Judo versus Jujutsu

"Judo" (柔道, jūdō^?), written in Kanji.

Central to Kano's vision for Judo were the principles of seiryoku zen'yō (精力善用^?, maximum efficiency, minimum effort) and jita kyōei (自他共栄^?, mutual welfare and benefit). He illustrated the application of seiryoku zen'yō with the concept of jū yoku gō o seisu (柔よく剛を制す^?, gentleness controls hardness):

“

In short, resisting a more powerful opponent will result in your defeat, whilst adjusting to and evading your opponent's attack will cause him to lose his balance, his power will be reduced, and you will defeat him. This can apply whatever the relative values of power, thus making it possible for weaker opponents to beat significantly stronger ones. This is the theory of ju yoku go o seisu.[15]

”

Kano realised that seiryoku zen'yō, initially conceived as a Jujutsu concept, had a wider philosophical application. Coupled with the Confucianist-influenced jita kyōei, the wider application shaped the development of Judo from a martial art (武術, bujutsu^?) to a martial way (武道, budō^?). Kano rejected techniques that did not conform to these principles and emphasised the importance of efficiency in the execution of techniques. He was convinced that practice of Jujutsu while conforming to these ideals was a route to self-improvement and the betterment of society in general.^[16] He was, however, acutely conscious of the Japanese public's negative perception of Jujutsu:

“

At the time a few bujitsu (martial arts) experts still existed but bujitsu was almost abandoned by the nation at large. Even if I wanted to teach jujitsu most people had now stopped thinking about it. So I thought it better to teach under a different name principally because my objectives were much wider than jujitsu.[17]

”

Kano believed that "Jūjutsu" was insufficient to describe his art: although Jutsu (術^?) means "art" or "means", it implies a method consisting of a collection of physical techniques. Accordingly, he changed the second character to dō (道^?), meaning way, road or path, which implies a more philosophical context than jutsu and has a common origin with the Chinese concept of tao. Thus Kano renamed it Judo (柔道, Jūdō^?).^[18]