Quotes from Patrick Lafcadio Hearn on Judo/Jujutsu

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (06/27/1850 – 09/27/1904) or Koizumi Yakumo, his name after gaining Japanese citizenship, was an author, best known for his books about Japan. He is especially well-known to the Japanese for his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories.

In 1891, on his return from Europe, Jigoro Kano (the father of Judo) was appointed principal at Kumamoto College. During his tenure there Kano asked Lafcadio Hearn to join the faculty as a lecturer in English literature. It was during this time that Lafcadio Hearn began his study of judo.

“What Western brain could have elaborated this strange teaching, -never to oppose force by force, but only direct and utilize the power of attack; to overthrow the enemy solely through his own strength, -to vanquish him solely by his own efforts? Surely none! The Western mind appears to work in straight lines; the Oriental, in wonderful curves and circles. Yet how fine a symbolism of Intelligence as a means of foiling brute force! Much more than a science of defense in this jiujitsu: it is a philosophical system; it is an economical system; it is an ethical system, (indeed, I may say that a very large part of jiujutsu training is purely moral); and it is, above all, the expression of a racial genius as yet but faintly perceived by these Powers who dream of further aggrandizement in the East.”
Lafcadio Hearn, Out of the East, 1895

“I fear I cannot explain at all, I can only suggest. Everyone knows what a 'counter' in boxing means. I cannot use it for an exact simile, because the boxer who counters opposes his whole force to the impetus of the other, while a jujutsu expert does precisely the contrary. Still, there remains this resemblance between a counter in boxing and yielding in jujutsu, that the suffering is in both cases due to the uncontrollable forward impetus of the man who receives it. I may venture then to say that in jujutsu, there is a sort of counter for every twist, wrench, pull, push or bend, only the jujutsu expert does much more than yield to them. He aids them with a wicked slight that causes the assailant to pull out his own shoulder, to fracture his own arm or, in a desperate case, even to break his own neck or back.”