順道制勝 jundō seishō Jundo Seisho
This is a philological study of the Japanese phrase 順道制勝 (jundō seishō), follow the Way and command victory. It spans the record from its first print appearance under Kanō Jigorō's own name in 1913 to his 1922 gloss on it, and examines why one of the few such phrases with a named author is also one whose meaning turns entirely on a condition its four characters only imply: that a loss in keeping with the Way is worth more than a win against it.
Abstract
順道制勝, jundō seishō, is Kanō Jigorō's own phrase, the founding teaching of Kōdōkan judo: victory comes from following the Way, and a loss in accordance with the Way is worth more than a win against it. It is in print under his name from 1913, a school motto by 1914, brushed in his own hand for dojos in three prefectures, and glossed in his own words in a 1922 article. An eight-character form he sometimes added, 順道制勝行不害人, closes with in acting, harm no one.
Overview
The sense. The founding teaching of Kōdōkan judo: victory comes from following the Way, and a loss in accordance with the Way is worth more than a win against it.
The words. Two old words, joined new. 順道 is to follow the Way, 道に順う; the big dictionary has it from an eleventh-century letter-writing manual in the plain sense of the proper route, and its Chinese ground is the Book of Han, where the good emperors 承天順道, received Heaven and followed the Way [1]. 制勝 is to command victory, 勝を制す, the strategists' word: Sunzi says the enemy may know the shape by which I won, but not the shape by which I commanded victory, 莫知吾所以制勝之形, and that an army commands victory according to the enemy as water shapes its course to the ground; the Japanese dictionary first cites it from a 1660 book of wisdom, to fight a hundred times and win a hundred times [2]. Put together the four characters say follow the Way, command victory, and the join is the teaching: the second half is conditional on the first. 嘉納's readers in 1913 heard 順 as スナホ, pliant, straight, and called it judo's first principle: 順は柔道の第一原理である。柔道は順の道である. No Chinese text has the four together; this is a Japanese sentence of the 1890s or 1900s made from a moralist's word and a strategist's [1].
The text in English. The English is recent and the house already has the two renderings that count.
The historical record
嘉納治五郎, and the first print, 1913. The phrase is the founder's, and the earliest known book says so. 宗像逸郎's Judo (1913): 嘉納師範は身心自在と說かれる。又順道制勝とも說かれる … 道に順ふて勝を制すと云ふは、身體精神共に道に順ふて目的を達するの意味である、勝を制するは單に身體的に對手に勝つの意味のみにあらずして己れに克ち困難に打ち勝つの意味である。順道制勝と云ひ身心自在と云ふは皆柔道の要訣である — Master Kanō teaches body and mind at ease and also 順道制勝; to follow the Way and command victory means to reach one's aim, in body and mind alike, by following the Way; and to command victory is not only to beat an opponent bodily but to conquer oneself and overcome difficulty; these two are the whole secret of judo [3]. The same book, later: 柔道は道に順ひて勝を制する道である, judo is the way of commanding victory by following the Way [3].
A school motto, 1914. 嘉納 was principal of the Tokyo Higher Normal School from 1893 to 1920, and chose a four-character spirit for each of its clubs. The Nara Prefectural Normal School adopted the whole set in rules effective from 1914, and printed them with the credit 嘉納東京高等師範學校長選句: 强弱時中 進退守地 攻守全局 順道制勝 正氣制先 擇善博覧 習言緝熙 浩氣習文 周約理平 [4]; its 1940 history assigns them, 劍道部 正氣制先, 柔道部 順道制勝, the kendo club upright spirit, seize the initiative, the judo club follow the Way, command victory [4]. A school judo textbook of 1920 makes it the teaching itself: 柔道に於ては、順道制勝を以て敎へとし、苟も、無謀に敵に向ひ、無益に精力を費やし、無理に相手を制せんとすることを戒め — in judo the teaching is 順道制勝, which forbids reckless attack, wasted strength and forcing the opponent [5].
