanese and Japanese literature.

庶乎其備矣。

It is almost ready.

抑是書也。

This book.

為華人而作。

Is thus made for Chinese.

然而教授我邦語於一般諸外国人之典型。

Teaching of our Japanese to typical foreigners.

亦不出於此。

Nor is it for this reason.

則是書之所裨益

The benefit of this book.

盖不小也。

is not small, after all.

明治三十九年四月

April Meiji 39 (1906)

宏文学院長嘉納治五郎

Kōbun Gakuin head Kanō Jigorô

– translation ©Copyright 2020 by Lance Gatling, The Kanō Chronicles

Endnotes:

* Matsumoto was the Kōbun Gakuin vice principal and a principal Japanese instructor.

** The first name of the school was 弘文学院 Kōbun Gakuin later changed to 宏文学院 which is also pronounced Kōbun Gakuin in Japanese; not accidentally both are pronounced Hongwen Xuéyuàn in Mandarin, usually rendered as Hongwen Academy in English. We will explore the naming taboo that the original name violated.

Hat tip to Geoff Newman for his translation suggestions! 谢谢!

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to give us feedback.
Thank you!
©Copyright 2020 Lance Gatling – The Kanō Chronicles

Viscount Shinagawa Yajirō and the Fujimichō Kōdōkan – The Kanō Chronicles®

Among the many locations of the Kodokan in its early days (1882-1900) was one that Kanō shihan (master) explains in some detail: the Fujimi-chō dōjō (literally, ‘place of the way’, originally a Buddhism term denoting a place of austere study, adopted by Japanese martial arts to indicate a place of practice and austere study).

In his early 20s, from the early to mid 1880s, Kanō became acquainted with key Chōshū han samurai who variously fought with or led Chōshū military units fighting in the Satsuma – Chōshū han led coup that seized control of Japan in what is termed the Meiji Restoration. This long series of events and their aftermath led to a young Chōshū samurai named Murata Genzō studying English under Kanō. (Satsuma and Chōshū were only two of the around 260 han domains of old Japan, but two of the most powerful and most in tension with the bakufu. Sited in today’s Kagoshima and Yamaguchi prefectures respectively, these powerful han existed about as far as you could get from Tokyo and still be in Japan, and were jealous and suspicious of the Tokugawa bakufu military dictatorship / administration and protective of their own prerogatives. In alliance with lesser allies the senior samurai of these two han led the battles and political struggles of the Restoration, the overthrow of the over 260 year old Tokugawa regime and the establishment of a new government with the Emperor as its titular leader, advised, of course, by his new Imperial supporters.)

Murata told Kanō that he wanted to travel and study overseas but could not afford to do so. Through Murata, Kanō met Viscount Shinagawa Yajirō (1843-1900), a senior Chōshū samurai colleague of Murata and one of the rising stars in the new Meiji government. Kanō consulted with Shinagawa and his senior colleague and patron, then Count (later Prince under the new Meiji peerage system) General Yamagata Aritomo about how they could support Murata. In the end, Yamagata asked the young Kanō, then in his twenties, to lead a private subscription drive to support Murata. Kanō agreed and eventually successfully collected enough money from other senior Chōshū samurai and his own merchant commoner friends to underwrite Murata’s subsequent overseas study trip. In doing so, Kanō met many of the Choshu former samurai warrior / scholars, assassins, and Imperial ideologues who formed the core of the Meiji government and Army for decades. Shinagawa Yajirō was one of the most notorious of these colorful and powerful men.

Viscount Shinagawa Yajirō (1843-1890) Wiki Commons pic
Arsonist, assassin, warrior, revolutionary hero, Meiji government minister
(Image Wiki Commons)
Continue reading “Viscount Shinagawa Yajirō and the Fujimichō Kōdōkan – The Kanō Chronicles®”

Runaway Horses: Art in the Kodokan – The Kano Chronicles®

Kanō shihan was not described as an aficionado of the arts, but he owned one piece of art that seems to have captured his imagination: a large pair of traditional Japanese byobu screens depicting five madly galloping, runaway horses.  These screens can be seen in years of photographs of the Kodokan, displayed to either side of his ever present (and still displayed) seat and desk at the front of the Dai Dōjō, where they are still displayed today in the new Kodokan Great Dojo.

