This is a bit of an experiment for me – a narrated PowerPoint presentation regarding some portions of the life and times of Kanō Jigorō shihan. (If it doesn’t work I’ll have to pull this message and delete it.)
Please note that I intentionally read it very slowly to allow my non-native English speaking friends time to digest the slides if my words don’t make sense. If you wish to speed it up, you can speed it up to 2.0x or simply hit the <SPACEBAR> to proceed to the next slide.
Topics include: – Kanō’s childhood home in Kobe – Kanō’s activities in the government as lifetime member of the House of Peers – his contacts with the Yamaguchi Prefecture (former Choshu clan samurai) oligarchs of the new Meiji government – Kanō’s short career as student radical and political thug / yōjinbō bodyguard – Kanō and Keiko Fukuda sensei – Kanō’s travels in and commentary on America
<<<Click on the link below to start the presentation>>>>
I hope you find it of interest! As always, you can sign up for new content notifications below. For comments, you can email me at Contact@KanoChronicles.com or on the commentary links on this page.
Regards,
Lance Gatling ガトリング•ランス The Kanō Chronicles 嘉納歴代 Tokyo, Japan
Or, more often cited in the West, but less correctly ‘Softness overcomes strength’ [3]
This saying is used to describe the core philosophy of jūjutsu – do not fight strength against strength, but rather deflect or avoid to neutralize the power thus wasted in attacking you.
But that is only the introductory line of the Upper Strategy, a portion of a much longer text. The complete primary text of the Upper Strategy of The Three Strategies of Huang Shingong (Chinese: 黃石公三略: Huang shigong sanlüe) from nearly 2250 years ago reads:
The primary purpose of the strategy was to cultivate effective interpersonal relations for leaders and rulers, how to deal with their own people. In the extended commentary it is clearly about dealing with subordinates first. The extension of the strategy since then was how to deal with non-subordinates, including enemies.
As one of China’s Seven Military Classics, this work has been studied for over 2000 years as one of China’s most important traditional schools of strategic thought.
Regarding its use in describing jūdō, apparently Kanō shihan thought it was insufficient to capture his vision; therefore, he developed his own explanation of the basic principles of jūdō that went through various versions, but eventually he settled on:
Seiryoku zen’yō Jita kyōei
This is typically translated into English as:
Best Use of Energy / Mutual Benefit
The origin of Kanō’s jūdō philosophies is complex, a tale that is explored in 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, available at
[1] Japanese and Chinese use thousands of four character ideograms called yojijukugo in Japanese. These are used as in a wide array of situations from sayings to mnemonics to short hand for long stories or legends. Many are thousands of years old.
[2] 柔能制剛 Jū nō sei gō is Chinese. It is rendered in Japanese as 柔よく制剛 jū yoku sei gō the quality of flexibility / softness controls rigidity / hardness.
[3] The author contends that the typical translation of jū into English as ‘softness’ is neither correct nor appropriate in historical context and for the purposes of understanding jūjtsu or jūdō.
[4] “San Lüe 三略 (Three Strategies) is divided into three parts: Shang Lüe 上略, Zhong Lüe 中略, and Xia Lüe 下略. The first two parts quote from military writings of the past, Jun Chen 軍讖 (Military Prophecies) and Jun Shi 軍勢 (Military Power) and elaborates them, while the third part is the author’s own discussion. Some attribute the work to Huang Shigong 黃石公, but in recent research, it is said that this book was written by an anonymous person between the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). “
From: The Governing Principles of Ancient China, Volume 2 – Based on 360 passages excerpted from the original compilation of Qunshu Zhiyao (The Compilation of Books and Writings on the Important Governing Principles), pg 508. Seri Kembangan, Malaysia: Chung Hua Cultural Education Centre, 2014.
Author note to FN 4: It is also entirely possible, indeed, perhaps likely that the Military Prophecies is in fact a fabrication added to imbue this work with more gravitas by “quoting” a much more ancient text than the newer work itself would import, as it seems there are no indications outside the Three Strategies that the Military Prophecies ever existed. Such a fabrication is not unknown in ancient Chinese texts (and those of other cultures).
Notes:
The entire work’s name in English is usually rendered as the The Three Strategies of Huang Shigong.
The Shang Lüe 上略, Zhong Lüe 中略, and Xia Lüe 下略 are respectively the Upper Strategy, the Middle Strategy, and the Lower Strategy.
The exact date of the Military Prophecies seems unknown but appears to be around 2400 years old.
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.
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* 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!
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