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.

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

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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
Please provide feedback in the comments section or via email to Contact@KanoChronicles.com
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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)

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 (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.

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:

‘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 )

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

Lance Gatling
Author / Lecturer
The Kanō Chronicles
Tokyo, Japan
Contact@kanochronicles.com – please send a note to give us feedback, and type your email then click the “Subscribe” link below to subscribe to get notifications of new material posted.
Thank you!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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

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® – 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
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Thank you!

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

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.

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.

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.

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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