順道制勝 jundō seishō Jundo Seisho

It is judo's founding teaching, and the second half depends on the first: the win that counts is reached by the right means, in body and mind alike, and it is a victory over oneself and over difficulty before it is a victory over an opponent. This is one of the few texts in this catalogue with a named author.

His own gloss is the sentence to read: if you win, win by following the Way; if you lose, lose by following the Way; a loss in accordance with the Way is worth more than a win against it. On some of his calligraphy he added four characters, 行不害人, in acting, harm no one. The Kōdōkan renders the phrase Accordance with the Way Overcomes Winning; John Stevens, in The Way of Judo, Following the Way Produces Victory.

In Japanese order it reads 道に順って勝を制す. The Japanese phrase 順道制勝 (commonly written in English as "Jundo Seisho") is a Judo term composed of the kanji 順 (read jun) meaning "right, order", 道 (read dō) meaning "path, teaching, way" and the word 制勝 (read seishō) meaning "victory".

Kanō Jigorō's own phrase, the founding teaching of Kōdōkan judo, in print under his name from 1913 and glossed in his own words in 1922; its two halves are classical, 順道 from the Book of Han and 制勝 from Sunzi, and the four together are his.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 順道制勝.

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