In 1906 Kanō saw an exhibit by young artist Konoshima Okoku[1] and tried to buy one of his screens on display. Okoku responded that those works on display were not for sale, so Kanō  commissioned him to make a remarkable painting—a huge two eight-panel screen set showing five madly galloping horses. The massive 奔馬 Honba ‘Runaway Horses’ screen set became a fixture in the Kōdōkan, displayed in the Dai Dōjō during important events but normally displayed in Kano’s kanchō institute head’s office in the Kodokan.

They can be seen here, in the Dai Dojo of the old Kodokan, during a kagamibiraki New Year ceremony, a tradition still followed today.

Kagami Biraki Kodokan date unknown

Other points of interest in the photo are the name boards and the hanging scroll in the alcove. The box formats correspond to the margin notes.

Screen Shot 2020-01-13 at 13.16.45

The set is huge; note how they tower over the seated Kano in the photo above.

Below is a photo of the two screens stacked, fully open flat (they were normally displayed separated left and right, in a partial fold, the normal display method for free standing screens).  The top two-horse screen is shown to the left above.

(Image courtesy Oukoku Bunko, Kyoto, Japan, the NPO that owns the museum housing Okoku’s works, former home and workshop.)

Okoku Honba Runaway Horses

The screens were both lost when the Kodokan was partially destroyed during a 1945 firebomb raid (see The Firebombing of the Kodokan 1945 for details) and part of the Dai Dojo and the kancho office burned. A napalm bomblet landed on the Kodokan roof just above the far wall in the photo above and burned through the rood and into the Dai Dojo below.

In a final bit of irony, Kano shihan was noted as a less than expert horseman, apparently having fallen off horses with some regularity, at least once while riding to the Kodokan. While his personal interviews apparently do not mention it, a number of contemporary accounts refer to his mishaps.

[1]  See http://www.oukokubunko.org/sp/access6044.html

Oukoku Bunkō English website

Oukoku  Bunko Address:  56  Higashi-machi, Tojiin,  Kita-Ward,  Kyoto,  603-8343  Japan

URL:  http://www.oukokubunko.org

Facebook  URL:  http://www.facebook.com/okokubunko/

Contact :info@oukokubunko.org

Open  to  the  public  on  every  Friday,  Saturday,  Sunday  and  Public  Holiday

Hours  are  from  10am  to  4pm.  (info above from website, suggest confirming before going) 

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to request signup for automatic updates or give us feedback.
Thank you!
©Copyright 2020 Lance Gatling – The Kanō Chronicles

The Kano Chronicles® – Kano shihan in fact and fiction Part I – Kano battles Dracula (⁉️)

Athough he kept an English diary for decades that has been carefully kept from the public, Kano shihan apparently never wrote an autobiography. What he did provide was a long series of interviews with frequent Sakkô contributor / journalist / judoka Ochiai Torahei covering his personal life, his career as an educator and experience as a judoka. This material has been available in Japanese for many years – first published in a series of twenty-four long articles from Jan 1927 to May 1929 in the Kodokan Culture Council monthly magazine Sakkô (‘Arousal’), there have been various extracts and versions reprinted in several postwar collections of Kanō shihan’s writings.

There is an English version of the Sakkô serialized interviews that covers around 200 pages of dense text and is the single best book available in English to date on Kanō shihan’s life. The meticulously translated Judo Memoirs of Jigoro Kano by judoka and long term Japan resident Brian N. Watson is a unique contribution to make judo history accessible in English. Brian’s book is an indispensable reference for any serious judoka and a fascinating read that took years of knowledgeable effort to complete; I recommend it unreservedly.

In the Sakkô memoirs Kanō shihan describes his life, career, and judo in his own words, in his late 60s, after his retirement from the Ministry of Education, and after his Imperial nomination to the Japan’s Upper House, where he won election in 1922 and then sat as the equivalent of a member of the UK House of Lords or as a US Senator until his death in 1938. (Spoiler alert: Kanō shihan’s version of events in certain places is biased towards him, with all that entails. Some very serious judo history researchers have noted there are no independent supporting contemporaneous accountants of some episodes that have since become core to the legends of judo. Cf. the legendary ‘Police judo matches’ of the 1890s, EN1.)

