From Tatsuya Kibushi - FCB page https://www.facebook.com/tatsuya.kibushi.54/posts/1689098194703853
Author of article: 丸屋 武士（MARUYA Takeshi） （本名 木伏 龍也）
Judo and BUSHIDO at the White HouseTheodore Roosevelt began full-scale study on Japan by the conversation with William Bigelow and Arnest Fenollosa as an opportunity. President Roosevelt and Bigelow were the close friend ; When in Boston, Roosevelt and his family stayed at the mansion of William Bigelow in Beacon Street. While in Washington D.C. Bigelow stayed at the White House, and they called each other “ Ted” and “ Bill”. In these relationship, Arnest Fenollosa , a close friend of Bigelow since their lives in Tokyo, was invited to the White House to perform lectures about Japan on March 21 and 27, 1904.
Before that lecture, Fenollosa who embraced Japanese culture stated as follows in his article titled “JAPANESE PLACES IN HISTORY” written in 1899.
“・・・Let us mark again where the finger of history points. If all this be true, Japan stands outlined as a unique nation as much reserved for a unique purpose as was two thousand years ago the race of the Jews. China has been hardly slower than America to grasp the facts that lie under her nose. Europe is haughty and stubborn, and pretends to despise the very Oriental lore which she devours on the sly. England has not quite cracked the nut of India. A sympathy of races that shall be more than tolerant is still embryonic. Japan alone is consciously aiming to fit the utilitarian science of the West into the more idealistic and charitable policy of the East. Here alone is a mingling of world-types real, vital, and prophetic. It is this makes Japan's supreme and unique opportunity. To her it is providentially given to become a pioneer for all mankind. What China and India on the one side, and America and England and Russia on the other must eventually come to, however slowly and reluctantly, it is her privilege to explore gladly. The issue of her experiments must become a precedent for the laggards. It is not too much to declare that the very social solution Japan is spelling out to-day shall become the type of that united world's civilization in the third millennium which shall be so much the richer than all its predecessors that it includes all of their finest experience.・・・ ”
Ⅲ Morse, Fenollosa , Bigelow and Kano1. Morse and Fenollosa at Tokyo University(the predecessor of The University of Tokyo)First as an American, Edward Sylvester Morse received the Medal of the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan, and also received the Medal of Sacred Treasure from the country in 1898.
He was born in Portland, Maine as the son of a Congregationalist deacon who held strict Calvinist beliefs. His mother, who did not share her husband's religious beliefs, encouraged her son's interest in the sciences. As an unruly student whom teachers disliked, he skipped classes and wandered around woods or seashore, collecting snails and shells. At the age of 17, Edward Morse whose collection of shells and snails received considerable attention from others, joined the Portland Society of Natural History.
Incidentally when The Origin of Species of Darwin was published in 1859, Edward Morse aged at 21, was enrolled as a special student in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University, and became an assistant to zoologist Louis Agassiz in the university's Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Without receiving a degree, Morse was appointed to the chair of comparative anatomy and zoology at Bowdoin College from 1871 to 1874. In 1874, he became a lecturer at Harvard University, then in 1876, was named a fellow of the National Academy of Science.
Continuing his study of mollusks he deduced that brachiopods, then placed in a phylum of their own, were more closely related to worms. Because a number of species of brachiopods had been documented in Japan, Morse traveled there in 1877 and set up a seaside laboratory at Enoshima, near Yokohama.
He was promptly invited to be the first professor of Zoology at the Medical Department of Tokyo University( forerunner of Imperial University of Tokyo and the present University of Tokyo).
By being eloquent and sociable, he was deeply trusted by the authorities of Tokyo University who had determined to improve its scholarly basis.
Accepting the request of the authorities of Tokyo University, Morse recommended Thomas Mendenhall as a professor of physics and Ernest Fenollosa as a professor of philosophy at Tokyo University. Although lacking conventional academic credentials, Mendenhall was gaining impressive reputation as a teacher and educator at Agriculture and Mechanical College of Ohio which later became Ohio State University.
In addition Morse preached the need of “the society” and with botany professor Ryokichi Yatabe at Tokyo University established the first society in Japan; The Tokyo Biology Society. What is more, for the first time in Japan Edward Morse introduced Darwin's evolutionary theory in malice and the objections of Christianity propagators.
