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Mark Jakabcsin
16th January 2001, 21:36
I have an old (1904) book titled "Jiu-Jitsu Combat Tricks" authored by H. Irving Hancock. The book doesn't contain any information about the auther, what he studied, who he studied with etc. If anyone knows anything about Mr. Hancock I would appreciate it. Thanks.

mark

Joseph Svinth
17th January 2001, 11:22
The book you have is:

Jiu-jitsu combat tricks Japanese feats of attack and defence in personal encounter / by H. Irving Hancock ; illustrated with thirty-two photographs taken from life by A.B. Phelan and others || Language:English || Type:Monograph || Microfiche:12 966-12 968 || Author(s): H. Irving ( Harrie Irving) Hancock, A.B. Phelan(editor) , || Year:1904 || Place:New York || Publisher:G.P. Putnam´s Sons

Hancock is associated with Katsukuma Higashi. See, for example, "The Complete Kano Jiu Jitsu" (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926). This was NOT judo, by the way, but Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu.

Hancock also published "Physical Training for Women by Japanese Methods" (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). From pages 4-7:

Some years ago [circa 1896-1899, is my guess] I had the pleasure of working at a jiu-jitsu school in Tokio… My instructor complimented me upon my work. Then he suddenly asked:
‘You like see what Japanese woman can do?’
I assured him that it would give me great pleasure to have such an exhibition…
She was laughing as she approached, … a supple young woman bounding with the vim of life, and graceful in every line of contour.
While I stood looking at her, the little woman halted before me, made a polite bow, and then backed away, in the manner that is common to students of jiu-jitsu when inviting combat. She was fully six inches shorter than I and at a great disadvantage in point of weight…
I bowed, and we backed off a little way, then approached each other sinuously, each looking for an opening. There was a clinch that lasted, as nearly as I could judge, about five seconds. Three seconds later I was compelled to pat the floor in token of surrender. There were five bouts in all, of which I secured the distinction of winning one…

After quitting a job as an assistant editor at Leslie’s Weekly in 1901, Irving Hancock started churning out children’s books and an occasional physical culture text. For examples of his titles, see http://www.seriesbooks.com/hancock.htm . For a textual description of this intellectual fare, see, for example, http://www.geocities.com/jjnevins/pulpsp.html :

Prescott, Dick. Dick Prescott was the creation of H. Irving Hancock and appeared what for lack of a better phrase I'm calling the Dick Prescott Cycle. The Cycle consisted of a whopping nine boys' fiction series, what surely must be some sort of record. His story began with "The High School Boys Series," in 1910, and through 1920 appeared as either a primary or secondary character in "The Grammar School Boys Series," the "High School Boys Vacation Series," "The Annapolis Series," "The West Point Series," "The Dave Darrin Series," "The Boys of the Army Series" (aka "Uncle Sam's Boys Series"), "The Conquest of the United States Series," and the "Young Engineers Series." Dick's Droogs consisted of Dick Prescott, Greg Holmes, Dave Darrin, Dan Dalzell, Harry Hazeltine and Tom Reade. Dick et al. had various adventures in grammar and high school (Gridley High), in the "Grammar School Boys Series," "High School Boys Series," and the "High School Boys Vacation Series," proving themselves against various small-time bad guys (bullies and cruel teachers) and big-time villains (crooks, kidnapers, etc). On graduating they went their separate ways. Dick and Greg entered Annapolis and fought the Germans as Naval officers in the "Annapolis Series" and the "Dave Darrin Series." Dick and his best pal Greg entered West Point in the "West Point Series" and then fought the Germans as Army officers in the "Boys of the Army Series." Dick and Greg were active on the West Front and behind enemy lines and killed, oh, lots of those brutish Germans. Then Hancock brought all six of the High School Boys together again for the "Conquest of the United States Series," which ran for four books beginning with The Invasion of the United States; or, Uncle Sam's Boys at the Capture of Boston (1916). Dick leads the other men in a courageous fight against the invading German forces; after Boston and Philadelphia are lost, Prescott and the boys slaughter the Germans in the Appalachians and then at sea.

Now, the women's book mentioned above apparently appeared around January 1904, as Hancock mentioned it in a letter to the Commandant of the US Military Academy at West Point dated 10 Feb 1904. According to an advertisement for Physical Training for Women published in the New York World, 20 Mar 1904, page 8, "Jiu-jitsu has been practiced by the Japanese for 2500 years. Jiu-Jitsu means ‘muscle making.’ Jiu-jitsu is easily learned." While that’s three lies in three sentences, it was obviously Madison Avenue’s idea of truth, as the same lies are still told today.

From 1903-1905, Hancock promoted Higashi in New York. But after George Bothner beat Higashi in April 1905, Higashi went to France, where Yukio Tani beat him even faster. For some background on these latter events, see http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_edgren1_0300.htm , http://ejmas.com/jalt/jaltart_Noble_1000.htm , and http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/articlee.htm . After that Higashi went to Berlin, where his students may have included Erich Rahn. After that, unfortunately, I lose sight of Higashi and would appreciate additional information if anyone has it. (There is some German history at http://members.chello.at/momo3/was_ist.htm -- do any of you German folks know if this is reasonably accurate?)