In addition, there are scores if not hundreds of contemporary and later Japanese and foreign language profiles and mini-biographies of Kanō, starting in the late 1890s in magazines, newspapers, academic journals and books.

But unknown to most folks are the works of fiction in which Kano appears.

Perhaps the most intriguing is the novel “The Tale of Meiji Dracula: The Apparition Appears in the Imperial Capital” 『明治ドラキュラ伝: 妖魔, 帝都に現る』 by Kikuchi Hideyuki, published in 2004. Kikuchi was the author of numerous Japanese vampire novels. In this one, set in the 1880s in Meiji Tokyo, a twenty-something Kano teams with his (real world) favorite judo deshi Saigo Shiro and the fictional 17 year old swordmaster Minazuki Daigo to battle Dracula, who appears in Japan to complete a centuries old mission that I leave for the reader to discover.

Interestingly, this novel was translated into English as Dark Wars: The Tale of Meiji Dracula in 2008. (I don’t have a copy; if anyone reads it, I’d welcome more information.)

Next, we’ll look at the fictional version of young Kano Jigoro when he fights not just Dracula but nearly everyone.

EN1: An anonymous scholar acquaintance spent hours looking for evidence of the famous ‘police jujutsu competitions’ and told me he came up empty-handed, which in turn spurred me to look, too. Neither of us uncovered any contemporaneous articles in newspapers of the day, which we thought very strange; such activities by the police were normally very carefully covered by the press. Only 20-30 years later do the tales appear of the great police jujutsu tournament in which the Kodokan judoka were victorious and were hired as police jujutsu its allies, but only from Kano shihan and his supporters.. While it is entirely possible there was such an event, it seems more likely that if it did exist, it was a relatively small affair. Certainly some Kodokan judoka were hired as Tokyo Metropolitan Police jujutsu instructors around that time, but so were instructors from a number of other, different jujutsu schools; the public records of this are clear. The entire affair may be a combination of some (ahem…..) exaggeration on the part of Kanō shihan and his hagiographers and most definitely misunderstanding of the complex relationship of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police with martial arts, particularly kenjutsu (sword) and jujutsu (grappling).

To be continued…..

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to request signup for automatic updates or give us feedback.
Thank you!
©Copyright 2019 The Kanō Chronicles – Lance Gatling

 

The writings and lectures of Kanō shihan – known, unknown and lost

Probably less than 10% of Kanō shihan’s numerous writings have been translated into any Western language, or even extracted or summarized.

His first known articles, on philosophy, were published in the mid-1880s while Kanō shihan was in his 20s. Over 50 years he contributed scores of articles to multiple publications on topics ranging from physical education, ethics, education, the Olympics, international geopolitics, China, politics, physical and moral courage, death, his incessant theme of 精力善用自他共栄 Seiryoku Zen’yô Jita Kyôei, even a commentary on a poem by the Meiji Emperor, who granted Kanō multiple audiences. Kanō shihan also contributed scores of forwards for the books of friends and acquaintances on topics from kobudô 古武道 to 武士道 bushidô to 神道 Shintô to ethics and morality; in one he admitted he hadn’t even read the book, but supported the author, his personal student.

He lectured widely and at great length – he loved to talk. While many of his impromptu lectures went unrecorded, some key lectures were prepared or transcribed. A number of his transcribed speeches must run over 30 minutes. A single question on education policy during an early 1930s Diet Upper House 貴族院 interpellation he posed to the Minister of Education took around 20 minutes; thankfully the Minister’s answer was mercifully terse.

In one private school New Year’s celebration as one of a small number of dignitaries given three minutes to provide short greetings, he ended by apologizing for talking nearly 20 instead, providing a long allegory criticizing the Second Sino-Japanese War. At one formal group dinner in Tokyo he talked for nearly 45 minutes nonstop after drinks and dinner then apologized – he had gone so far over the allotted time he had to leave immediately, and had no time for questions or comments, but instead asked a member of the head table to provide his car so he could depart from Tokyo Station.