As having mentioned in the chapter 2 of this column, in response to request of Tokyo University authorities, Fenollosa started to teach not only philosophy but also economics and political science at the Department of the Political Science and Economics. In the class room there, Fenollosa had his historic encounter with Jigoro Kano as a sophomore applying adhesive plasters on his legs and arms.
Spending hours every day in hard practice of Jujutsu, thanks to Fenollosa, it was the thought of John Stuart Mill to have become Kano's blood relatives.
Fenollosa used as a text book “ On Liberty” by John Stuart Mill for the class of political science, and for the class of economics he used Mill's “ Principles of Political Economy”. Kano's soul must have been shaken by Mill's argument that free discourse is necessary condition for intellectual and social progress.
For the class of philosophy in the department of philosophy to which Kano achieved bachelor entrance after graduating the department of political science and economics, Fenollosa used as a text book the English translation book of “ The history of philosophy, general statement” by Friedrich Karl Albert Schwegler. Fenollosa's lecture to summarize the main point, and to comment on clearly was high in popularity among students who was going to take in Western new Knowledge in greed.
In the lecture of the history of philosophy, Fenollosa is said to put important point in comparison with German idealism philosophy of Kant and Hegel, Mill's utility philosophy, and Herbert Spencer's theory of evolution philosophy.
2 Bigelow in JapanIn the meantime, Morse who recommended Fenollosa to Tokyo University, returned to America in November 1877, with leave from the university authorities. While in America, he collected 2500 books and pamphlets which became basic books of newly founded library of Tokyo University. In April 1878, Morse with his family came back to Tokyo University, and after serving out the term in the school, left Japan in September 1879.
Three years later, in June 1882, Morse returned on a third visit to Japan to collect clay samples and finished ceramics in which he had much interest. At this time, he was not with his family but with William Stargis Bigelow aged at 32 . Bigelow was so impressed by Morse's lecture about Japan in Boston that he decided to visit Japan for a trip of self-discovery, abandoning his carrier as the doctor.
During Summer of 1882, Morse, Fenollosa and Bigelow traveled together to Kansai district in order to collect Japanese works of art; Morse collected mainly ceramics. Fenollosa collected mainly pictures. Bigelow collected mainly swords, brims of the swords and lacquer works.
From April 1883 to April 1886, Bigelow was the lecturer of autogenesis theory and epidemic basic theory at the Medical Department of Tokyo University. Compared with Morse's salary 350 yen per month and Fenollosa's salary 300 yen, Bigelow's salary 50 yen was rather low, although the starting salary of police officer and elementary school teacher was 6 or 5 yen at that time in Tokyo.
However, money didn't matter for Bigelow who was a natural millionaire, and he spent seven years without break in Japan, collecting Japanese works of art and devoting himself to a study of Northern Buddhism and its philosophy.
William Sturgis Bigelow was born as the only son of Henry Jacob Bigelow, eminent physician of Boston and typical Boston Brahmin. His mother Susan Sturgis was born as the youngest girl of William Sturgis who became a millionaire by reclamation of the Oriental trade. As only child, he was left solitary by the early death of his mother at the age of three, William Bigelow grew to manhood shy and retiring.
Via a local elementary school Bigelow entered private Dixwell School at which he received education mainly by the classics and became a close friend of Henry Cabot Lodge. It is widely known that Henry Cabot Lodge was the close friend of the life with Theodore Roosevelt.
After Dixwell School, Bigelow with his friend Lodge passed through Harvard College without special distinction (class of 1871), and then, he took up the study of medicine at Harvard along with his father's request. His father Henry who received the Argenteuil Prize from the French Academy of Medicine was the Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School from 1849 until his retirement in 1882.
After graduating from the Harvard Medical School in 1874, William Bigelow spent five years in Europe and developed a keen interest in the purely scientific aspects of medicine such as investigation of bacteriology. On the other hand, while staying in Europe, especially in Paris, Bigelow was strongly attracted by trendy Japonism in those days. There, he purchased Ukiyoe prints, Netsuke and traditional industrial arts imported from Japan.
For Bigelow who returned from Europe in 1879, more practical phase of a practitioner's routine was rather distasteful. But his father prevailed upon him to take the post of surgeon to out-patients at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
The reason why Bigelow paid attention to Japan was a lecture about Japan which Edward Morse performed in Boston. As stated above, Bigelow left Boston and after the voyage to become the turning point of his life, went ashore not on Europe but at Yokohama on June 5, 1882 as a traveling companion of Edward Morse who returned on a third visit to Japan.
