Black Belt and Blue Water
perhaps a majority of the nation ’ s best writers .” This not only was a “ rare quality in any man of action ,” he said , but was a “ unique quality in a President .” No one else has practiced what Harbaugh so aptly called “ virile intellectualism .” 2
As president , Roosevelt continued to wrestle and box , ultimately giving up wrestling first , and then boxing . He had received a hard blow to his left eye that severely damaged his sight . In his Autobiography , he wrote that he “ thought it better to acknowledge ” that he had become “ an elderly man ” ( although that happened before his election in 1904 , and he was only 50 when he left office in 1909 ), and would have to stop boxing . “ I then took up jiu-jitsu for a year or two ,” he wrote modestly ( T . Roosevelt 1913 43 ).
Few Americans then were even aware of the Asian martial arts , but they strongly attracted Roosevelt . An article in the old New York World on the 20 th of March 1902 described his ju-jitsu training under Professor John J . O ’ Brien of Boston , saying that O ’ Brien had been an inspector of police in Nagasaki , where he “ learned the jiu Jitsu tricks .” Actually , what O ’ Brien was teaching was a complete system , not merely “ tricks .” This source has pictures , and excerpts from some letters mentioning the art from TR to his children . In one of these he said that he had “ Professor Yamashita teach me the ‘ Jiudo ’ �as they seem now to call Jiu Jitsu ” (“ How the President is Taught Jiu Jitsu ” 1902 ).
Apparently , Yamashita did not explain that Jiu Jitsu is a more generic term , with “ Jitsu ” meaning essentially “ technique ,” while “ do ,” means “ way .” Do implies a more philosophical approach , literally a way of life . Jigoro Kano at his dojo the Kodokan in Japan had created Judo from Jiu Jitsu , and made it a sport , with strict rules , while Jiu Jitsu is a form of “ anything goes ” combat . Judo , today , in fact , is an Olympic sport , which
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