The Kano Society

Welcome to the first edition of the 'Bulletin' This is our on line / off line newsletter about Judo and the Kano Society - We aim to produce it at regular intervals - probably quarterly and later monthly - and to publish content on line with hard copy for those who are not yet connected. Feel free to print off and distribute to colleagues and friends who you think may be interested. The 'Bulletin' will be a short piece to begin with and later expand hopefully into a full magazine / Journal format - but this depends on you too ... we need members to help with the expenses and we need articles and contributions. This may be in the form of news, interesting bits and pieces, photographs or reminiscences and historical material.

We aim eventually to be able to collect an archive of Judo material which will be thus preserved for the future. Trevor Leggett who sadly passed away last month has given us permission to use his material as have other writers such as Richard Bowen. Syd Hoare is translating original material from the Japanese and has access to a quantity of Kano's writings which have not previously been available in English.

We are also aware that we are a Society with an International membership and hence we hope to produce material which will reflect this varied background. I do hope you will enjoy the 'Bulletin' and make it your own. -  Diana Birch

The Kano Society was formally set up on 23rd of January 2000. The founder members of the Society sought to return to and promote the style of Judo that was prevalent in the past. We called this ‘Traditional Judo’. The Kano Society seeks to maintain close links with the Kodokan in Japan, the original home of Judo. The Society has no intention to supplant any governing body of Judo. It is democratically constituted and all Judoka may apply to join.

What do we mean by ‘Traditional Judo’? We can divide this into three aspects-

Principles of Judo The Kano Society believe that Judo should be viewed as more than just a sport. It should adhere to the principles laid down by Judo’s founder Jigoro Kano· Good use of mind and body (seiryoku zenyo),· Mutual welfare and benefit (jita kyoei) and it should have moral and educational benefits. Trevor Leggett described this as ‘A training for life’. Thus in applying Judo principles to everyday life the Judoka is enabled to achieve balance and self mastery. A spirit of generosity and mutual assistance is integral to traditional Judo.

Study of Judo In addition to randori and contest training other areas of Judo should be adequately studied. Kata is an essential part of traditional Judo as is the preservation of Japanese terminology and etiquette including correct bowing and the use of white judogi. Judoka should work on the whole range of Judo techniques including ukemi and avoid specialized study of a limited repertoire. The gokyo should be taught and studied and there is also a place for regulated study of specialist areas such as katsu, atemiwaza, kansetsuwaza (other than those already allowed in competition) and self-defence techniques.

Practice of Judo Randori is the cornerstone of Judo practice. We support intensive training and believe that randori should be its main component involving upright Judo (shizentai) and practice which aims to throw cleanly for ippon. We deprecate over-reliance on bent posture (jigotai) and such techniques as leg grabs and holds which pull the opponent down into a crouch as being detrimental to good Judo practice. The aim is injury-free Judo especially between higher and lower grades and between stronger and weaker people

Shiai – contest- is an important aspect of training. We support experimentation with the contest rules to discover a formula for clean upright Judo.Kangeiko (the winter training period) has a valuable role.

Our membership in UK and abroad is gradually growing. A major mile stone for the Society was the acceptance of appointments as Patrons of the Society, not only by Percy Sekine (Koizumi’s son-in law) and Trevor Leggett in UK but also by Yukimitsu Kano, grandson of Jigoro Kano and President of the Kodokan Judo Institute, in Japan. Mr Kano’s acceptance is particularly important to us. Mr Kano’s acceptance owes much to the personal contacts that Warwick Stevens was able to make whilst in Japan this spring and he reports that our feelings as a Society that traditional values of judo are in need of reemphasis and support is strongly shared by many at the top of Japanese judo. A number of high ranking Japanese judoka have also accepted life membership. Through the website we have also aroused keen interest and support from judoka in other countries, so far in Japan, USA, Canada, Portugal and France.

Sadly this year we have lost two major figures of the Judo World—Margot Sathaye who was to have been a patron died on 30th January and Trevor Leggett died on 2nd august. Full obituaries and information are available on the website.

Both Yukimitsu Kano and Ichiro Abe have sent very encouraging comments and Teizo Kawamura has also joined.

Bulletin part 2