The biggest achievement by Bigelow in Japan was his generous economic help to the “Japanese Painting( Art ) Revivalism” which Fenollosa and his pupil Kakuzo (Tenshin) Okakura propeled.
By the help of the Kanga-kai( Fine Art Association) to which Bigelow endowed the fund, Hogai Kano, Gaho Hashimoto and many other painters were able to escape from economic difficulties.
Further, when Kakuzo Okakura resigned(ousted) from his position as principal of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and established the Japan Art Academy newly in 1898, Bigelow remitted as much as 10000 dollar (20000 yen) in response to a telegram from Okakura which called for financial support. That large amount of money far exceeded Okakura's and his follower's imagination.
Thus, Bigelow played a decisive role in the establishment of the Japan Art Academy. In recognition of his attainments, Japanese Government made him a Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun.
During seven years stay without break in Japan, Bigelow is said to collect 15000 artworks including 800 pieces of Noh costume and a famous sward of the national treasure grade, named “Yasutsuna”.
After his death in Oct, 6, 1926, all of these artworks were donated to the Museum of Fine Art , Boston by his will and continue up to the present day.
It is a nice talk for Japanese that William Bigelow who wrote the letter of introduction which led Kentaro Kaneko's friendship with President Roosevelt, is estimated as “ a benefactor of the Japanese art” along with Morse and Fenollosa.
Furthermore, Bigelow, not only collected Japanese artworks with his large fortune, but also converted daringly to a Buddhist along with Fenollosa.
He began ascetic practice of the Esoteric Buddhism of the Tendai sect religion under Keitoku Sakurai Ajari of Homyo-in, Mii-dera Temple located in Ohtsu, just outskirt of Kyoto.
In September 21, 1885, Fenollosa received Bosatsu- kai( Bodhisattve Precepts) by Keitoku Sakurai Ajari at the residence of Hisanari Machida in Koume-mura village( a part of Sumida-ku,now) in Tokyo. Ajari means a master and high priest in esoteric Buddhism.
At the same time Bigelow received Commandments for Ten Good Seeds by Sakurai. Just six days before this incident Kakuzo Okakura became a disciple of Sakurai at Machida's residence.
From Mii-dera in Ohtsu, on his tour of teaching and spreading the Esoteric Buddhism of the Tendai sect religion, Sakurai was staying at Machida's residence whenever he was in Tokyo.
Sakurai granted “ Getsu-shin（月心）” to Bigelow and “ Tai-shin（諦心）” to Fenollosa as their Buddhist name. Kakuzo Okakura later came to call himself “ Ten-shin”.
Hisanari Machida, the First Director of the Imperial House Museum ( forerunner of the National Museum) who helped these three Americans had strong desire to prevent Japanese work of art being washed away abroad.
Aged at 28, Machida learned as an auditor of the Letter of the Law Department in the University College of London University for one year from 1865 to1866. He was the leader of 15 students who smuggled into London by the domain order of Satsuma-han feudal clan. He visited Paris twice to prepare for the Paris World Exposition in 1867. The Satsuma feudal clan exhibited in Paris World Exposition along with Saga feudal clan and Tokugawa shogunate government.
Cooperating with Machida who helped Morse, Fenollosa and Bigelow, Kakuzo( Tenshin ) Okakura became a key person not only as an interpreter for these Americans but also as a promoter of the art revival of Japan.
Okakura was one of eight first graduates of the Department of Political Science and Economics of the Faculty of Letters at Tokyo University in which Fenollosa instructed political science and economics besides philosophy. As stated above, Jigoro Kano was a second graduates of the Department of Political Science and Economics of Tokyo University with only five alumni.
After graduation from Tokyo University, Okakura was employed by the Ministry of Education and was in charge of art education. At the same time Okakura kept to be an excellent interpreter and helper to Fenollosa who became to be absorbed in Japanese art, specifically in Buddhism art. Buddhism art around that time were discarded in modernization process of Japan, especially in the aftermath of Haibutsu Kishaku movement which brought down Buddhism.
Fenollosa together with Kakuzo Okakura studied ancient temples, shrines and treasures, and finally established “ the concept of national treasures in Japan”.
One month before Bigelow's arrival at Tokyo, in May 1882, Fenollsa delivered a lecture on “ An explanation of the Truth of Art”, which was translated into Japanese and published as a pamphlet and was widely circulated and quoted.
