Page:Japanese Physical Training (Hancock).djvu/38

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10
Japanese Physical Training

subjects, the science of jiu-jitsu has been thrown open to all comers—even to foreign visitors.

It is a mistake made by many Caucasians to confound jiu-jitsu with Japanese wrestling. There is little or no resemblance between the two. The former was once the art of the aristocrat, the latter the substitute studied by the commoner. Japanese wrestlers begin their careers at the age of two or three years. The most likely looking baby boys are secured and are developed along lines of training that make them giants by the time they reach manhood. It is usual for the fully grown Japanese wrestler to attain a height of from two to four inches over six feet. In other words, he stands about a foot taller than the average of his countrymen.

When jiu-jitsu came out of the obscurity of oath-bound secrecy the wrestlers became jealous of their laurels. The wrestlers had been always looked upon with awe by their smaller fellow commoners. Some years ago a contest of the greatest interest took place in Tokio. The wrestlers brought forward their best man. The descendants of the samurai selected a man