History
The
inventor of judo was Jigoro Kano. He was born on the 28th of October 1860 in the
village of Mikage in western Japan. He was small and not strong. He studied the
ju-jutsu-method of three different schools: the Kito-Ryu, the Tenshin-Shinyo-Ryu
and the Nippo-Ryu ("Ryu" meaning school). He was searching for a new
method of self-defence. Because of his small stature, he was looking for
different techniques to defeat the stronger men. He must therefore find a way to
use their strength against them. He invented the Nippon-Den-Kodokan-Judo,
in short JUDO that literally means 'the gentle way'. In 1882 he opened his first
school and named it the Kodokan. "Kodo" meaning 'the search for truth'
and "Kan" meaning 'gathering'. He was then 22yrs old. In 1889, Jigoro
Kano left Japan and went on tour in Europe. He wanted to study the western way
of education and at the same time promote Judo. That year, judo became an
obligatory subject in schools. Yamashita, one of his best students, was sent to
America in 1903. Here he opened a judo school which very quickly became
extremely popular.President Theodore Roosevelt himself visited the school, and
became an enthusiastic student. Jigoro Kano continued to give judo lessons all
his life, though his became more and more difficult due to failing health. In
198 he travelled to Canada for a meeting of the International Olympic Committee,
who were preparing for the Tokyo games. On the 4th of May 1938, during the
return trip on the boat "Hikawa Maro", he died of pneumonia. He was
77yrs old. Jigoro's son Risei was then too young to run the school, therefore
his nephew Nango Jiro was entrusted with the task until Risei replaced him in
1946.