As I have written quite extensively about, Jigaro Kano is probably the very most influential martial artist of modern times. It was his vision to preserve and synthesize the ancient feudal Jiu-jitsu schools into one ultimate modern system of unarmed combat and physical education. He called this new Jiu-jitsu, “Judo” to distinguish his modern scientific method from the old ways and it was the first Asian martial art to become truly international.
Such seemingly diverse systems like Olympic Judo, Russian SAMBO and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu are all versions of Kano’s Jiu-jitsu. Kano really does seem like a man well ahead of his time and was on an intellectual and ethical level that few in the martial arts world could ever hope to aspire to. Thus, it’s a shame that he passed away in 1938 before he could have had a much greater influence on the North American martial arts scene. But in those days Jiu-jitsu/Judo was just starting to catch on in the west in a big way.
In fact, I would argue that the kind of “Judo” actually advocated by Kano himself was already dying out by the time it was becoming popular in the west. As we know, one group of people in Brazil, basically working out of a single academy for many years, worked tirelessly to preserve and develop their version of the original kano Jiu-jitsu system. This method was such a powerful system of self-defense that it eventually ignited a martial arts revolution that has now spread around the world in the form of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
Considering that kano was directly and then indirectly responsible for not one but two martial arts revolutions that swept across the world his role and importance is often distorted or neglected. Part of the reason for this is because most of the information we have about him is now very old and second hand. However, Kano was fluent in English which is one of the reasons I find it surprising that he did not have a more profound direct influence on the early martial arts development in North America.
Finding records or copies of his English language discussions and teachings on Jiu-jitsu/Judo is not that easy considering how comfortable he was with English and how much he traveled. Therefore, when I came across an exclusive English language interview that kano did for a New York periodical I wanted to share it here with everyone.
This Interview, which I had never read before, until I found it in an online archive, appeared in the February, 1913 edition of The Oriental Review. Kano was in New York, USA at that time and was personally interviewed by the editor for this English language publication. The article was titled: “The Principles of jujutsu, by Professor Jigoro Kano”.
The Article is divided into two parts so I will also divide it into two of my posts for easier consumption. The first section, which I have reproduced below, is a lengthy and very informative introduction by the Editor outlining Kano’s Background and philosophy. This detailed information must have come directly from kano himself and is a fascinating look at what “judo” had already become by 1913. The second Part, which will follow in a later post, contains Kano’s own words as preserved by the interviewer. I find these glimpses into the past very informative because they are coming right from the sources and not being distorted through personal interpretations or revisionist agendas that are so easy to get away with long after the people we are talking about have passed away. Ergo, what follows is the introduction to Kano’s interview written by the 1913 editor of The Oriental Review after having personally spend time with Jigora Kano during his trip to the USA. I have left the spelling and punctuation in its original form and have only broken the text into more paragraphs for easier reading. I hope you enjoy this rare look into the past and into the mind of the man ultimately responsible for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
“There is in Japan a Kano school of painting, and there is a Kano school of jujutsu. Jigoro Kano, Director of the Higher Normal School of Tokyo, is the founder of the modern improved school of jujutsu, which he has renamed-judo. Professor Kano, after twenty-seven years of patient study, and the constant expenditure of his private means, has as a result, more than ten thousand actual pupils and hundreds of thousands of indirect ones now, including many Europeans, Americans and Chinese who have studied with teachers trained by Kano himself. His central gymnasium in Tokyo, called Kodokan, was incorporated in 1909, and Kano himself endowed it with ten thousand yen, so that this wonderful institution might be able to continue to reconstruct, for that is what it really does, the moral and physical nature of the Japanese youth, without its founder’s personal attention.
As a young student, Jigoro Kano was delicate in health, with a pale face and flabby muscles. He had, however, an indomitable spirit. His physical condition prompted him to take lessons from a jujutsu master at a time when everything Japanese was tabooed as out-of-date, and other young men were busy learning European games and gymnastics. His first master belonged to the Tenjin Shinyo school of jujutsu, the chief object of which was to teach policemen how arrest criminals without injuring them. He sought later another master, of the Kito school, which specialized in the control of men in heavy armour.