Many young bureaucrats in the Ministry of Finance and in the Ministry of Interior who desired to preserve traditional art helped Fenollosa; They were eager to circulate the pamphlet in order to persuade majority of Japanese who are attracted by Western culture. As a result of these activities, Fenollosa came to be called “ a standard-barer of Japanese art revival”.
In 1885, Fenollosa sold his art collections(about 1000pieces) to Boston physician Charles Goddard Weld who visited Japan as a friend of Bigelow on the condition that it go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It could be said that Morse, Fenollosa and Bigelow rescued many Buddhist art treasures which would otherwise have been destroyed under Haibutsu Kishaku movement, or discarded at a time when everything Japanese was tabooed as out-of date.
On the other hand, Kakuzo Okakura and his younger brother Yoshisaburo Okakura had kept interpretation of many letters between Bigelow, Fenollosa and Reverent Keitoku Sakurai back and forth ; These two Americans had many matters to ask around the doctrine of the Esoteric Buddhism of Tendai sect religion.
Yoshisaburo Okakura later became a professor of English at the Higher Normal School of Tokyo at which Jigoro Kano was the Director for more than 23 years. An excellent interpreter Yoshisaburo Okakura's book titled “ Japanese Spirit” published in London in 1905 was read widely in UK.
Being absorbed in ascetic practice of the Esoteric Buddhism of Tendai, Bigelow(Buddhist Name Gesshin) had consumed his mind and body. Following religious precepts, he cut off meat-eating, and became so thin that he was almost beyond recognition at last. Advising exhausted Bigelow not to overdo, Sakurai mentioned that those who learn Esoteric Buddhism often become maniacs. Bigelow stopped the ascetic practice and returned to hometown Boston in 1889.
Fenollosa who resigned from Tokyo University in 1886 was transferred to Commissioner of Fine Art by the Japanese Government with high salary of vice-minister level. He belonged to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Imperial Household given responsibility of registering the art treasures of Japan, including temples. In 1889, after helping Okakura to found the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, Fenollosa returned to Boston. There, he started to serve as curator of the department of Oriental Art at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston in which William Bigelow's father Henry Bigelow was an influential director.
In the summer of 1902, Bigelow who was the director of the Museum of Fine Art at Boston after his father's death in 1890, did the second visit to Japan for 13 anniversaries of death of Sakurai Ajari. Avoiding hot and humid summer in Japan, he stayed around Tokyo and refrained from trip to Homyou-in, Mii-dera Temple until fall. In Kyoto, answering to the question by Japanese journalist Yamada from Kyoto Hinode Newspaper, Bigelow advocated his picture theory: the decisive factor is whether a painter has noble and elegant spirit or not.
In January 1903 Bigelow left Japan and via Europe returned home at Christmas of that year.
Around that time, the industrial production of the U.S.A. overtook UK and was rising in the world first place. Also, the first Harley Davidson motorcycle appeared in the American market. In December 1903 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Pierre Curie and Marie Curie the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Four years from 1904 were the heydays of William Sturjis Bigelow's life. With President Roosevelt in his second term, Bigelow called him Ted and was called Bill by Roosevelt. As stated above, when in Washington D.C. Bigelow stayed in the White House, and when in Boston the President and his family stayed at the Bigelow's mansion in Beacon Street. At the residence of Bigelow, the President and his family might appreciate many Japanese cultural aspects collected by Bigelow ; the quintessence of the Japanese culture.
Bigelow performed consecutive lectures in the regular meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Science three times ; First as an American, explained about philosophy of Northern Buddhism, specifically the Esoteric Buddhism of Tendai sect religion. In 1908 at Harvard University, he delivered his Ingasoll Lecture titled “ Buddhism and Immortality” which helped to the Western world an understanding of Buddhist philosophy.
Upon Bigelow's death, in accordance with his will, his remains were cremated；half the ashes were brought to Japan by art dealer Teijiro Yamanaka and were buried at Homyo-in, Mii-dera Temple.
3-1 Jigoro Kano, a man of energyErnest Fenollosa returned to Japan in 1897 to accept a position as Professor of English Literature at the Higher Normal School of Tokyo( the predecessor of University of Tsukuba) at which Jigoro Kano was the Director for more than 23 years.