The tale of the dinner address made me wonder how many people it put to sleep, as the recollections of his high school students sometimes commented on how long and boring his lectures could be. One European account detailing his address of an International Olympic Committee working dinner leaves no doubt; he started by extolling the advantages of Tokyo as an Olympic Games venue at length then departed on a tangent on judo that went on and on and on. The description of the result is not vague – many of the attending IOC members, many from far lands, late at night, well fed, some tipsy, and most probably at a loss to understand the importance or pertinence of judo, some not understanding English well, simply fell sleep.


And certainly he wrote on judo. He produced stacks of judo lectures, articles, essays, interviews, etc. Often repetitive and nearly formulaic, some include gems of new information and insights.


While traveling, he wrote newsy, factual and analytical letters and sent telegrams on important topics. He gave interviews to print media and live radio programs around the world to support his personal and policy objectives, primarily in English, but apparently a few times in less than fluent French and German.

A member of the International Olympic Committee from 1909 until his death, he corresponded with the leadership and staff in English. Kano shihan primarily wrote in Japanese and English, but occasionally in French and not infrequently in early Meiji in 漢文 kanbun, the ancient Sino-Japanese script of pre-Meiji Japan. His later writing in modern Japanese evolved in style over the decades for multiple reasons, but he was seldom concise and direct in his explorations of anything, much less complex topics.

Kanō most often wrote alone, but he did collaborate with others. One of his frequent collaborators was Watari Shôsaburô, an ethics instructor and kendoka at the Tokyo Higher Normal School where Kano was the principal.

For over 20 years I’ve collected his writings and transcriptions of his addresses, an uncounted total but surely hundreds to date. I suspect there are at least scores more. In the search I’ve found many surprises in the development of his thoughts, the range of his acquaintances, his plans for education, the Olympics (the current topic in Japan), and his true plan for judo. Only infrequently does his own character emerge; he wrote briefly, poignantly of the loss of family members in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 but then noted his gratitude, as his own home was not severely damaged, while so many others had lost so much, some losing everything.

His most striking writing is arguably is one of his last messages, unknown until very recently. It was recently discovered in a friend’s private library, actually delivered after Kanō shihan departed for the 1938 Cairo IOC meeting in February 1938; the missive provides striking new, private insight into the mind of a man obsessed with accomplishing his last critical mission for Japan, securing the 1940 Olympics Games for Tokyo. He departed for Cairo when he was almost 78 and in marginal health from decades of chronic disease. It was a long, arduous trip encircling the planet, one he insisted on taking alone, one that sapped his strength and one from which he would not return alive.

Two major questions regarding his writings remain today –

  1. Did he publish articles under one penname or another? There are a number of articles to topics dear to him that were clearly written under assumed names or clear pennames that read like the work of Kano shihan.
  2. Where are his lost texts? There are at least two instances where Kano shihan very specifically mentions important extended texts he prepared but they were apparently never printed.

And so the hunt continues.

 

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to request signup for automatic updates or give us feedback.
Thank you!
©Copyright 2019 – Lance Gatling, The Kanō Chronicles

 

The Kano Chronicles® – future posts

Future posts in progress, in no particular order. Please let me know what you’d like to see first and I’ll see what I can do!

 

     The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō and the House of Peers Nominated by the Emperor Taishō, ‘Senator’ Kanō goes from backbencher to key figure.

 

The Kanō Chronicles® –                    Seiryoku Zen’yō / Jita Kyōei 

Just exactly what does this mean?
What are its origins?
Who cares, anyhow?

The Kanō Chronicles® –                           Kanō shihan and General Tōjō discuss training methods                                 (spoiler: They disagree. A lot.)

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō shihan and weapons
An armed Kanō was a happy Kanō

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō steals the 1940 Olympics for Tokyo

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Wartime Kōdōkan  From the Sino-Japanese War to the two China Incidents to World War II (and the Cold War)

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s plan to control Japanese budo
What happened?

 

 The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō and female jūdōka:
Isolation and secret lessons

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s plan to save Japanese soldiers’ families

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s National Physical Education 国民体育 Kokumin Taiiku
Kanō style martial arts for the masses

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s secret war zone mission
Why is a school principal sent on a secret mission into an active war zone, dodging bullets and enemy ships ? 

