Tag: philosophy

Tomiki Kenji sensei on the future of budō

Tomiki Kenji 富木謙治 sensei (1900–1979)
a remarkable budōka, occupies a special place in the history of our US Embassy Jūdō and Jūjutsu Dōjō, Tokyo.
http://www.usejc.org http://www.facebook.com/usejc
(NOTE: the Tomiki essay translation starts at the end of this page.)

Background:

Tomiki sensei was born in 1900 in Akita Prefecture, where he began jūdō as a schoolboy. As a young man, he moved to Tokyo and continued his training at the Kodokan. In 1927 he graduated from Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics; around then, in his late twenties, he was introduced to Ueshiba Morihei, who at that time still used the name Ueshiba Moritaka, and began practicing aikibudō, as the precursor art to aikidō was known.

During the 1930s, the Imperial Kwantung Army (JA: Kantō Gun), the primary Japanese military force on the Asian continent, was being dramatically expanded. Originally a small garrison force of roughly 10,000–15,000 men, it reorganized as the Kwantung Army in 1919 and ballooned into Japan’s most prestigious army command. In the early 1930s it numbered 100,000–200,000 troops, but at its peak it reached 600,000–700,000 Japanese soldiers, supplemented by hundreds of thousands of less well-trained and poorly equipped Manchukuo forces.

General Tōjō Hideki, later the Prime Minister and son of Lieutenant General Tōjō Hidenori, Kanō shihan’s interlocutor in discussing physical education policy for the military and the Japanese people, served as Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army from 1934 to 1935, overseeing much of this buildup. The younger Tōjō was primarily a kendōka swordsman but had also trained in jūjutsu. Earlier, from 1928 to 1929, he had been assigned as Provost Marshal (Commander of the Kempeitai) of the Kwantung Army. As a result, he was familiar with hand-to-hand combat training at the Imperial Army Military Police School in Nakano, Tokyo. When the Kwantung Army later established its own Military Police school in Manchuria, perhaps senior Kempeitai graduates of the Imperial Military Police School in Nakano—where they trained under Ueshiba Morihei—tried to teach aikibudō. However, because Ueshiba’s teaching style was complex (some might call it unorganized or unrepeatable) and because he never seemed to produce or use formal lesson plans, it would have been difficult if not impossible to replicate.

Sometime in 1935, Tōjō personally invited (or so the story goes – I have no direct info to confirm this personal touch) Ueshiba Morihei (1883–1969) to move to Manchuria to teach his aikibudō martial art to the Kwantung Army Military Police, the Kempeitai.
Ueshiba declined the offer. By then he was in his early fifties and had previously seen combat as an infantryman in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) and attained the rank of corporal, which was a standard rank for superior performance during his term of service.

Ueshiba sought a suitable alternative instructor for the position; eventually Tomiki Kenji was offered and accepted a physical education / martial arts instructor position at the Kwantung Army Military Police school, moving to Manchuria in early 1936. In Shinkyo (today’s Changchung), Manchuria’s capital he taught the MPs, the Manchurian Capital Police, lectured and taught aikibudō at Daido University, and later became a professor at the newly founded Kenkoku University, Manchukuo’s national university. Tomiki, a jūdō 5th dan, was known to Kanō Jigorō shihan, who reportedly spoke to him before his departure for Manchuria about continuing his research into jūdō and hand-to-hand combat.

Why hand-to-hand combat training for the Military Police? In addition to normal gendarmerie duties like traffic control and handling deserters and disciplinary problems, some units performed what would come to be called “direct action missions”—intelligence gathering in contested or enemy-controlled areas, “snatch and grab” capture or kill of targeted individuals, or punitive raids against Chinese “bandits,” irregular or mercenary forces, often horse-mounted, ranging across Manchuria to operate against Japanese forces and settlements. Manchuria was a huge place, five times larger than Japan’s main island of Honshu, about the size of Germany plus France, and forces needed mobility, which meant incessant marching or training farm boys to ride horses.