Fenollosa's public divorce and immediate remarriage in 1895 to the writer Mary McNeil Scott outraged Boston society, leading his dismissal from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston in which William Bigelow was a director after his father's death. Fenollosa's lack of fidelity to Lizzy was his great weakness, but it does not diminish him and his legacy. We should not lose sight of his immense contribution to revive Japanese Art achieved through deep insight into the nature of fine art.
When he returned to Japan however, Fenollosa who had embraced Japanese culture realized that Japanese noble and elegant character, faithful and hardy mind were facing extinction because of modernization of the country. From 1855 to 1890, Japan evolved at a faster pace than Britain, France, or the United States ever did. The Meiji government often used specific slogans as “ Fukoku Kyohei”( enriching the country, strengthening the military) and “ Shokusan Kogyo”( encouragement of new industry) in order to achieve its goal. Fenollosa sighed in dismay at the Japanese society poisoned by greed for money and greed for success in life.
Once, Bigelow wrote to Edward Morse, “ The Japanese people we encountered will be disappearing soon. We will be only ones who witnessed them.” Bigelow wanted Morse to publish what he recorded, otherwise they would be gone and nobody would remember them. In reply to Bigelow's request Morse after a while published “ Japan Day by Day” in 1917. In this book, Morse described as follows;
“A foreigner, after remaining a few months in Japan, slowly begins to realize that, whereas he thought he could teach the Japanese everything, he finds, to his amazement and chagrin, that those virtue of attributes which, under the name of humanity are the burden of our moral teaching at home, Japanese seem to be born with.”
On the other hand, Jigoro Kano after graduation from Tokyo University in 1882, was employed as a lecturer at Gakushuin(the School for the Sons of Noblemen, established under the auspices of the Peer's Hall) with monthly salary of 80 yen. As stated above, the starting salary of policeman was 6 yen, and that of elementary school teacher was 5 yen at that time in Tokyo.
At the same time, Kano aged at 23, established Kodokan(講道館) in some rented rooms belonging to the Eishoji Temple in downtown Ueno with only nine disciples to learn Judo along with Kano-juku, and opened Kobun-gakuin(弘文学院）English School.
Several years after graduation from Tokyo University, regretting spare time, Kano carried out these four activities with hardy and go-ahead mind; At the Gakushuin he was promoted to the vice principal and a professor at the age of 27. As stated in the chapter 2 of this column, Kano as the master of Kodokan trained and refined Tsunejiro Tomita, Shiro Saigo, Yoshitsugu Yamashita and other disciples for the position.
Moreover, because Kodokan was enrollment fee free of charge, a nonprofit organization of the tuition free of charge for twelve years until 1894, Kano, often in midnight, undertook translation as a side business to make money for administrating Kodokan.
The main curriculum in Kobun-gakuin English School which was closed in 1889 before Kano's one year inspection trip to Europe( mainly stayed in Berlin), were English, Judo, and “the thought of John Stuart Mill” ; Kano worked harder than any other teachers he employed at this school.
Kano-juku was a private, tutoring-like supplementary school operated by Kano for the sons of his relatives and close acquaintances, putting Judo as a required subject. Students who were mostly 10 to 16 years old stayed at Kano-juku usually for two to six years.
During 38 years(from 1882 to 1919), totally 350 students were said to be educated at Kano-juku.
Students in Kano-juku must get up at 4:40 or 5:00 am according to age, and must clean the rest room first.
After cleaning, they study until breakfast at 6.00, then take rest about one hour before they go to their own schools such as the Gakushuin Primary School or the Junior High School attached to The Higher Normal School of Tokyo(present-day Junior High School attached to University of Tsukuba).
Returning from each schools, boys study until supper at 4:00 pm and required to practice Judo from 5:00 to 6:30. After Judo they study on their own and go to bed at 8:00 or 9:00 according to age. Only on Sunday, they were allowed to get up one hour later than on weekdays.
Although started with only three students in 1882, in 1898 when Kano as the Director of the Higher Normal School of Tokyo held additional post as the Director of the Common Education Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Education, total number of students at Kano-juku reached 53, most in its history.
In it's history of 38 years, most outstanding student at Kano-juku was Yotaro Sugimura, the son of diplomat Fukashi Sugimura ; Yotaro Sugimura became quite active as Vice-Director at League of Nations under the first Secretary-General James Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth.