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s banned books
MacArthur was not pleased                             

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Nangō Jirō and the Kōdōkan
Introducing Imperial Japanese Navy Rear Admiral Nangō Jirō: Kanō’s nephew, juku student, combat Marine, 3rd dan jūdōka, and the second head of the Kōdōkan Jūdō Institute

Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s brother in law Admiral Yanagi Narayoshi Kanō Jirōsaku’s workmate, navigator, mathematician, astronomer, cartographer, and member of the genrōsha Imperial council

The Kanō Chronicles® – The deaths of Kanō’s sons

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s homes

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s secret lessons
Judo to the unteachable

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s funeral and tomb

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s judo spies in China and Russia

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s faction in the House of Peers 貴族院派閥

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō, the Kōdōkan, and the Gods of War

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō’s secret laboratory

 

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō Jirōsaku, Kanō’s father
Shintō and sake, lumber and lighters, dying in service to the Emperor

 

The Kanō Chronicles® –  Kanō’s spy in the US

 

The Kanō Chronicles® –  Kanō and the Asiatic Society of Japan

The Kanō Chronicles® – Kanō and the Gods Kanō and Shintō, the Japanese ‘Way of the Gods’

The Kanō Chronicles® – Who or what killed Kanō?

The Kanō Chronicles® – The four stages of Nihon den Kōdōkan jūdō

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to request signup for automatic updates or give us feedback.
Thank you!

The Kano Chronicles® – Japanese Physical Education 1915

1915 Japan Year Book describing judo,  ‘fencing’ as well as female physical education in English.

B. Physical Culture

Military and gymnastic exercises constitute the regular method of
physical culture as it is conducted in Japanese schools. The culture extends from the primary schools to the University preparatory schools. In the former pupils begin their military drill without arms after the 4th year. The including lately of the national arts of “judo” and fencing as regular tasks for middle school boys is a notable feature.

“Judo” or “ Jujitsu ”

This manly art of self-defence which has become so popular recently in both hemispheres owes its development to the reform effected by Mr. J. Kano (see Who’s Who) who established for this purpose in 1880 a special training hall styled Kodokwan, now at Koishikawa, Tokyo. The reform consisted in eliminating the dangerous features from the various styles formerly in vogue and developing a new system suited both for the
purpose of mental discipline and physical culture. At first the innovation was even ridiculed at by experts of old schools. It had only a very few pupils, but they included several men who have lately achieved distinction in military and naval services, as the late Commander Hirose of the Port Arthur blockade fame. By 1894 Mr. Kano’s persevering efforts began to bear fruit, and branch halls were skirted at several provinces, as at Nirayama, Etajima (seat of the Naval Cadet School), and Kumamoto. It was about this period that most of the noted experts of the present clay received training and that the new system had been carried to a state of matured perfection. Very often self-styled masters of old school came to the Kodokwan to challenge its founder and his pupils, but each time they went away humiliated, musing over the ignominious defeats. The fame of the new style began to spread not only in Japan but even to foreign countries, especially after the recent War, and a number of Mr. Kano’s pupils who went over to America and Europe for teaching the manly art to foreigners was not few. Everybody may remember that it was about this period that at the request of Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Yamashita, one of Mr. Kano’s best pupils, proceeded to America and taught the then President at the While House. The Military Academy at West Point also
intended to include this Japanese martial art in its programme, but after some investigations and trials it was decided to disapprove of the scheme. At present in almost all Japanese schools of secondary grade and above the exercise is practised as a method of physical culture. Private clubs and schools for the practice of jujitsu are to be found in all cities and graduates roll numbered about 20,000.

The Kodokwan has lately been converted into a foundation, with Mr. lwao, Mr. Wakatsuki, now Minister of Finance, and Mr. Yahagi as Directors and Baron Shibusawa and another as Trustees.

