Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/107

Rh opponent, then ju-jutsu is wrestling. But it is not Japanese wrestling. In the first place, Japanese wrestling absolutely forbids every dangerous resolution of force into components acting in opposite directions, whereas ju-jutsu puts such resolution in the forefront of its methods. In the second place, Japanese wrestling has for its object the development of strength in excess of that of an adversary, whereas ju-jutsu seeks primarily to divert an adversary's force into directions fatal to his own equilibrium. So essential is the difference between the two arts that while success in wrestling depends theoretically on preponderance of force on the side of the victor, success in ju-jutsu is promoted by preponderance of force on the side of the vanquished. A skilled wrestler of great thews fares worse than a feeble tyro at the hands of a ju-jutsu expert. The science starts from the mathematical principle that the stability of a body is destroyed so soon as the vertical line passing through its centre of gravity falls outside its base. To achieve disturbance of equilibrium in accordance with that principle, the ju-jutsu player may throw himself on the ground by way of preliminary to throwing his opponent, a sequence of proceedings that would, of course, be suicidal in wrestling. In fact, to know how to fall is as essential a part of his science as to know how to throw. Checking, disabling by blows delivered in special parts of the body, paralysing an opponent's limb by applying a "breaking