Who is Jigoro Kano

Jigoro Kano was born October 28, 1860, the third son of a well-to-do merchant family in Kobe, in Hyogo Prefecture.  Jigoro Kano (The Father of Judo) made a comprehensive study of these ancient self defence forms and integrated the best of these forms into a sport, which is known as Kodokan Judo. 

Jigoro Kano had actually started his training in jujitsu at the age of 17, but his instructor, Ryuji Katagiri, felt he was too young for serious training.  Jigoro Kano met Tsunetoshi Iikubo, master of the Kito School of Jujitsu, and began training at his dojo.  In the last few years of his life Jigoro Kano concentrated on the educational and spiritual aspects of Judo until the systems reached a level of intellectual and moral education as well as an athleticactivity and method of combat.

Kano

Kano explained: "Force your opponent to make his body rigid and lose his balance, and then when he is helpless, you attack.  Kano saw Judo, then, as a way of life.  Kano replied, "now a small man can easily throw a big man, but if small men want to be classed by weight, I'm willing to give the proposition favorable consideration.

Kano's multiple efforts at organizing, developing, and spreading Judo, coupled with his work developing the Japanese educational system can only be viewed as remarkable particularly in view of his ongoing efforts to organize Japanese amateur athletics. 

Kano's father, Jirosaku Kano,was a Shinto priest, but also an important government official in charge of purchasing agents for naval and shipping supplies.  Kano's father, however, refused to permit him to study ju jitsu, believing it was uncivilized and uncultured.

Kodokan

Kodokan literally means, a school for studying the way, the meaning of the way being the concept of life itself.  The Kodokan's procedure of teaching beginners the basis of Judo, then having them engage in randori and only after they had attained a certain level of proficiency, teaching them the formal kata, came from Fukuda and a later sensei named Iikubo.

Once the Kodokan was firmly established, Kano's thoughts turned toward the spread of Judo on a nationwide basis and eventually throughout the world.  Jigoro's feelings about education are summed up in a statement he made at the Kodokan's 50th anniversary in 1934.  The Kodokan, then located at Suidobashi, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1934 at an impressive ceremony held in the presence of an imperial prince and with high-ranking members attending from all over Japan. 

In October of 1969 thousands of Judo fans watched the sixth World Judo Championships in Mexico City-vivid proof of Jigoro Kano's prophetic statement, "When I die, Kodokan Judo will not die with me because all things can be studied if these principles (best use of energy and mutual prosperity) are studied.

Techniques

The dangerous techniques of jujitsu were eliminated from the Judo contests, but retained as part of Judo's defense system. During this process, he began inventing new techniques entirely, by studying other ju jitsu styles and even Western wrestling styles.  The Tenshin-Shinyo style of jujitsu studied by Kano placed an emphasis on grappling techniques. 

He carried out detailed research on various styles of jujutsu and reformed many of the techniques in order to make them less hazardous to practitioners of contest judo, a sport of his invention.  The spectacular throwing techniques, pins, control holds, arm locks, and Judo choking techniques emphasize safety and conditioning.  Judo as a form of self-defense teaches a full range of punches, strikes, kicks, and blocking techniques.  Judo consists of throwing and grappling techniques to suit all shapes and sizes.

Kata

Jigoro instructed 20 or 30 students, starting with kata and then moving on to free fighting.  He borrowed the "katamewaza" (mat techniques) and "atemi-waza" (throwing techniques) of Kito-ryu, holding onto those techniques that conformed to scientific principles and rejecting all others. 

His idea was to have the students engage in free practice and assimilate kata naturally.  Risei Kano, President of the Kodokan and son of Jigoro Kano, stated the following in his introduction to Goshin Jutsu, Kenji Tomiki's 1958 instructional book on the Kodokan kata - Goshin Jutsu.