Читать книгу Secrets of Judo. A Text for Instructors and Students онлайн

12 страница из 15

Soon after the end of the Tokugawa period, the Restoration period was in progress in Japan, and the old forms of hand-to-hand combat were replaced by weapons of steel. The masters of the jujitsu art were dismissed from service to their feudal lords, and many turned to public showmanship as a means of making a living. The natural result was a degradation of the art.

About this time, an eighteen-year-old student, soon to become famous among Japanese educators, began his practice of jujitsu under the instruction of Professor Hachinosuke Fukuda, the eminent master of the Tenjin Shinyo-ryu school. The student, who was to become the founder of judo, was Jigoro Kano. After the death of Professor Fukuda, Dr. Kano trained under the new master of that school, Professor Masatomo Iso. Death soon took Professor Iso, however, and Dr. Kano transferred to the Kito-ryu school to study under Professor Tsunetoshi Iikubo.

Dr. Kano began to study jujitsu because of his respect for the prowess of his masters, but he soon began to thirst for a mental knowledge that was lacking in their teachings. He began to look for the secrets behind the superior expert control that the professors had mastered. He theorized that there would be greater value in combining the various schools and their techniques into one standard system: one that could be adopted as a physical education program for schools and would at the same time embody mental culture as well as physical skill. In addition, jujitsu could be practiced as a competitive sport if the more dangerous techniques were omitted. This mastery of mental culture could thus produce a pattern of subconscious behavior that would be useful in achieving "mutual welfare and benefit." He wanted a system that would be rational and logical and would develop the potential of the student's real personality. The do of the word judo symbolizes this philosophy.