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Anders Bjonback wrote:
I'm interested in hearing more about this.
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Well, the place I saw it was in the chapter on Kano in "Three Budo Masters", by John Stevens. The whole paragraph on p. 21 reads:
"Kano had fallen in love with jujutsu and believed that it must be preserved as a Japanese cultural treasure; however, he also believed it had to be adapted to modern times. The underlying principles of jujutsu, he believed, should be systematized as Kodokan Judo, a discipline of the mind and body that fostered wisdom and virtuous living. Comparing jujutsu to Hinayana Buddhism, a small vehicle with limited vision, he equated Kodokan Judo with Mahayana Buddhism, a big vehicle that embraced the individual and society as a whole. As for the term 'judo', the "way of softness", it had been in use for several hundred years. several old texts, for example, defined judo as "the path that follows the flow of things", which in kodokan Judo Kano interpreted as "the most efficient use of energy".
This was in 1882. In 1930, Kano visited the Kobukan Dojo and is quoted by Stevens (p. 115) as saying of Ueshiba's art, "This is my ideal budo; it is true and genuine judo". Now at that time Ueshiba was still practising Daito-ryu jujutsu, which became Ueshiba-ryu jujutsu with the founding of the Seigankai. The interviews with Rinjiro Shirata and Takako Kunigoshi in Stanley Pranin's "Modern Masters" are essential reading here, especially for the fluidity in defining what the art being practised by Morihei Ueshiba was actually called.
Best regards,