In his own words, 1922. The Kōdōkan's page on the phrase quotes 嘉納 from an article of 1922 in the judo society's magazine: 勝つにしても道に順(したが)って勝ち、負けるにしても道に順(したが)って負けなければならぬ。負けても道に順(したが)って負ければ、道に背いて勝ったより価値があるのである — 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 [6].
1930 to 1939. On the wall, in his hand. The phrase was 嘉納's favorite thing to brush for a dojo, and three pre-war school histories say where his brushwork hung. A private school in Ibaraki: 又其柔道室扁額『順道制勝』の如きは嘉納治五郞氏來館の時揮灑せられしものなりと云ふ, the judo room's plaque was brushed by Mr Kanō when he visited [7]. The Hiroshima Normal School hung a collotype print of his 順道制勝 among its plaques, commissioned through its old kendo master [8]. The Fifth Higher School in Kumamoto, where 嘉納 was principal from 1891 to 1893, records in its 1939 history that 勝海舟's plaque hangs before the kendo section of the dojo, facing 柔道部の正面にある嘉納校長の「順道制勝」の額面, Principal Kanō's 順道制勝 plaque before the judo section [9]; whether that plaque dates from his principalship or from a later gift the leaf does not say. A newspaper essay of February 1931 by the writer 長田秀雄 was titled 「順道制勝」の額, the 順道制勝 plaque [10].
The plain Japanese, 1930 to 1939. A youth-association handbook of 1930 explains a throw's set-up as 道に順つて勝を制する所以, the reason one commands victory by following the Way; a 1937 company dojo's creed lists 道に順ひて勝を制するの術を學び among 武道の要諦, the essentials of the martial way, and a 1939 judo manual repeats it and adds that 道に順つて勝を制するのが最も立派な勝ち方で … 苟も卑怯未練な手段を弄することを許さぬ, winning by following the Way is the finest way to win; no cowardly or unworthy means are allowed [11]. A Niigata teacher who coached a middle school to national judo titles in the 1930s is remembered for making 嘉納治五郎の訓えである「順道制勝」 his creed, victory through the accumulation of rational training [12].
1965 and 2013. The longer form. On some of his calligraphy 嘉納 added four more characters. Kumamoto University's page on the 1965 monument to him reads: 第三代校長嘉納治五郎が揮毫した書の転刻。原本は五高記念館に展示されている。『順道制勝行不害人』（道にしたがえば勝を制し行いて人を害なわず）は自らが創始した講道館柔道の極意を表している — a carving of the calligraphy of the third principal, Kanō Jigorō, whose original is displayed in the Fifth Higher School memorial hall; 順道制勝行不害人, "follow the Way and command victory; in acting, harm no one," expresses the innermost teaching of the Kōdōkan judo he founded [13]. John Stevens (2013) calls it a second verse that Kano added on occasion, rendering it The Best Behavior Harms No One [14]. The eight characters appear in no pre-war print on the national index; the four do, nine times between 1913 and 1940.
2000 to the present, in Japan. Not in the general dictionaries, not in the standard Japanese-English dictionary, and not on the Japanese Wikipedia's pages for 嘉納, the Kōdōkan or judo, though a television drama, いだてん, had 嘉納's character carry it as his motto. A high-school judo club, the 新商高柔道会, titled its 2000 club history 順道制勝. The Kōdōkan keeps it among the Words of Kanō Shihan on its site [15].
The sense across time. One sense, held steady by its author and his readers for a century: winning is subordinate to the Way, and the Way means the rational, unforced, undamaging use of body and mind. 1913 adds that the victory is over oneself as much as an opponent; 1920 spells out what following the Way forbids; 1922, in 嘉納's words, ranks a loss on the Way above a win off it; the eight-character form adds that the winner harms no one.
