Etymology and Calligraphy for kanji Ju - 柔

kaisho style

柔 - pronounced 'ju'  1. Softness; gentleness; weakness

I have an interesting relationship with Japanese characters. By no means am I even remotely fluent in Japanese. Indeed, the symbols hold an air of mystery like magic images. The calligraphers I trained with in Japan believed the symbols contain 'ki' vital energy. I believe the energy from one man's mind transmits through a brush and is captured on paper until it is studied closely by the right person to receive it.

草書, sōsho - cursive

So today I gaze towards the mysterious symbol that is 柔 'ju' softness in order to gleam some of the deeper lessons it may offer into my studies of judo and jujutsu.

Diverse writing styles

 Stroke Order (click this link to see how it is written)

The character is made up of two parts, each actually its own separate stand alone symbol. The top part is a pictographic image of a halberd or spear. The bottom of the symbol is the character for tree.


On my favorite Chinese etymology site they write about the imagery in the symbol for softness柔: a tree 木 soft enough that it can be cut by a stone saw 矛 - soft



Dave Lowry writes a different version of the etymology.

"The character for spear rests atop that for tree to create the kanji for ju. The etymological implication is that the growth of the tree has the power of a spear thrust. Ju--and this is the familiar prefix of judo and jujutsu--refers to the forces of pliancy. Ju is flexible strength, gentle potency. It is tenacity of a sort that embraces malleability. It bends to endure. Ju is durably soft; it receives in order to resist."

tensho - seal style

In ancient China there was no standardization for the writing of letters. So there was quite a bit of variation. Here is what I could dig up.  Tensho style.

what does 'ju' mean?

As I continue the process of defining the art judo that I pursue, I wish to look deeper into the name itself. Judo is often translated as gentle way, of soft way. My blog sparring partner Pat Parker claimed 'soft' gave it a weak connotation. He choose 'flexible' as his defining idea to translate the idea of the mysterious 'ju'. So armed with my arsenal of dictionaries we dig deeper.



The main listing in the kodansha dictionary is 'soft'.

pronounciations - JU, NYU, yawa(raka), yawa(rakai), yawa(ra)

The main ideas associated with words constructed from this kanji are - supple and yeilding, soft, tender, plaint, softhearted, gentle, mild, gently, mildly,

Some compounds made from the character 'ju' - touch of softness, gentle breeze, soft blanket and gentle-mannered.


So it appears the dictionary definition for 'ju' indeed is soft.


C'mon Pat, man up! It is ok to wear that pink shirt and still be manly! Softness is the new tough!

From the Art of Peace

"In the art of peace we never attack. An attack is proof that one is out of control. Never run away from any kind of challenge but do not suppress or control an opponent unnaturally. Let attackers come any way they like and blend with them. Never chase after opponents. Redirect each attack and get firmly behind it."

-Morihei Ueshiba

Kata, Learning, and Preferences

The brillant bloggers Thoughful Sensei and Pat at Mokuren have been having a discussion on educational theory and the role of kata. Thoughtful Sensei is a kata man, believing kata must be practiced precisely in order to gain understanding. Pat has been talking more about clouds of waza and kata launching ground of creativity.



My first 5 years in aikido was in an organization that had a very structured kata system. The kata was very precise - angles, balance breaks and the results they are trying to achieve became predictable. The students they produce are good.



My next 3 years in Aiki were in a Daito Ryu school in Numata, Japan. There, kata work even went more to the levels of insanity. I worked the same 13 techniques in kata order for three years. Nothing else, just one kata. The students they produced were good, but were uncomfortable outside the kata structure.

When I returned to the United States there was no school in the area I was interested in joining, so I started my own group. I tried drilling them in kata the way I had learned. But when my old teacher came down for a seminar he told us that he really doesn't work the kata anymore. All he enjoys and now focuses on is balance breaks. He continues to produce good students.



Next I found a new teacher in Round Rock. He pretends to not even know the names of techniques. He views the mechanics in concepts as balance breaks, yin yang, freedom and space. He is producing good students with no concept of kata at all.


So I am now a professional educator, and the state of Texas demands I spend an ungodly amount of time studying education theory. I would like to throw my 2 cents in on the loose versus precise kata debate as a vehicle for education. As in most human endeavors the answer is yes, no, maybe and depends on the situation. Is precise kata the only way to learn aikido? No. It works for some people and clubs. It is a preference. Does working a loose, or even no kata work? Of course, but maybe not for everyone.

Fact is when it comes to education some people require a strict routine. They require strict curriculum, expectations and goals. If you find yourself promoting strict kata system as THE way to learn and transmit aiki, then likely you have an engineers mind. In the engineer's mind Aiki is a science that can be quantified and broke down into it's composite angles and ideas. This is your preference and the academy you found will reflect this methodology.

If you approach the problem of aiki and transmission from one of 1000 other paradigms, you will come up with a very different system of practice and experimentation. Work at it hard enough and likely you will be successful. Remember most of the aiki world does not use the kata system as conceived by Tomiki Sensei. Their work is just fine too.




As Lowry Sensei pointed out to me, all variation in practices comes down to PREFERENCES. How does your mind and body work together? How does your body work? How do you learn? How do you process information and chaos? How do you like to structure practices and the organizations we create? Preferences.

I myself phase through months were I become precise kata czar, and then go through long phases I cannot even remember the technique names. This thus far has been my preference. I am producing some good students and have made a thriving practice from my preference.

