History of Judo
Traditionally, Judo, or to give it its full name, Kodokan Judo, is the name of a system of combat, physical training and character building devised by Jigoro Kano and founded in 1882 in Tokyo, Japan. Judo means the ‘Way of non-resistance’; it is often translated as the ‘Gentle Art’ but this is not quite correct, since being thrown or strangled is rarely gentle. JU means the opposite of ‘GO’ or ‘hard, resistant’, and implies that force is never resisted but given way to and then used upon itself.
The techniques of Judo are derived largely from Ju-jitsu, which has an ancient history. In times of peace or war the Samurai warriors of feudal Japan were required to train daily in a variety of military exercises such as horsemanship, swordsmanship and unarmed combat. The unarmed combat was known as Ju-jitsu and various masters established their own styles, methods and schools over the country. The earliest known school is the Take-no-uchi-ryu, which was established in the mid-sixteenth century.
A typical Ju-jitsu (sometimes written Ju-jitsu or Jiu-jiutsu) style might contain a variety of moves such as kicking and punching, use of small weapons such as a knife and defenses against same, throws, joint-locks, strangles and methods of tying people up. Mostly these were practiced in pre-arranged sequences, though at few schools practiced free-fighting.
As a boy, Jigoro Kano had suffered at the hands of school bullies and in his resolve to do something about this he took up Ju-jitsu. Kano started learning and mastering two styles of Ju-jitsu – the Tenjinshinyo and Kito styles which were quite widely practiced in Japan. The Kito school of Ju-jitsu specialized in throwing techniques and the Tenjinshinyo school specialized in striking techniques and fighting on the ground.
Then he carried his studies further by talking to various surviving masters of other schools and collected their traditional documents. Ju-jitsu, like many other aspects of feudal Japan, had wilted under impact of Western culture and was in danger of dying away and many of the surviving masters were keen to pass their knowledge on.
Eventually Kano put together his own system, calling it Judo to distinguish it from Ju-jitsu, and he called his school the Kodokan. Compared with Ju-jitsu, Judo placed much greater emphasis on throwing techniques, and included many new techniques devised by Kano. It had much better training methods with far profounder technical and moral principals. Kano said that Judo was not just a combat method as was Ju-jitsu but that it was a form of character and physical training.
At first Judo was like any other Ju-jitsu school but such was the caliber of its founder and the men who were attracted to his methods that it rapidly grew in size. During the early years the Ju-jitsu schools were jealous of this success and it is said that in the Kodokan one of the top men was always on hand to take on any challenges from visiting Ju-jitsu experts.
Finally the rivalry boiled up to a big public match in 1886 between the Kodokan and the representatives of various Ju-jitsu schools; the Kodokan won hands down. From then on the Kodokan went from strength to strength and the Ju-jitsu schools virtually disappeared.
Judo quickly gained a vast following in Japan and then began to develop overseas. Perhaps the earliest club to be founded outside Japan was the Budokwai in London which was founded in 1918. The height of Judo’s international recognition was 1964, when it was included as a sport in the (Tokyo) Olympics for the first time. In these Olympics the Japanese dominated, as expected, but in the unlimited weight category class the Dutch Anton Geesink beat the Japanese Akio Kaminaga in the final, showing the rising strength of Judo in the West. A short while before this the Soviet Union had entered into world Judo and quickly gained a strong position.
Kano put together a neat yet comprehensive system. The full scope of Judo is not often understood by Judoka (practitioners of Judo) who tend to think of it as Sport Judo which is only one aspect of Judo.
Modern Judo, as it is practiced all over the world, is almost entirely free-fighting Judo and it is this which has developed into the sport of Judo. Some national Judo organizations make the learning of Kata part of the requirements for promotion to higher grades, but these are not often introduced before the Black belt stage. Otherwise it is left to the individual to learn Kata if he wishes.