And the Kempeitai used their training to brutal effect. One Japanese veteran spoke to the author about his service in a regular Kwantung Army infantry unit. In extended combat in Manchuria and China proper, he said the Chinese regulars and guerrillas were tough fighters; he and his comrades feared and respected them, and they all expected to fight them to the death; if captured, they fully expected to be executed out of hand. But he confided he was terrified of the Kempeitai—because if you were captured as a deserter or a bandit, “they would make you wish you were dead.”

Tomiki or someone else working with him eventually established a detailed, military-style aikibudō curriculum for the Kwantung Gun Kempeitai school; at least two versions of originals survived, one is held by Dr. Shishida Fumiaki, and another by the author. The latter version is apparently an approved final, as it is marked Top Secret – Not for Dissemination Outside! (the unit), which the draft version does not show. The curriculum is straightforward and familiar to me because of Nihon Jūjutsu (see below), with a limited version of modern Tomiki aikidō’s more complex taisabaki / unsoku (body movements / stepping movements) and a series of other techniques, complete with foot diagrams.

A contemporary account by a veteran member of the Kempeitai school training detachment described their budō 武道 martial arts training as follows:

horsemanship 馬術

rifle bayonet 銃剣術

jūdō 柔道

kendō 剣道

taijutsu 体術 (or variously aikidō 合気道, etc.)

hojōjutsu 捕縄術 (rope arresting techniques)


He describes the budō basic curriculum as:

– kendō without kata, focused on combat drills with wooden swords 木剣 and bamboo shinai 竹刀

– unlike jūdō, taijutsu starts with karatedō-like kicks and punches
—its main techniques were:
 
* 12 joint-lock techniques
 
　* 5 striking techniques
 
　* taught by a “70-something-year-old white-haired Ueshiba.”
The latter may simply be the impression of a young man encountering the prematurely gray-haired Ueshiba.

Hojōjutsu techniques were taught to every Kempeitai officer or trainee. For daily carry, veteran officers and trainees alike were issued a 5-meter-long, 6 mm diameter rope along with his whistle and notebook, but the veteran instructor noted that proper rope use was complicated and nearly impossible to remember even with practice.

Although he didn’t seem to talk about it directly after the war, despite being in his mid-40s, Tomiki—still in the inactive Army reserves because his regular military service had been delayed for years due to his student deferment and graduation from Waseda in his late twenties—was apparently called up and served in the Kwantung Army in its last-ditch defense against a massive Soviet invasion that destroyed it. After Japan’s defeat and surrender in August 1945, he was one of the estimated up to 600,000 Japanese taken prisoner by the Soviets; around one in ten died in the harsh conditions of the Siberian camps where he remained in captivity for almost four years (1945–1948). When he was finally released and allowed to return to Japan, he came back with little more than the clothes on his back.

My sensei, Satō Shizuya (1929–2011), was the son of a noted jūdōka who learned jūdō in the Imperial Navy and taught aboard a cruiser where he served in its engineering department; after completing his naval service, he became a jūdō instructor for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Satō sensei himself was an avid jūdōka; after middle school jūdō he entered the Kodokan in 1945. In 1949, after graduating from Meiji Gakuin’s Specialty (Business) School where his studies included English, he was hired into the Kodokan’s International Division, which at that time was learning how to deal with hundreds of Allied occupation troops who wanted to study jūdō and therefore needed English-speaking jūdōka. In an effort to minimize friction, without fanfare, the Kodokan established special classes for the Western Occupation troops separate from Japanese practitioners.

It was very popular; at its peak, that special class had nearly 400 students, primarily young and middle-aged military men assigned to the Occupation forces. My sensei was one of the instructors tasked with working with these men, and he formed friendships—budō friendships—that lasted a lifetime.
Satō sensei and Tomiki sensei met at the Kodokan, where the two practiced Tomiki sensei’s aikibudō, which he had continued to develop even while he was a prisoner in the Siberian work camps.

