Inspiration

You may think that everything that can be discovered has been discovered but that is not true.

In the old jujitsu schools which emerged during the prosperous times in Japan from the middle of the 16th century they used to hold inside the sleeve. You can get a very strong grip there and it is difficult for the opponent to break the grip.

After a hundred years somebody discovered that if, very rapidly, you put your hand around his you can break that thumb. It took a hundred years for that to be developed, but it was somebody’s inspiration. Now it is a technique.

The old days were rough, but now, of course, there’s a rule against breaking fingers in this way.

About fifteen years ago in Japan before a contest, a man went up to a referee and said, T believe this is now forbidden – you mustn’t put any fingers inside the sleeve?’

The referee replied carefully, ‘You must not hold the inside of the sleeve. You must hold the outside of the sleeve.’

But the man continued, ’Sir, I’m a plain simple man.’ (Well, the referee should have known that when people say this sort of thing they are generally up to something!) ‘What is the outside of the sleeve which I’m permitted to hold.’

The referee pointed to the outside of the end of the sleeve.

‘Ah,’ said the man. ‘So if I hold there I’m alright. I’m keeping to the rules?’

‘Yes,’ retorted the referee.

Well now, what he did was to put his thumb on the outside edge of the sleeve, and then fold the outside of the sleeve inside. The referee was a bit caught.

So now they’ve changed the rules again. Instead of saying ‘Don’t hold inside’ they say ‘Don’t hold inside the mouth of the sleeve’.

I give this example because the field is endless. One can think that everything has been researched and analysed by keen people but it isn’t so.

And it’s the same in our lives. There are many things about which we think, ‘Oh I know that there’s nothing new to come out of that.’ But it isn’t so.