The Kano Society

As the Olympic competition is purely randori, it tends to promote tournament competitions (shiai) to the detriment of the traditional philosophy and techniques of the art. Gone are the days of Kyüzô Mifiine: In a Judo match, participants win by fair play and sway the minds of those who witness the match . . . Judo principle implies the actual idea of mutual prosperity.

While their assertion that judo philosophy is now fairly widely accepted seems somewhat suspect, these researches make an important point. From the start, judo was a modernized and, in many ways, Westernized version of the native Japanese jujutsu. As judo was forced into the mold of Olympic sport, it was subsumed even further into a specifically Western conception of modern athletics. The charges that the Olympic movement and modern sports are a type of “cultural imperialism” in the realm of ideas seems to have some validity here. That is, whereas most traditional games and sports are pushed to the fringes of society, judo simply made itself part of the center, yet lost a lot of its cultural distinctiveness. While Japanese language and culture is still an important part of its study around the world, judo is becoming more and more a simple variant of wrestling.

After the Second World War, judo was the most rapidly growing sport in the world. This explosive growth was accompanied by increasing rationalization and codification of the rules and forms of competition, an increasing international orientation, and increasing organizational scale and complexity. Since the 1960s, the rule books (which did not exist in any form when Kanô first founded the Kodôkan) have been continually modified to appeal to spectators. As judo is generally not conducive to spectatorship because it is so technical, quick, and subtle, additions such as the multiple levels of points and penalties, and the “noncombativity” penalty (which is given to any contestant who is not visibly aggressive) have substantially diminished the need for a trained eye in watching judo match.

With the increase in uncritical acceptance of the tournament has been a fixation on the use of “tournament-effective” instead of technically precise or aesthetically pleasing techniques. With “Westernization” an explicit aim of many coaches, there is less concern for the all-around development of the individual. This has made the tournament virtually the only aspect of Kano’s judo still actively supported by sport promoters.

It is important to note here that this orientation towards raw pragmatism. devoid of “mysticism,” is a good deal closer to classical jüjutsu than Kôdôkan judo. Like the sport judo, player of today, the bushi of olden times had little time for philosophy and morals that so marked the late-nineteenth century conception of the Zen-influenced judo. Of course, modern judo lacks the important element of a “life or death struggle,” so it is less able to claim some unconscious spirituality. Nonetheless, both classical jujutsu and modem sport judo, share many of the same mental attitudes towards the development of physical technique. If one must claim that the judo still exists in the main­stream, then it is, as Allen Guttmann says, “not a way of life, but . . . the true path to the championship.”’ This new “judo” now leads far more people than the old spirit of Kanô’s philosophical and moral school. Judo is a classic example of Versportlichung (sportification) .Traditional elements like self-defence, kata, and bowing and the significance of concepts like jita kyoei, seiryoku zenyo, and well­roundedness are all on the decline. To conclude this examination of the modernization of judo, we can examine the seven characterisethics of modern sport as outlined by Guttmann.

First is secularism, little more needs be said how judo has been divorced from Kanô’s philosophies and is now basically culturally indistinct from any other sport. Secondly, judo has been open to all classes from the outset. Kano felt that education in the judo could enhance the social integration of class, clan, and region his disciples ranged from rickshaw men to presidents. Today, there is little economic barrier to studying the art. Classes at a club usually cost around twenty dollars a month and tournaments generally charge com­petitors less than ten dollars to compete. Promotion is based solely on accomplishment now, so the main form of exclusion is based on ability only no one is promoted unless they win tournament competitions.

Third is specialization of roles. In a sport like judo which pits one individual against another, this is somewhat difficult. While there can be no specialization per se in actual competition, there is an ever-widening gap between the fighting, teaching, and administrative spheres. This split was not present in the early years of the art, when high-ranking teachers, after years of practical fighting experience, would continue to promote the art as offi­cials and administrators. Further specialization can be seen in the tendency for competitors to be “one throw” people. That is, they have one or two tokui no waza (“favorite moves”) that they develop to the extreme (while ignoring much of the rest of the canon).

