The founder of Kodokan Judo, Jigoro Kano, advocates two principles as the Judo spirit for human lives, which the principle of maximum efficiency, and the principle of mutual welfare and benefit. He did intend to bring up his students to realize his two principles and expected them to make a contribution toward all the societies in the world.

However in spite of his advocate and expectation, we can easily recognize and no doubt say that human beings have been having bloody histories everywhere on earth through the centuries, and can find such clashes, even in holy scriptures. So I wonder where we could find and have the condition of the mutual welfare and benefit like Jigoro Kano advocates?  Here I should say that human beings have to face the fact of collision or clashing in our world. Then, substantially how can we understand the meaning of Jigoro Kano's principle of Mutual Welfare and Benefit as a theory for our real lives? In this philosophical point of view, I made a survey of such events as terrorism over the last 37 years and considered what a substantial understanding to the principle of Mutual Welfare and Benefit would be, and the results are as follows:

1) It seems to be impossible for human beings to avoid such events as wars and terrorism on the Earth, and which seems to be a symbolic and disjunctive proposition in so far as no one can avoid his destiny.

2) Jigoro Kano advocated the principle of Mutual Welfare and Benefit as the highest philosophy of Judo, and as a matter of fact, he succeeded in developing a lot of people who made such contribution to various groups such as politics, education and commerce, etc.

3) Co-prosperity and collision seem to be negative propositions, and the true condition of affairs would not be recognizable only by external appearance but would be substantially by constructing the application of Kano's theory with connoting both co-prosperity and collision.

4) The function of thought exists in two modes, of which one is an application of idealism and a means of leading into action.

                                           -30-

Courtesy University of Montana Daigaku Judo Dojo

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