After two or three years of this, and after the Occupation ended in 1952, Tomiki sensei was engaged by the Kodokan to teach his martial art to US Strategic Air Command Security Police students in the SAC Combatives Course, along with jūdō and karatedō. Satō sensei acted as an assistant instructor and interpreter in what they renamed aikidō, alongside jūdō. Satō later adopted aikibudō into his practice in the US Embassy Dōjō in his own martial arts style, which he termed Nihon Jūjutsu (see http://www.nihonjujutsu.com).

During his nearly ten years in Manchuria before the Soviet invasion in August 1945, Tomiki sensei wrote a long and complex essay on his vision for the future of budō, aikibudō, and jūdō. Although it is not a priority for my current research, in honor of my sensei’s upcoming memorial day I intend to translate it, albeit piecemeal, so that I can eventually present the complete essay during my annual memorial visit to his grave in eastern Tokyo .

Without further introduction, here is the first installment of Tomiki sensei’s essay. As I’m not sure how WordPress handles piecemeal posts, I will just append to the end and put the latest addition notice at the top of this page.

****** Tomiki Kenji on the Future of Budō *****

Chapter 1 — Japanese Budō as the Way Leading to the Absolute
(Part 1)
Lance Gatling © 2026

The Japanese spirit is the driving resolve to realize the eternal and lofty great ideal of the imperial state. Japanese budō is the direct embodiment of that resolve, manifest both as power and as technique.


It holds within itself the willpower to press forward in spite of any obstacle. To examine the conditions through which such advance proceeds is the means by which the spirit of bu (martiality) is grasped; it is a spirit that prevails through ascent. Therefore, the spirit of martial arts is the spirit of victory—the spirit of superiority and excellence. Moreover, Japanese budō is the Way by which one triumphs over enemies, over nature, and over oneself, extending ultimately to the infinite and the absolute.


The Way that leads to the infinite absolute—the ideal of life—is not limited to the martial arts alone. It is found also in religion, in philosophy, and in the directions pursued by art and science. Religion has its own path; philosophy, art, and science likewise each have their own manner of proceeding.

Budō derives its distinctiveness from the disciplined practice and deep exploration of the arts of attack and defense. These arts of attack and defense constitute the absolute condition of budō: they signify the mental and physical attitudes and methods employed when one confronts “death” through an enemy’s attack in actual reality.


As mere techniques of attack and defense, such arts are not entirely absent from other so-called competitive disciplines outside budō. Nevertheless, when Japanese martial arts are considered from an embryonic and primitive perspective, they are rooted in fear in the face of “death”—that is, they are grounded in the instinct of self-preservation.

‘## To be continued in Chapter 1, Part 2

NOTES:

  • See Feedback button below. I read them.
  • Comment form enabled – be nice or be deleted. Facts I don’t know are welcome, and there is a lot I don’t know.
  • A nice copyright free photo of Tomiki sensei would be most welcome!

One response to “Tomiki Kenji sensei on the future of budō”

  1. higebozuc89b46b4c5 Avatar
    higebozuc89b46b4c5

    Interesting … thank you!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment



“Lost” Kanō Confucian calligraphy

Kanō Jigorō’s calligraphies are well documented. He was fairly prolific, writing various sayings he adopted for jūdō instruction, usually in a very distinct hand with a block-type script.

Recently I found a heretofore a calligraphy unmentioned by Kanō scholars and archivists in an obscure book published in the 1920s. I found it interesting enough to research it a bit and translate it from the original Chinese over two millennia old.

While Kanō wrote top to bottom / right to left, the original text can be grouped left to right top to bottom as:

道雖近
不行不至
事雖小
不為不成

Even if the Way is near,
  not going –
you cannot arrive;

even small matters,  
  not doing –
remain incomplete.

A possible alternate translation:

Although the Dào is near,
  it cannot be traveled without traveling;
although a matter is small,
it cannot be done without doing.

