自他共栄 jita kyōei Mutual Benefit

自他共栄 is the good that you and everyone around you share when each of you uses your strength well. The word is together, never for others. Help one another and yield to one another, and both sides do well. The words reach past the dojo, to groups and to whole countries living side by side. Whether it is for your training partners or for the wider world is yours.

The phrase is composed of the words 自他 (read jita) meaning "oneself and others" and 共栄 (read kyōei) meaning "mutual prosperity".

Kanō Jigorō made 自他共栄 the second principle of judo in 1922, with the Kodokan Cultural Society he founded that year, as his short form of 相助相譲・自他共栄, and the society's statement of purpose printed it in 1925 as the natural result of the best use of energy, 精力善用; the four characters themselves are in print from 1906, before judo took them up.

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

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