Martial History Team

Jigoro Kano, right, at age 11, courtesy of the Kodokan and International Judo Federation Introduction We've all heard the story -- a sickly, small child is bullied, and turns to martial arts for salvation. Versions of this archetype have in some cases become invented myths in order to attract students to a particular style. After all, if your founder was a robust, athletic child, and a Greek god to his or her peers, why would they possibly need martial arts? Jigoro Kano Jigoro Kano (1860-1938) was the founder of judo. I noticed this text in an article about Professor Kano by Mat Ball on a prominent judo site : "Dr. Kano’s own sport has its roots in his childhood, during which Dr. Kano was a small and sickly child . All through out his schooling he received much harassment and bullying . This was also precipitated by the fact that he was often in classes with boys much older than he was. This brought about Dr. Kano’s fascination with Jujitsu." (emphasis a...

Google query results for When was Professor Kano Born, retrieved 15 Apr 2020 Have you ever searched for Professor Kano's birthday in Google and gotten a result like that shown above? Is that right? I started reading a new biography of Professor Jigoro Kano today. On the first page, it said he was born on December 10, 1860, just like the Google search result. That surprised me, because I thought I knew that his birthday was October 28, 1860. I realized that this new book was a translation of a Japanese text, and the translator (or the original authors) did not realize that their audience would not recognize that a date prior to 1873 in Japan used the "lunar calendar," and not the Gregorian calendar common in the West. This site goes into great detail on the intricacies of the Japanese system. Japanese Wikipedia You can see these different calendars on the  Japanese Wikipedia page for Prof Kano . Professor Kano Japanese Wikipedia page, retrieved 15 Apr 202...

Popular Judo Illustrated by Sumitomo Arima, 1905 I was poking around E-Budo today and I encountered a short but great thread:  What is the oldest known Judo manual ? Lance Gatling, currently working on The Kano Chronicles , offered the definitive answer, complete with links. "Arima _Sumitomo_ sensei did write the text for his book possibly as early as the very late 1890's, but the book wasn't publicshed until later. Arima and his (elder?) brother were of the noble class, students at the Gakushuin where Kano shihan first taught and then became (briefly) the head, then for longer was the academic dean. They were two of the first 5 students of the Kodokan. Kano shihan recruited Arima to the Fifth High School in Kumamoto to teach and to run the new judo dojo when he was recalled from his assignment to enter the Ministry of Education in 1893. Various versions of Arima's book remained in print for decades, mostly with the illustrations getting worse and worse as...

Robert Drysdale on Trapp BJJ Facebook Live Stream, 11 Apr 2020 Introduction Earlier this week, Robert Drysdale, creator of the forthcoming movie Closed Guard , spoke to the Trapp BJJ community on Facebook . Around the 30 minute mark, Robert began discussing the movie and his research on the history of Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). Throughout this post I will use "BJJ" in order to differentiate from traditional or pre-Kano jujutsu, even though I usually just use "jiujitsu." Also, in a few places I've added links to articles that I referenced while writing this post. My goal here is not to confirm, disprove, agree with, or disagree with Robert's findings, as I only heard him on a video and did not see his sources. The links provide additional investigative leads for those interested. Robert's Purpose for the Movie Robert said the purpose of the movie is "to tell history as accurately as we could, given what we know." Robert said he was a...

Kung Fu TV series, 1972-1975 Almost a year ago, I wrote a post for Martial Journal titled  The Truth about the Creation of the Kung Fu TV Series . It was based on the amazing biography of Bruce Lee by Matthew E. Polly . Working with Matthew's text and his approval, I created an excerpt, and then augmented it with an analysis and summary to show that Bruce Lee did not create the 1970s Kung Fu TV series, contrary to the story repeated by thousands of fans around the world. Had this blog been around, I would have published the results here as well. Instead, I included the text , after a respectful period of time to give publicity to Martial Journal, at my older, more specialized blog titled Sourcing Bruce Lee . I created Sourcing Bruce Lee after listening to the Bruce Lee Podcast, and realizing that some of the content presented as being original Bruce Lee philosophy was recycled from the notes Bruce took on other philosophers. In an age where one can search for text using...

Calligraphic 夢語 by Takuan Sōhō (1573-1645), Nomura Art Museum, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan, 1624 The Beginning: Walking with the Tengu I was listening to Matthew Krueger's excellent Walking with the Tengu podcast, specifically his discussion of Mushin . During the show he mentioned Bruce Lee and his blockbuster 1973 movie  Enter the Dragon , and cited the Wikipedia page on Mushin, or "no mind." The page said (prior to this blog post): "The legendary Zen master Takuan Sōhō said:[7] The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind. In the case of the swordsman, it means death. When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictat...

Amazon Search Results for Judo, Ordered by Publication Data, Minus Irrelevant Items Periodically I like to search book sites like Amazon.com for martial arts books. An unfortunate phenomenon I've encountered during the last few years has been the rise of not-books that clutter the search results. These not-books are calendars, notebooks, appointment books, coloring books, and other riffraff that are not really books on martial arts. They're just branded with an art, like, "judo," and as a result they appear in search results. I also like to search by publication date, such that the newest items appear first. This is often how discover new books. Unfortunately, the people who pollute the search results with their coloring books and calendars release "new" versions of their products regularly, so they are frequently near the top of the search results. Thankfully, I have a solution. Amazon, like Google, supports a "not" modifier, namely the ...