A book by Hancock that I have not read is this one:

Japanese physical training the system of exercise, diet, and general mode of living that has made the Mikado´s people the healthiest, strongest, and happiest men and women in the world / by H. Irving Hancock ; photographs by George J. Hare, Jr. || Language:English || Type:Monograph || Microfiche:12 963-12 965 || Author(s): H. Irving ( Harrie Irving) Hancock, George J., Jr. Hare(editor) , || Year:1904 || Place:New York || Publisher:G.P. Putnam´s Sons

There is also an extract from a book at http://judoinfo.com/rules.htm

Walker
17th January 2001, 19:30
In addition Higashi is pictured on the fronts piece of Jiu Jitsu: The Effective Japanese Mode of Self-Defense Spalding Red Cover Handbook No. 21R 1927.

The poses illustrating the text are of A. Minami and K. Koyama “well known native experts.” The costume worn is the same as that used in The Complete Kano and Combat Tricks with shoes and tights with leather knees.

Hancock is also the editor of the 1901
Collier’s Cyclopedia and Compendium of Profitable Knowledge on the Arts, Sciences, Law, Languages, Belles-Lettres, History, Health and Exercise, Money-Making Opportunities and Methods, Industries, Amusements, Music and the Social Graces, Occupations, Etc.
A skilfully compressed and invaluable repository of the knowledge needed in all the phases of every-day life
compiled for twentieth century needs


[Edited by Walker on 01-17-2001 at 01:51 PM]

samurai
17th January 2001, 20:21
Here are a few pages from H. Hancock's book "The Complete Book of Kano jiu-jitsu" published in 1926 for the first time. It was published again in the 1960s with these images removed.
http://www.homestead.com/kyusho/kano.html

I have read the book "Japanese physical training the system of exercise, diet, and general mode of living that has made the Mikado´s people the healthiest, strongest, and happiest men and women in the world" by Hancock. You can request this book through inter-library loan from any where in the world. Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana has this title on the shelf and we will lend it via ILL.
Thank You,
Jeremy Bays

Joseph Svinth
18th January 2001, 08:26
I was asked offline why I said that Kano Jiu-Jitsu was not Kodokan but probably Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu.

My reasoning:

1. The first edition of Hancock's book was published in 1905. The conference that standardized Kodokan judo took place in Kyoto in July 1906.

2. Tomita and Maeda were in New York in April 1905. Tomita told the New York World that what Higashi did was not Kodokan judo, and then had Maeda do some demonstrations of what real judo was. The reporters were suitably impressed.

3. In his preface to Arima's "Judo: Japanese Physical Culture" dated December 1904, Kano wrote: "There has till this day appeared no work on judo, not even one dealing with its outlines, the only writings so far published in this connection being some sketches of my lectures printed in the Kojkushi, an organ of the Koshikwai... [Arima's book] is a good one, considering the difficulty attendant on such a task. Especially beneficial will it be at a time like the present when no similar work exists." Note that Kano did not endorse Hancock's book, and indeed, given the time it took to ship books in those days, he could not have seen it, let alone endorsed it, prior to its publication. Thus his name was being borrowed without permission.

4. The Hancock book says the kwappo is part of the system. Arima says, "Kwappo, the art of restoring apparently dead persons to life, does not belong to judo proper." If Arima (and ostensibly Kano) believed this in 1904, then why is Kano being credited with it in the US in 1905, unless people are putting words in his mouth?

5. The techniques described by Arima are recognizably modern in name and description. Ippon Seoi-nage, tai-otoshi, kata-guruma, etc. Many of Higashi's techniques, such as groin kicks, are not so recognizable in judo.

6. According to Jan de Jong, the ranking teacher of Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu in the world today (and the only one he knows of, his teachers having died in Indonesia during or shortly after WWII), Higashi was part of the Tsutsumi system. You can ask Neil Hawkins, a student of Jan de Jong, for additional information or a lineage chart -- it was published Before Crash -- but I don't think they have much.

7. The master of the Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu *did* contribute to the Kyoto conference of July 1906. However, as Kodokan judo was not standardized until that conference, it is somewhat presumptuous to believe that Higashi knew what it was, especially inasmuch as his technical ability was clearly not much higher than shodan. (Yukio Tani beat him easily, and Tani did not make nidan until 1920.)

8. Richard Bowen has quoted Trevor Leggett as saying that Kano was not very happy with the Hancock book, which was wrong (in his opinion) but constantly reprinted with his name on the cover.

So, while there is inference here, unless someone shows me documentary proof that Tomita in April 1905 didn't know what he was talking about, it remains my professional opinion that Hancock knew that Kano was head of the most famous jujutsu school in Japan, and therefore exaggerated, as was his wont, Higashi's lineage and abilities.



[Edited by Joseph Svinth on 01-18-2001 at 02:29 AM]

Joseph Svinth
19th January 2001, 07:27
In a continuing offline conversation, it was pointed out that the relationship of Higashi to Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu might be owed to people mistaking some common names (Higashi, Tsutsumi) and as a result the relation might therefore be coincidence rather than causality.

Good point. To prove or disprove the thesis, tracking down Higashi remains vital.

Meanwhile, whatever the title of the book, I remain confident that what is shown in Complete Kano Jiu-Jitsu is not Kodokan judo.