Every time we proclaim this is the WAY aiki should be taught and practiced, likely we are speaking from our own narrow view and forgetting people are out there doing killer work doing everything the opposite we teach and think.

Someday I might just wear a black gi and white hakama to make it clear my thinking is backwards from everyone else. That's just the way I prefer to be.

Shiai Guy

Amongst the aiki thinkers shiai, full strength and speed training, is often poo-pooed for not being constructive to aiki training.

I myself try to go up to Round Rock on Saturdays at least once a month to shiai with Chad Haas' judo class. While I agree an aiki man should not shiai, I enjoy having shiai being done to me. I myself do not have to shiai, I am concentrating hard on making balance breaks, or relaxing. More than anything I am monitoring my own emotions and not getting caught up in the win/lose mindset. It is all motion, and my partner scoring a sweet throw is as joyous as the throws I make.

I must say to my fellow aikidoka, the judo game is strange yet not so different. I think it is a wonderful way to practice ju and aiki. I often do not feel my partners are trying to find softness, but I will use their power and rigidity to aid in my studies of softness and balance breaking.

You see I merely surf the turbulent waters of shiai. I don't care if I win or lose. I am just trying to play hard and make sure no one gets hurt. It is a chance for me to test my theories on opponents that I or aikido have not conditioned.

So yes, the shiai mindset is not good for aikido, and probably not judo training. The people that have that mindset though are fun to play with!

AikiKen work at KyuRyu

Hussey Sensei came down for a visit on Sunday. We covered a huge range of topics, but we only got a few shots of some bokken discussion. Hussey is one of the best kuzushi (balance break or structure crumbling) artists I have gotten the joy to play with.

We both agree that Aiki Buki,aikido weapons training, should always incorporate some element of balance breaking and structure crumbling. Some of his freestyle teaching here feels like more quality aikiken work than anything in the Koryu Dai San kata, which is really just elementary sword work.

Notice how every touch he affects my posture. Neat stuff. I never go easy on Sensei, and it makes his techniques even better. He really does control me that much. If I speed up I just hit the ground harder, so I tend to keep an even slow speed. Most of the time when he works with me I just feel stuck and unable to move quickly.

Tsunako Miyake a cultural treasure?

The blogger and martial arts teacher 'Thoughtful Sensei' wrote about one of his teachers

"The Sensei I learned Kodokan Goshin Jutsu from was one of Tomiki's most senior players. She is still alive today and from what I understand is considered a National Cultural Treasure in the Martial Arts with streets in Tokyo named after her."

He likely was referring to Tsunako Miyake. I have heard wonderful things about this teacher my entire martial arts career. I decided to do a little fact checking and see if I could verify the rumor's Thoughtful Sensei heard that Miyake Sensei was a national treasure. I think the idea of a national treasure in the Tomiki line would be a great feather in our collective hat.

I sent the information to my old budo buddy Jeremy. He is still living in Japan, and has a Japanese wife to help with the tricky Japanese.




Dear Eric,

Kumiko and I found a 三宅綱子 who is from Hokkaido, graduated from Nihon Taiiku Daigaku（日体大）PE college and spent some time as a PE teacher. She's known for massage and shiatsu, has 5-dan in judo, 6-dan in aikido, 7-dan in jodo, tai chi chuan instructor. She's been doing something called ［健康武道」or "Health Budo" lately.

Link




An Amazon link introducing the author talks about how she was doing
martial arts for a long time, starting with judo at age 16, but
lately quit to devote time to shiatsu and related stuff. Her book is
「わが家でできる健康指圧」"Shiatsu for health that you can do at home."

Link



She teaches shiatsu at the Asahi Culture Center in Yokohama. At
least, I'm assuming it's probably the same woman, given the name and class subject.

Link



She is almost certainly NOT a Living National Treasure. If you type
人間国宝（にんげんこくほう）and her name into a Google
search, you get no hits. Lots of hits for different people named
Miyake in noh and kabuki, but nothing for martial arts, and none for
her full name.

In addition, for the official National Treasure list, there are only
really two categories for people: performing arts, and craftsmen.
They're all pretty well documented, and there's a complete list on
Wikipedia, as far as I know.
Link

Link



She may have other awards or recognition for contributions to
preserving cultural heritage, but she's not a Living National
Treasure. Considering that the Culture Center doesn't list any awards
suggests that she doesn't have any, though. Kumiko said that if she
did have any certificates, awards, etc. they would have listed them
along with her other qualifications on the instructor info section at
the Culture Center website.

She's also probably not well-known enough to have a street or even
building named after her, or there would be a lot more links to her
name, and they would be more mainstream. The fact that she seems to only be known in the budo world suggests that she's not very well known, in fact.

I suppose it's possible that if she's from a small village in
Hokkaido she might have a street there named after her, but if so
it's so small that we can't search for it online. We didn't even find
where in Hokkaido she's from, so we're talking about a place that's
probably about the size of Niiharu, or maybe even smaller.

Jeremy







Special thanks to Jeremy and his wife Kumiko for their research. Much appreciated. He has a passion for budo and history that matches my own.

FYI - Niiharu was a village of 3000 people I lived in from 2000-2003. Shortly after I left it was absorbed by a larger town.

Well this is the information I have uncovered. I do not think it is the final word, but perhaps this information can fuel further research from people with more resources. Needless to say, whether she got the official recognition or not, those that have been touched by this woman all seem to agree she holds a special magic and is worthy of the honor. If she is not a cultural treasure there in Japan, she sure seems to be one here in the USA.