The fourth characteristic, rationalization, is clearly a major part of big-time judo competition. In addition to extensive cross-training in running, weight training, and European wrestling, the top judo champions work closely with Sports scientists, doctors, and psychologists to become the “best of the best.”

The fifth characteristic is bureaucratic organization. Though it has not been highlighted in this paper, there is extensive organization of sport judo at every level—from the smallest club up to the International Jüdô Federation.

No one can compete in the major competitions without authorization from regional and national administrative bodies. Judo has probably been most resistant to quantification. Like boxing. there are few purely objective measures of a judo practitioner’s skill (other than winning). So, the development of more point divisions and a greater emphasis on time seems to be about as much as possible. Tied to the previous characteristic, the quest for records is also difficult to achieve in judo. Competition with another is the only way to determine skill. thus “records” might involve “the most consecutive wins” or “longest to hold an international title.” However, this is a relative and floating scale. One has no way to know how the man who won the open-class division in 1964 would compare to the 1992 winner. Draeger says: To become a classical do, a sport entity must drop all notions of competition and record-breaking, of immediate results for cham­pionships, of garnering group prestige, and concentrate upon the individual’s self perfection as the end-point of training.’’

The entire idea of the judo as formulated by Kanô and others, is antithetical to this last characteristic of modern sport. Yet clearly many judo practitioners are more than willing to leave the “Way” by the wayside in pursuit of championships and external rewards. In the above overview of the development of judo from jujutsu and into the modern sport, one can see a fairly clear pattern. As stated earlier, signifi­cant parallels can be drawn between the two practices, jujutsu and sport judo. At opposite ends on the continuum of premodern to modern, the two represent the beginning and endpoint of an ideological and historical line (that appears to bend into a circle). The classical warrior resembles the elite athlete in his focus on practicality and his lack of interest in the “spirit” of the art. The top judo player of today shares many of the same attitudes concerning competition with his very distant technical forebears: The athletic prowess of the samurai, as defined by swordsman­ship, horsemanship, archery, and personal defense systems were unparalleled as a result of the intense work spent in training. In many ways, the samurai could be compared to the elite world-class athletes of today.’

Therefore, the concept of the judo, as created by Kanô in the late nine­teenth century, seems to be an anomaly. The spiritual sublimation of the form, then, is a product of a unique time in the history of the art and of the world. All this is not to say that judo, has completely abandoned the lofty goals of its founder. Still one hears leaders of judo, such as the president of the Olympic Jüdo Committee, make reference to the deeper facets of the judô education: It may be said that the well rounded physical, mental, and ethical perfection of human character is the goal of Judo. a truth which Dr. Kano never tired of repeating.’’ If one compares this sort of philosophy to the theory of other Olympic sports, one will find that judo retains a lot of the old style, if not in the mainstream, at least in the periphery.

Apart from the vast legions of judo players interested only in rank and competition, there are a great many who reject the rampant modernization of the art for the “semi-modern” compromise that is the martial arts. Perhaps these people reject the socialization into Western team sports which stress aggressiveness and team spirit, in favor of the exotic martial arts which seem to be “above all that.” That is, while modern sports seek to overcome others, the martial arts work to overcome oneself Even a champion interna­tional competitor like Yamashita Yasahiro seems to balk at the diminishing emphasis of the spirit in judo when he said, “I don’t want to be the kind of person who can’t do anything but Judo. I want to study many things and expand my horizons.” We find in judo, then, a critical minority that wishes to cling to the original ideals of Dr. Kanô. Yet, these people are still just that a minority: True. there are still a few seekers of wisdom who immerse them­selves in the spirit of Judo or aikido, but the juggernaut of modern sports rolls on.

I believe that this was the first time this event had been held at the Kodokan and was certainly the best judo event I have ever attended. The facilities would be hard to surpass anywhere that judo is practiced. The main dojo, and indeed the other smaller dojos on other floors, had superbly sprung floors. This was for me an unaccustomed treat but I was impressed that, even when ones break falls were good, it was a great reassurance to know that one was far less likely to be injured and I believe that this encouraged far better judo. It made it a pleasure to be thrown!