Fencing

In former days fencing and swordsmanship occupied the foremost place in the physical and mental training of the gentry classes. As practised today at schools, the art is merely a faint memory of the passed greatness and importance. The practice sword is made of split bamboo, about four feet in length, with a twelve inches hilt in length for the double grasp. The points counted as collective hits are the head, both sides, the right hand
and throat. The traditional method of the two-handed use of the sword is still preferred by the Japanese to the single grasp popular in Western countries. It is among policemen that the training is more actual and realistic than at schools, for these guardians of pea<e arc required, from the nature of their duty, to practice fencing as a regular lesson and for
actual purposes. A fencing custom, now growing rather rare, is the so-called “Cold practice” adopted in some schools to encourage hardihood and endurance. It consists in the meeting of the fencing class at three o’clock in the morning through the coldest month. Active contests are continued until daybreak, without food or intermission for rest. These students enduring this strenuous test for the whole month receive special
recognition as hardy champions.

Physical Culture for Girls

Physical culture is no easy business for girls attending the secondary grade schools, not merely because active exercises by girls are still regarded with disfavor by some conservative mothers, but chiefly because Japanese female garment, though very attractive to look at, is not well adapted for active movement. Nevertheless, physical culture is steadily gaining ground, and in the girls’ higher schools the subject of gymnastics, 8 hours a week, is included, and girls are made to go through training in fancy steps and figure movements, some calisthenics, and so on. In the Female Higher
Normal School the Swedish system and some other exercises are given. In the Japan Womens’ University a hybrid system is in force, it partaking of the halberd training which daughter of samurai had to acquire in former days and some forms of calisthenics.

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to request signup for automatic updates or give us feedback.
Thank you!

©Copyright 2019 – Lance Gatling, The Kanō Chronicles

The Kanō Chronicles® – The Firebombing of the Kodokan 1945

On the night of Apr 13, 1945*, 550 B-29s struck Tokyo in the biggest fire bombing of the war to date.


About 1145pm on that spring Friday night, an incendiary bomblet struck the roof of the Kodokan just to the east of the seat of Kano shihan in the Dai Dōjō (‘Great Dōjō’, the largest of several in the building). It was probably an M65, a 6 pound (2.7 kg) napalm bomblet released from a 500 pound (228 kg) cluster bomb, one of scores dropped by a B29 Superfortress heavy bomber from about 2500 ft altitude, and the bomblet probably penetrated partway through the roof.

 The previous high altitude, conventional bombing campaign against Japan had been considered ineffective, and the bombers were ordered to fly at very low altitudes to dispense their new fire bombs, despite much heavier losses to Japanese antiaircraft fire and interceptor fighter attacks than the previous high altitude attacks.

M69 incendiary bomb
Above is a sketch of the M69 Incendiary Bomb – similar to the smaller M65 used more often in the European theater.

1 to 3 seconds after impact with the roof, the bomblet fuzed a phosphorous bursting charge that splattered flaming jellied gasoline napalm over the Kodokan roof.

Some of the burning jellied gasoline napalm burned through the roof, setting fire to the large, elaborate 神棚 kamidana Shintō ‘god shelf’ that Kano shihan had installed on the front wall of the Dai Dōjō. Fire reached the tatami below, burning around 70 mats; soon the fire outside the building burned together with the fire inside to threaten the entire structure.


A fire truck team arrived but low water pressure hampered their efforts. Then, the night watch and local couples cheered on the local tonari gumi neighborhood association, which used Kodokan hoses and buckets to assist the fire truck, putting the Kodokan fire out, but much of the neighborhood was destroyed. Almost 3500 people died and over 170,000 buildings were destroyed that single night raid.

Screen Shot 2020-01-13 at 17.48.49
The map of Tokyo above was adopted from the US Army Air Corps Strategic Bombing Survey,
a huge postwar study of the effectiveness of the bombing campaign against Japan.

Kodokan head Rear Admiral Nangō Jirō, Kano shihan’s nephew, was determined to renew training. He housed local refugees whose homes had been burned down in the undamaged portion of the Dai Dōjō, but had the walls of the rooms near the third floor research dōjō knocked down to enlarge it; regular practice resumed on the 16th.

Jiro_Nango_Wiki
Imperial Navy Rear Admiral (Retired) Nangō Jirō,
the second Kodokan kanchō (institute head) and Kanō’s nephew
(Photo above from Wiki Commons, probably taken from a Japanese newspaper interview after the death of his second son in World War II. Story to be related later.)