My interpretation is that Kanō creates an admonition to action – to move, to do, to practice in pursuit of self-cultivation. Don’t just consider the Way, move yourself to travel it despite the hardships involved (the chapter cites many hardships).

The text is an extract from the writings of Xunzi 荀子 (JA: Junshi, 3rd century BCE), one of the most famous Confucian philosophers. The specific context is the book 脩身 Xiūshēn “Self Cultivation”, which emphasizes that a “gentleman” (i.e., a well-educated, moral, upstanding person) should act according to 礼 rei (CH: li).

“Wing-tsit Chan explains that  礼 rei / li originally meant “a religious sacrifice, but has come to mean ceremony, ritual, decorum, rules of propriety, good form, good custom, etc., and has even been equated with natural law.”[1] (English Wiki: “Li” Confucianism )

Xunzi 荀子 脩身 Xiūshēn “Self Cultivation”, Chapter 8 complete:

夫驥一日而千里，駑馬十駕，則亦及之矣。將以窮無窮，逐無極與？其折骨絕筋，終身不可以相及也。將有所止之，則千里雖遠，亦或遲、或速、或先、或後，胡為乎其不可以相及也！不識步道者，將以窮無窮，逐無極與？意亦有所止之與？夫「堅白」、「同異」、「有厚無厚」之察，非不察也，然而君子不辯，止之也。倚魁之行，非不難也，然而君子不行，止之也。故學曰遲。彼止而待我，我行而就之，則亦或遲、或速、或先、或後，胡為乎其不可以同至也！故蹞步而不休，跛鱉千里；累土而不輟，丘山崇成。厭其源，開其瀆，江河可竭。一進一退，一左一右，六驥不致。彼人之才性之相縣也，豈若跛鱉之與六驥足哉！然而跛鱉致之，六驥不致，是無它故焉，或為之，或不為爾！
道雖邇，不行不至；事雖小，不為不成。
其為人也多暇日者，其出入不遠矣。

In the middle of the text for Chapter 8, Xunzi cites the Dàoist binaries
「堅白」、「同異」and「有厚無厚」.

「堅白」Jiān bai – hard / white.

「同異」Tóng yì – Alike / unalike

「有厚無厚」Yǒu hòu wú hòu – Profound / superficial

Jiān bai hard / white is a strange couple, one that is not the normal statement of opposites (e.g., Yin / Yang, hot / cold, hard / soft). It is a couple used in earlier Mohist, Dàoist (including Zhuangzi) and even ancient School of Names texts to both introduce sophistry and to criticize sophists who would argue what is hardness, what is white? What is sameness and not sameness? But it apparently over the ages it eventually became a sort of shorthand for “Speaking directly and clearly / speaking to obfuscate” or wasting time and effort in sophistry.

Subscribe above with your email to get automatic updates of new material!
Comments welcome! See entry block at the end of Notes.

Notes:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/xunzi/ accessed 2023/06/22 

Xunzi 荀子 (third century BCE) was a Confucian philosopher, sometimes reckoned as the third of the three great classical Confucians (after Confucius and Mencius). For most of imperial Chinese history, however, Xunzi was a bête noire who was typically cited as an example of a Confucian who went astray by rejecting Mencian convictions. Only in the last few decades has Xunzi been widely recognized as one of China’s greatest thinkers.

While Xunzi is not included in the normal, basic Chinese classics education that Kanō began at 6 or 7 years of age, which focuses on the 四書五経 Shisho Gokyō The Four Books and the Five Classics, he later studied at what is today Nishogakusha University, at the time a juku private school focused on ancient Chinese texts. (The Five Classics: Book of Odes, Book of Documents, Book of Changes, Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. The Four Books: the Doctrine of the Mean, the Great Learning, Mencius, and the Analects, the core books of the Confucian canon.)