What is not a source. Not a Chinese classic, though both halves are classical: 順道 is the Book of Han's, 制勝 is Sunzi's, and the four together are 嘉納's. Not the Kōdōkan's better-known pair 精力善用 · 自他共栄, which are separate maxims of his with their own histories. Not Confucius on judo: Stevens's Confucian concept describes the word 順道, not a source for the phrase.
The phrase in English
2000, Kawamura Teizō 川村禎三, Kōdōkan New Japanese-English Dictionary of Judo. jundō seisho ("Victory by following the true path") A phrase first mentioned by Jigoro … [16].
2013, John Stevens, The Way of Judo: A Portrait of Jigoro Kano and His Students. Following the Way Produces Victory, with a list his student Shiotani Muneo compiled of Kanō's framed calligraphy in dojos and schools across Japan, in which 順道制勝 came first with eighty-one examples, by far the most common calligraphy on display, and 精力善用 second with sixty-six [14].
Today. The Kōdōkan's Japanese page on the phrase gives Accordance with the Way Overcomes Winning as its English [15]; the English page it once had for the phrase no longer answers [17]. The closer gloss is Follow the Way and command victory, keeping 制勝's force, which produces and overcomes soften.
A reading
順道制勝 is 嘉納治五郎's own sentence, made from a moralist's word and a strategist's, in print under his name by 1913, chosen by him as the judo club's spirit at the Tokyo Higher Normal School, brushed by him for dojos in Ibaraki, Hiroshima and Kumamoto, and glossed by him in 1922: a loss in accordance with the Way is worth more than a win against it. It is a phrase with a named author, which few such phrases have. The Japanese order is 道に順って勝を制す, and the eight-character form adds and in acting, harm no one.
References
- 「順道」・「制勝」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉・字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/順道
- 孫子, 虛實 and 地形, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孫子兵法
- 宗像逸郎, 柔道, 1913, scan 82 (and scan 116). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/936789/1/82
- 奈良県師範学校, 1916, scan 87 (the club mottos); 奈良県師範学校五十年史, 1940, scan 311 (assigning them). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/909824/1/87 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1453118/1/311
- 松岡辰三郎, 学校柔道, 1920, scan 27. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/939760/1/27
- 嘉納治五郎, 「講道館柔道の文化的精神の発揮」, 有効の活動 8(2), 1922, quoted at the Kōdōkan Judo Institute's site. https://kdkjudo.org/順道制勝とは/
- 茨城人名辞書, 1930, scan 356. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1187062/1/356
- 広島県師範学校, 六十年回顧録, 1935, scan 298. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1035991/1/298
- 五高五十年史, 1939, scan 237. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1462179/1/237
- 長田秀雄, 「順道制勝」の額, in 文芸年鑑, 1931, scan 52. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1077758/1/52
- 東京市聯合青年団, 青年団施設要綱, 1930; 三菱重工業, 労務管理資料, 1937; 柔道教育研究会, 柔道上達法, 1939, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1130476 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1462963 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1055778
- 高橋秀山, at ja.wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/高橋秀山
- Kumamoto University, 嘉納治五郎先生の碑 (monument page), 1965. https://museum.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/facility_info/kanojigoro_monument/
- John Stevens, The Way of Judo: A Portrait of Jigoro Kano and His Students, Shambhala, 2013, the chapter on Kanō's calligraphy (Shiotani Muneo's frequency list).
- Kōdōkan Judo Institute, Words of Kanō Shihan, at kdkjd.org. https://kdkjd.org/words-of-kano-shihan/
- 川村禎三, 和英対照柔道用語小辞典 (Kōdōkan New Japanese-English Dictionary of Judo), 2000, at Internet Archive (kodokan-new-japanese-english-dictionary-of-judo-etc.).
- Kōdōkan Judo Institute, English site, kdkjudo.org/en/doctrine/word/jundo-seisho/ (404 on 7 September 2026, reached by redirect from kodokanjudoinstitute.org).