The Dai Dōjō was repaired by the end of 1945 and was used for the training 寒稽古 kangeiko ‘cold weather training’ traditional in the new year of 1946.

NOTES:

* 全日本柔道連盟 Zen Nihon Jūdō Renmei All Japan Judo Federation history cites a date that does not match US Army Air Corps records of the raid dates; this history uses US military record dates when available. http://www.judo.or.jp  )

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
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The Kanō Chronicles® – The Untold Story of Modern Japan

 

The Kanō Chronicles: The Untold History of Modern Japan® (嘉納歴代史:知らず近代日本史®) is the result of over 15 years of research into the life and times of Kanō Jigorō, 嘉納治五郎 (1860-1938), the founder of jûdô 柔道. In traditional jūdō texts and by today’s jūdōka 柔道家 (judo practitioners) he is normally addressed as ‘Kano shihan’ 師範 (Master Kano).*

No English or Japanese language biographies of Kano shihan capture the complexity of the man and his times. Even the best Japanese biographies are often narrow, typically focused on Kano’s jūdō, education, sports, or Olympic activities, or some combination thereof. There are exceptions, but they are rare and difficult to digest, even for native Japanese, and have escaped the attention of Western researchers.

Context is important, and detailed historical context is not part of Western biographies of Kano. One example can be seen below, in a rare English explanation by Kano shihan of the ‘True Spirit of Judo’.

When I was still young, I learned various types of “jujitsu”.** However, I found it difficult to discover the fundamental principles that decide as to which is the correct method because the teaching of each type was different. Thereupon, in order that I might find out the fundamental principle somehow or other, I began to study seriously. And, in the course of time, I was able to succeed in discovering it. What is this fundamental principle? It is to let our spirit and bodies work most effectively in order to accomplish our purpose, whenever we wish to throw others down, or cut, push, or kick others.

— Kano Jigoro, ‘True Spirit of Judo’, 1938

Rather than the ‘true spirit of jūdō’, a more complete context of the article reveals this to be only the lowest, simplest definition of jūdō espoused by Kanō shihan, meant only as the beginning of a much more complex discussion. As the rest of his discussion is thought not pertinent to today’s sports judo, it is typically discarded, thus lost to generations of judoka who are left with the notion that the epitome of his philosophy is physically controlling your opponent effectively.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Kanō Chronicles™ provides the history of Kanō shihan in the context of his times. He lived in a unique period of history, namely the development of Japan from an isolated, feudal backwater to one of the largest empires in history. His patrons, peers, and pupils included princes, prime ministers, politicians, philosophers, prophets, priests, political puppet masters, puppeteers, paupers, oligarchs, generals, admirals, academics, assassins, the assassinated, mandarins, revolutionaries, counterrevolutionaries, reactionaries, samurai, spies, spy masters, sumotori, strike breakers, chancellors, commoners, Christians, Chinese, Confucianists, Communists, women and Class A war criminals.

Kanō shihan personally participated in the initial formation and subsequent reforms of Japan’s education, language, sports, ethics, teacher and moral training, indeed the development and dissemination of its very culture. He thus left an indelible mark on the nation, indeed much of the Empire through the education of thousands of teachers, judoka and their millions of students.

********

* In keeping with the tradition, Japanese names are given in the order LastName FirstName. Note that in the era under study, Japanese often changed their first / given names in recognition of phases or changes in their lives; becoming an adult, reaching 60 years of age, or at any age to designate some eventful political or personal event.  Sometimes, frequently; sometimes, in accordance with the stages of life, or simply whimsically.  Some phases were chronological: 50, 60, 70, or 80 years old. Nicknames or pen names if known are given in single quotes, ala ‘Konan’, Kano shihan’s penname for calligraphy until his 60th birthday.

** The transliteration of Japanese into Western characters has changed over more than 100 years of use to settle on the current system. This site and associated works use older, nonstandard terms such as jujitsu, jiujutsu, jiudo, Kodokwan, etc. only in direct quotations. Today the rendering of these Japanese terms in Roman letters is unequivocal and universal; judo, jujutsu, Kodokan, etc.

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to give us feedback.
Thank you!