As always, I use the fabulous Chinese Text Project http://www.ctext.org to research the ancient texts. “The Chinese Text Project is an online open-access digital library that makes pre-modern Chinese texts available to readers and researchers all around the world. The site attempts to make use of the digital medium to explore new ways of interacting with these texts that are not possible in print. With over thirty thousand titles and more than five billion characters, the Chinese Text Project is also the largest database of pre-modern Chinese texts in existence.”

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 black ink (this may be a black and white photo with the original seals in red, the normal convention). 

「進乎斎」Shinkosai, used in this calligraphy, was Kanō’s pen name in his 60’s, namely 1920 to 1930. 進乎斎 Shinkosai is thought to be a reference to certain writings of 莊子 Zhūangzi (Chinese for “Master Zhūang”, Japanese: Sōshi), one of the most influential philosophers of the Dào (Chinese: Dào 道 , Japanese: Dō, often earlier in the West as Tao), “The Way”, active during China’s Warring States period [350 BC-250 BC].  Shinko 進乎 (progress) appears in two noted passages of his most important text, the Zhūangzi, one of the two foundational Daoist texts along with the Dào De Jing. The sai 斎 of Shinkosai is an old Japanese variant of the traditional Chinese character 齋 zhāi (simplified today as 斋) which means “to fast” or “study”, so Shinkosai means something like “progress through fasting”. In this sense “fasting” means the Dàoist discipline of focusing the spirit to learn the Way and the true nature of things by isolating the spirit from the distractions of perceptions of the physical world (represented by “hearing”), emotions and thought. (Handler S, 2022 communication). 

The Zhūangzhi chapter thought to be the source of Kanō’s pen name is the 2500 year old Dàoist tale of a master butcher. Lord Wen-hui, captivated by the evident skill of the Butcher Ding (in some translations Ting), asked how Ding can so effortlessly butcher entire oxen. 

Cook Ding replied that he only cared about the Way, which exceeded skill. But when he first began butchering oxen, all he could see was the ox. After three years he no longer saw the whole ox. Finally, he said, he proceeded by spirit alone and didn’t even look with his eyes. His skill was so effortless and insight so powerful that he never even had to sharpen his blade, using the same one for years, and the ox carcasses simply fell apart under his blade. Perception and understanding had stopped and he had proceeded to the point that his spirit moved where it wanted (Watson B, 2013), meaning it was in accordance with the Way of the Dao. 

What I think Kanō meant by adopting such a pen name in his 60’s was that he was proclaiming he, too, had progressed beyond mere perception and thought and had learned to only seek the Way through his spirit. Even though Kanō paid tribute to Japanese tradition and nearly 2500 year old Dàoist thought by his choice of a pen name rooted in an ancient text, for Kanō the Way he sought to follow was not the Way of the Dào, but rather the Way of jūdō, which means “The Way of Flexibility.” Kanō defined that Way in part through the phrases 精力善用自他共栄 Seiryoku Zenyō Jita Kyōei, Best Use of Energy / Mutual Benefit, the modern jūdō philosophies he derived from the late 19th century writings of Herbert Spencer and other English Utilitarian philosophers he studied at the then new Tokyo University in his youth. (Gatling L, 2021) 

Kanō was saying that he no longer needed perception of the physical world (hearing or seeing) or thought (knowledge or emotion) to employ the techniques that initially guided his pursuit of his Way, but now sought to proceed through the understanding and learning of his spirit alone. Having practiced for so many years, he could proceed simply by keeping his spirit focused on the Way. Without conscious thought he could accomplish the smaller things addressed by his perceptions and mind, honed by years of constant training and attentive practice of the Way of jūdō. He no longer saw people and situations, but looked beyond them to see the Way. In this he equated his understanding and skills with that of the estimable Butcher Ding. 

This is not a surprise, given Kanō’s belief that dedicated study of jūdō could provide a level of 悟　satori enlightenment equal to that to be gained through intensely practicing 座禅 zazen seated Zen mediation for a decade or more. (Gatling L, 2022) 

##

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)

Continue reading “Kanō shihan calligraphy on the power of education – The Kanō Chronicles Oct 2022” →
Featured

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!