The competitions were held over the five days Monday 23^rd June to Friday 28^th June with the first two days devoted to various judo kata. As you would expect, the standards were very high but the Japanese judoka did not have it all their own way, good results being obtained by others from a spread of participating nations. Of the kata judges, almost all were Japanese except that Great Britain had four judges, two of whom, Dennis and Tina Penfold, were Kano Society members, and there was one American judge, so we were very well represented. Shiai competitions were spread over the last four days for a range of age and weight ranges for men and for women. The age categories for men ranged from M1, 30-34, to M10, 74-79. There was an M11 category for those over 80 but this only attracted a single entry I believe! There were similar categories for women. Contest started with the oldest categories on the first day through to the youngest on the third day. The final day was devoted to team competitions and the English ‘B’ team reached the semi-finals losing only to the host nation, Japan. The individual medals went predominantly to Japanese judoka, who made up about a third of all entrants, but British competitors did quite well with Graeme Holling winning two gold medals

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Refreshingly, the dominant spirit of the competitions was not to win at all costs. Most competitors showed good judo spirit and were attempting a high level of technique. All judogi were white, those of the Japanese being whiter than white! And how nice it was to see lots of attempts at throws using recognisable techniques such as haraigoshi, sasae-tsurikoniashi, a very good okuriashibarai, even attempts at hanegoshi, mainly among the over 50 competitors. Generally one saw very good shizentai and very little holding around the waist. This did happen to to an English competitor, Steve Shukere, in the 45-50 year old competition. Steve immediately went for an arm lock and almost succeeded. Despite this, his opponent did it again three times, obviously not learning of the error of his ways again leading to near success with arm locks until Steve threw him decisively.

The exceptions to this attractive judo were provided by some East European entrants, particularly those from Russia, in full jigotai and combining the crouching defence with leg grabs - not judo so much as wrestling with jackets. The referees did warn and penalise such entrants quite often to the annoyance of their coaches who often disputed the decisions.

After a contest you found you had made a new friend and it was great to meet old friends from all over the world, some that you had not seen for many years. This was quite different from a young persons event and I felt lead to far more new friends being made.

As one might expect, the Japanese hospitality was first class. Their courtesy and good manners made us Westerners feel quite crude in contrast. The medal presentations were made by a number of high grade judoka, amongst whom were several who we remembered well from being thrown or tied up in knots at the Budokwai, including, among others, Kisaburo Watanabe, Saburo Matsushita and Yasuhiro Yamashita.

The final evening was marked by a farewell party with lots of good food, beer and sake (of which a large barrel-full was consumed - Hic!). There was a stage where a number of participants demonstrated their musical talents (?). I particularly enjoyed meeting up with a number of good friends of mine from times past who are now living in Japan, namely Tony Orton, Brian Watson and John Bowen.

To round off my trip I went to the Tokyo University Team Championships held at the Budokan Hall. It proved to be the most exciting judo event I have ever seen, a real eye opener for all the British and other non-Japanese who attended. Even the warm up was something to behold with constant throwing. Then, when the competition really got going, we saw some beautiful upright attacking Japanese judo, with so many good throws but very little newaza. The hall was packed mainly with students who were cheering their university teams and creating a very good atmosphere.

All in all, I found this a splendid trip and a very heartening one, showing clearly that traditional judo is still alive and well and not just in Japan.

Ex-paratrooper, Harry Randall celebrated his 75th Birthday in style earlier this year when he was presented with an engraved plate in acknowledgement of his outstanding service to the Dorking Judo club.

Harry has also given unstinting service to the British Judo Association Surrey County as a competition official and to his surprise on Sunday 11th May at the AGM in Guildford he was presented with the first Kenneth Bryant award for services to Judo by Alan Rickart 6th Dan president of BJA Surrey County