Written with well-meant intentions but, as Kano himself points out, though one aims to go about development with well-meant intentions, if one does so overzealously one will become riddled with illnesses despite ones effort. Meanwhile, those that may never exercise at all come home from office work healthy despite not exerting any physical effort at all. And so Kano has written numerous passages with well-meant intentions that go against his own efforts of recommending Judo.
Kano synthesized the the throwing and grappling techniques of that available in Japan at the time into what is now recognized as ju-do: gentle way. He trained under three masters of jujutsu and then worked with 19 other masters of various schools to found Judokan. However, despite being a master of martial arts and espousing his way, he never reached a full understanding of the way.
Kano speaks of practicing judo for the sake of judo, an end in itself, but continues to peddle judo as a means to an end of effectively jumpstarting the economy, rectifying social morals, and strengthening the national character of Japan. It’s here that he grows heavy-handed. Though he was council on numerous boards of Japanese society his main expertise remains in the martial arts, not statecraft nor theology, which is what he tries to shoehorn judo as a cure-all for.
Maybe it’s his lack of skill as a writer or maybe it was a bad translation, but the way he tries to explain what can’t be explained, and to then repeatedly sell it, judo, as process to solve the problems of education, nationalism, or morality demonstrates a lack of understanding that sullies the very leadership, or what he perceives to be leadership, that he himself is trying to recommend. It’s not as if he’s unaware or it.
There is a point in the book where he talks about on of his students. A general. Who, on getting dock leave, instead of going out for a drink or relaxing, would instead spend his time practicing judo. He appends this description with the apt conclusion, that one must not practice for the sake of outward observance but instead, like the general, be the person who would want to practice for the sake of practicing. That the only reason to pursue any art is for the art itself, not economy, moralizations, or society. For the art.
Kano knows this. That’s why he said it. But he seemed unable to reconcile his physical mastery, based on the art of hardness yielding to the soft, with the very breadth of intellectual openness that he himself tries to recommend. This mismatch between the physical practice of a gentle give and take and then the constant preaching of hardset rules, expectations and moralizing displays something akin to an intellectual dishonesty. And so, when he speaks, one can hear how disordered and contradictory his thoughts are.
This book also tends to repeat itself. A lot. Could be cut down to less than 50 pages without material loss.