After that, as the Ambassador to Italy he successfully changed the mind of Benito Mussolini who had ambition to hold the Olympics in Rome in 1940. As an active Ambassador to France he died in a hospital in Tokyo because of cancer at the age of 54.
Sugimura, owner of determined ability, was famous as the strongest Judo-ka in the student judo world and gave the brightest match results as the captain of the Tokyo University Judo Club.
Moreover, in August 20, 1905 (just after the victory of the Sea of Japan in Russo-Japanese War), Sugimura as a sophomore at Tokyo University, won the first 10 mile swimming race in Japanese history at the Gulf of Osaka.
After graduation from Tokyo University, entering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a diplomat, Sugimura went to France and three years later was granted the degree of Doctor of Laws at University of Lyon. Around 1923, while staying in Paris as the First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in France, Sugimura who was 250 pound in weight and 6 feet tall, aged at 39, practiced horseback riding every morning and occasionally taught Judo to the French as an excellent and strong master.
Many of these boys at Kano-juku were sons of well known people such as Duke Tokudaiji, Grand Chamberlain of the Emperor Meiji, Marquis Daigo and many other noblemen including high-ranking government officials. Kano contacted for all students impartially, and until Kano's marriage with Sumako Takezoe in 1889, they took breakfast and supper together; the conversation there was useful education opportunity.
After the dormitory life at Kano-juku, Marquis Tadashige Daigo graduating from junior high school attached to Gakushuin entered Naval Academy at Edajima in September 11, 1909. As a naval officer he got in various battleships and submarines as the captain and was promoted to vice admiral in 1942. At the end of the Pacific War, Daigo as the Commander of Sixth Fleet was arrested in Tokyo by Dutch authority for his activities in Indonesia. In 1947 he was sentenced and shot to death in Indonesia as a war criminal.
3-2 Jigoro Kano, an outstanding cosmopolitanWhile Kano kept his diary in English until later years, he had profound knowledge of Chinese classics.
He undertook to operate a Japanese School for Chinese diplomats in Tokyo in response to request by Kinmochi Saionji, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Education. In April 17, 1900 the first graduation ceremony of Chinese students dispatched by Qing Dynasty( last of imperial dynasties of China) to be diplomats in Japan was held at Kodokan. Seven graduates received a certificate from principal Kano, and the valedictorian gave an address in wonderful Japanese.
Since then, Kano, recognizing increasing foreign students from China, established Kobun-gakuin(弘文学院later宏文学院）as real school which accepts them in January 1902.
In April 1902, Lu Xan（魯迅） who became a famous writer later, entered Kobun-gakuin as one of 50 students from railway technology school in Nanjing（南京）. In 1906, 1639 students from all over China lodged and studied at Kobun-gakuin which had added four branch schools.
This Kobun-gakuin produced many heroes who played an active part in the Xinhai Revolution; Among them Huang Xing（黄興）is famous as the dauntless commander of the revolutionary army. Jackie Chan played a role of him in the movie “1911” which was released in 2011. The poetess Qiujin（秋瑾） who was gallantly beheaded by Chinese authority( Qing dynasity) at the age of 31 loved Japanese sword in her days in Tokyo.
Sun Yat-sen（孫文） who became the First President and founding father of the Republic of China had strong relationship with Japan. It could be said that the First Republic in Asia built by the Xinhai Revolution（辛亥革命） in 1911 was “made in Japan”.
Some excellent graduates of Kobun-gakuin entered the Higher Normal School of Tokyo at which Jigoro Kano served as the Director. Among them, Yang Chnguin（楊昌済） who studied 6 years in Tokyo under Kano, visited U.K. and got the degree of the Bachelor of Arts three years later. Via Germany Yang returned to his hometown Changsha（長沙） after 10 year studying abroad.
Then, at the First Normal School of Hunan（湖南第一師範学校）, Yang taught Mao Zedong（毛沢東） ethics and philosophy for five years. That is why Mao Zedong referred to Jigoro Kano in his virgin article titled “ Study of the physical education”. Mao introduced Kano as one of world three major gymnasts with Theodore Roosevelt and German doctor Augen Sandow who wrote “Strength and How to Obtain It”.
In January 1909, French Ambassador to Japan Auguste Gerard who was a close friend of Baron Pierre Coubertin visited Jigoro Kano and asked him to be on the International Olympic Committee.
