Mind Over Muscle

In 1882, Jigoro Kana (1860-1938) founded Kodokan Judo at Eishoji Temple in Tokyo. It was the culmination of a lifelong devotion to the jujutsu of the past, which he reorganized while at the same time taking great care to retain its classical traditions. As Kano explains in Kokokan Judo, as a youth he studied jujutsu, a martial art practiced in Japan since feudal times, which involved throwing, hitting, kicking, stabbing, slashing, choking, bending and twisting limbs - and the defenses against these attacks. After years of studying many different jujutsu techniques, he realized that although many different techniques were taught, there was no one core value holding them together. After thorough consideration, Kano was able to identify an all-pervasive principle: to make the most efficient use of mental and physical energy. He then looked at the different techniques again, and chose only those in which this principle was correctly applied. This was judo. "Ju" means gentleness or giving way. "Do" means principle or way. Judo, therefore, is the Way of gentleness, which implies that first giving way leads to ultimate victory. The Kodokan is literally "the school for studying the Way." This book is a collection of Kano's essential teachings, selected and compiled from his wealth of writings and lectures spanning a period of fifty-one years. Throughout his life, Kano emphasized the importance of understanding the correct meaning of judo and putting it into practice. According to its founder, judo is the way by which we make the best use of our mental and physical energy - by using that energy for the good of society. According to this definition, judo, which once would have been a martial art - a fighting skill used to defend against an attack - became a richer, more complex and universal art, which in turn, evolved into a principle that can be applied to all aspects of human life.