Investigation to "the Body Opened to the World" : Through the Comprehension of the Body in Jigoro KANO and in Morihei UESHIBA

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to construct a framework for consideration about the concept of the body in the educational studies. If our body have inhabited in the world before our conscious come to work, as the Phenomenological studies investigate, modern educational studies can be released from closed view of "Cogito," which claims that the subject is separated from the body and it unilaterally controls the body. The body has rich experiences, that is, the body is "opened" to the world. In order to get a perspective about the "opened body," I make a consideration into two persons of Martial Arts, Jigoro KANO and Morihei UESHIBA. They were persons who lived in modern-constructed era in 20^<th> Japan, practiced old bodily performance, JUDO or AIKIDO, and they also casted their experiences into the words. Between their activities or performances and their thoughts or words, we may be able to find a wisdom, which enables us to fix mind-body dualism, or theory-practice dualism. It seems to us that the comprehension of the body in KANO is "the body as object," and the one in UESHIBA is "the body as subject." These two views of the bodies will be two typical frameworks in investigations to the body in educational studies. Between these two poles, the body "opened to the world" or "inhabited in the world" will emerge vividly.