Kano readily consented to Coubertan's request and took office as the committee of the I.O.C. first as an Asian. Around that time in Japan, there were no such word as sports, Kano started to organize the Japan Sports Association helped by professor Abe at Waseda University and several directors. He served as the First Chairman of the Japan Sports Association for ten years.
By encouraging sports, Kano desired to build friendly relationship with foreign countries on the one hand, and wanted to increase physical strength of Japanese on the other hand. Above all, Kano as the Director of the Higher Normal School of Tokyo for more than 23 years, desired cultivation of character of Japanese youth through sports. He dedicated his whole life to reconstruct moral and physical nature of the Japanese Youth. Even now, much is still left to be desired as Kano indicated in that we must have in view the general physical development of the whole nation rather than the creation of a selected number of good athletes.
After 25 years on the I.O.C., Kano who attended I.O.C. session held in Cairo, Egypt in 1938 at the age of 79, finally succeeded in invitation of Tokyo Olympics supposed to be held in 1940. On his way home via Seattle, he died because of pneumonia on luxurious passenger line Hikawa-maru in the Pacific Ocean in may 4, 1938. His funeral service was held according to Shinto rites at Kodokan in May 9, 1938 and 10000 people attended the funeral.
As described in the chapter 2 of this column, a man of vision, Jigoro Kano ascertained the essence of things, specifically Jujutsu by deep insight. Unlike many other Jujutsu masters of his era, shaking off the past without hesitation, Kano showed superhuman concentration toward a new direction. Above all, first in Japan, he clarified the principle not the application of the Jujutsu technique, specifically the principle of throwing technique(throws); opposite forces in equilibrium to say in physics.
As we all know by now, Joseph Schumpeter's theory centers around entrepreneurial innovation and their role as the key driver of economic growth. Schumpeter described the act of new innovations as “creative destruction”. Jigoro Kano does achieved it ; Kano developed “ the new system of the martial art which has global universality”.
Kano's teacher at Tokyo University Fenollosa argued as follows in his article “JAPANESE PLACES IN HISTORY” mentioned in the beginning of this column ;
“In this coming fusion the bravest and the keenest of us are to be tested, Aryan as well as Mongolian; and the test is whether we shall be great enough not narrow and harden our dogmas by making them conquer, but to expand and free them absorb. Away with the specter of a one-sided world! The formalisms of Europe are as hateful and absurd as Formalisms of Cathay. Let us not mistake any of the these for the vital factors which the future is to immortalize. The fusion comes in due time. Alone the East was sinking into decrepitude; alone the West was opening mines of socialistic thought which threatened explode what is peculiar and anti-Asiatic in her institutions. All European thought is on the eve of a great revolution; all eyes turn with anxiety to the twentieth century. Meanwhile, as it dawns, the arena of the ants' struggles transfers itself from the Mediterranean to the Pacific coast of Asia. ”
Now, with the player population of 9 million in more than 190 countries in the world, such words as Hajime(Start), Mate(Wait or Stop), Ippon, Waza-ari as Offside in Association Football and Knock- on in Rugby Football, are used every day all over the world.
It is not too much to declare that Kodokan Judo became the first global standard from Japan; Almost all sports including baseball, basketball, volleyball, tennis, golf, association football, rugby football, track and field, etc. were imported to Japan and introduced as foreign culture.
Besides, Kano's concepts of “ Seiryoku-Zenyo（Maximum efficient use of energy)and Jita-kyoei( Mutual prosperity for self and others) have eternal value for human-being as Olympic Charter and the Charter of the United Nations. Kano had argued these concepts in the midst of nationalism and imperialism. ( The end )
丸屋 武士（MARUYA Takeshi） （本名 木伏 龍也）
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“ JIGORO KANO AND THE KODOKAN―An Innovative Response To Modernization” Compiled by the Kano Sensei Biographic Editorial Committee, Edited and Translated by Alex Bennett
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『 日露戦争と金子堅太郎：広報外交の研究』 松村正義著、新有堂 1980年
“ AMERICAN NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY” OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS” New York 1999
“ DICTIONARY OF American Biography” Charles Scribner's Sons New York 1929
Website 『 意志力道場（Ishiryoku-Dojo http://www.ishiryoku.co.jp/ ）』内コラム（Column）『私の心の散歩道』
Photos; Monuments at Eisho-ji(永昌寺）Temple where Jigoro Kano started Kodokan Judo.
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