After acquiring a degree of proficiency in these two extreme forms of jujutsu, Kano began to investigate several other schools and methods, either with the few survivors of the feudal age of military accomplishments, or through documents handed down from generation to generation in the families of the great masters. In the midst of this exhaustive study, his own private gymnasium was established in June, 1882, in a Buddhist temple at Shitaya, Tokyo. Through theoretical investigation and practical experience, the fundamental principle of a higher and more scientific jujutsu were now evolved in his mind. In brief these are: (1) to build up physical strength and endurance; (2) to attain intellectual alertness; (3) “to acquire certain moral habits on the psycho-physiological basis of the constant practice of exercising mind and body simultaneously.”
An old military art was thus recast into a mode of physical and moral training, with the retention, however, of the historical idea of controlling brute strength with pliancy; of conquering an opponent by yielding to his superior strength. As a method of self-defense, Professor Kano’s judo had a very great attraction to the Japanese people who had but recently witnessed their Samurai orders relinquish their two swords. As a form of bodily culture, judo exercises and develops all parts of the human body evenly; and this with the least possible expenditure of time and money. The upbiulding of moral character-slow deliberation and quick action; the idea of fair play; the idea of doing one’s best always; an aesthetic conception of being, as for instance preferring to be beaten gracefully rather than to win by violence-these are a few of the many things which the practice of judo brings.
The Kodokan gymnasium of Tokyo has been moved several times, its scope being enlarged at each removal to accommodate the ever-increasing number of pupils. For the first few years, the annual enrollment did not exceed ten students; but in 1886 ninety-eight registered, and 293 in the following year; while in 1890 there were 528 new pupils. Judo gymnasiums have been rapidly established in different schools throughout Japan, in the navel college at Etajima, the Fifth Higher Middle School of Kumamoto, the Imperial Universities at Tokyo and Kyoto, the Peers’ school of Tokyo, and others, so that to-day there is hardly a school of standing in Japan which does not teach judo; and the police and prison officials of Japan are also trained in judo, or in some form of jujutsu. Do not get the impression that Kano is in any sense a professional athlete: he is not, but is one of the leading educationalists of his country. Upon graduating from the Tokyo Imperial University in 1882, he became a professor in the Peer’ School; later he was councillor in the Department of Education, then Director of the Kumamoto Higher Middle School, and now is Director of the Tokyo Higher Normal School.
In 1885 Dr. F.W. Eastlake became his first foreign pupil, and in this curious way. This American teacher of English was a heavyweight wrestler, and assured kano of his ability to manage three Japanese of the ordinary size without difficulty. The latter suggested a match with one of the smallest of his pupils, on the condition that the American should become his pupil in judo, if defeated. The terms were agreed upon, and the American Goliath met the Japanese David on the gymnasium mats at Tokyo. The stalwart American naturally seized the small Japanese by the arms and shoulders. In a few seconds, however, the clasping hands became tired, and more tired, and then the left arm of the little David was shaken loose, and put about the waist of his opponent. Then, in an instant, the American was thrown flat.
He clapped his hands in admiration, even in the midst of his consternation, and learned judo. An interesting story about Kano is this-when once he was on a voyage to Europe via the Indian Ocean, there was a huge, muscular Russian on board the steamer who challenged anybody to a wrestling match. Kano was the only one who excepted the challenge; but taking compassion on his size, the Muscovite admonished the Japanese not to hurt himself by a useless display of mere courage. Some of the bystanders knew the secret, and encouraged them to go on. A temporary gymnasium was set up on the deck; passengers gathered about and without much ado, the big man was raised on the back of the small, and thrown over his shoulders, landing on the deck with a thud, but with the arm of the victor under his head to minimize the shock. The defeated man was disconsolate, and would not speak to his conquer for several days; but they became good friends afterwards.
Of course, neither jujutsu nor judo can work miracles, for we cannot escape from our physical and moral limitations. But within these limitations, it is wonderful what the judo school of Kano has accomplished-Editor, The Oriental review.”