Mind Over Muscle: Writings from the Founder of Judo

Really good book to red if you want to deepen your knowledge of how judo came to be. Bought this for my dad for Father’s Day and he loved it. Highly recommend!

Professor Jigoro Kano was the founder of judo, an educator, Japan’s representative to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and a member of Japan’s House of Peers. This book collects a subset of his writings. The earliest dates from 1889, seven years after he founded the Kodokan and created judo. The latest dates from 1939, only one year after he passed away at sea, returning from an IOC meeting in Cairo, Egypt. The late Naoki Murata, who only recently passed away in April 2020, was a Kodokan judo 8th dan who served as the curator of the Kodokan museum. Murata sensei compiled the writings, and received translation assistance from Nancy Ross. Professor Kano’s grandson, Yukimitsu Kano, who also passed away recently in March 2020, wrote the foreword, in his capacity as the fourth president of the Kodokan.Murata sensei divided the content into three chapters. The first and shortest includes two sections on the development of judo. It is based on articles Kano wrote in 1926, his famous early paper on jujutsu from 1889, and from an article in the journal Judo from 1933.The second chapter is the longest and discusses “the spirit of judo.” It draws from two articles published in the Judo journal in 1925 and 1937. It also includes material published after Kano passed away, appearing in print in 1939. This chapter discusses Kano’s philosophies, namely “seiryoku saizen katsuyo,” or “the best use of one’s energy.” Kano shortened this to be “seiryoku zenyo,” or “maximum efficiency.” Along with “jita-kyoei,” or “mutual prosperity for self and others,” these became the cornerstones of his judo philosophy.The third chapter addresses judo training. It incorporates material from articles in Judo magazine and other sources, dating from 1918 to 1936. On pages 94-95, Kano gives an example of how training and philosophy merge:“We have now established judo’s three aspects: training for defense against attack, cultivation of the mind and body, and putting one's energy to use. We have also affirmed judo's highest goal as self-perfection for the betterment of society. For the sake of convenience, let us place the foundation, training for defense against attack, at the bottom and call it lower level judo. Let us call training and cultivation, which are byproducts of training for defense against attack, middle level judo. Study of how to put one's energy to use in society comes last, so let us call it upper-level judo. When we divide judo into these three levels, you can see that it must not be limited to training for fighting in the dojo, and even if you train your body and cultivate your mind, if you do not go a level higher, you cannot truly benefit society.”Mind Over Muscle is a must-have book for anyone practicing judo or a derivative art like Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It neatly captures professor Kano’s thoughts on a variety of topics. At 160 pages and in a fairly compact format, it is a quick read. The book shows how deeply Kano thought about his art and how practitioners of all kinds could benefit themselves and the wider world.My only concern with this book involves the way it was compiled. The references at the end show the source for the text of each chapter. However, it is impossible to know exactly what text aligns with which source. In some cases, I have read some of the original material. That means that I recognize it when it appears in Mind Over Muscle. At other times, I have no idea which source applies. Furthermore, some sources are in Japanese, and required translation. Kano wrote others in English. Therefore, scholars may prefer referring to the original sources, assuming they can read both English and Japanese.I greatly enjoyed reading Mind Over Muscle. Anyone practicing a “traditional” martial art would probably like the book too. If your style awards black belts and wears white gis, you are already benefiting from the pioneering work done by professor Kano in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is the sort of book that I plan to periodically re-read, in the spirit of reconnecting with professor Kano’s vision of martial arts.

As a Martial Arts hobbyist, this book makes an interesting read for all individuals interested in the history of Judo and the philosophies of the founder.

This is a collection of various writings and speeches by the founder of Judo, Jigaro Kano. His thoughts are interesting and worthy of study for anyone interested in martial arts in general.If one is a practitioner of Judo, than I can only recommend it further. Of course not everyone who practices Judo is interested in the history and philosophy of their chosen art. But to those that are, this book would make an excellent addition to their library.

A welcome text with a fair amount of crossover with the Kodokan Judo “Bible”

Valuable to anyone who wants to understand Kano's vision for judo.

This book is awesome for anyone who is interested in martial arts.

Always love the good memorable books, especially for the ones for martial arts. This one's a huge catch if you're into Judo at all.