Judo History and Philosophy
Jigoro Kano
Early life of the founder
The early history of judo is inseparable from its founder, Japanese polymath and educator Kano Jigoro (Kano Jigoro, 1860-1938). Kano was born into a well-to-do Japanese family. His grandfather was a self-made man: a sake brewer from Shiga prefecture in central Japan. However, Kano’s father was not the eldest son and therefore did not inherit the business. Instead, he became a Shinto priest and government official, with enough influence for his son to enter the second incoming class of Tokyo Imperial University.
Founder pursues jujutsu
Kano was a small, frail boy, who, even in his twenties, did not weigh more than a hundred pounds (45 kg), and was often picked on by bullies. He first started pursuing jujutsu, at that time a dying art, at the age of 17, but met with little success. This was in part due to difficulties finding a teacher who would take him on as a student. When he went to university to study literature at the age of 18, he continued his martial arts studies, eventually gaining a referral to Fukuda Hachinosuke (1828-1880), a master of the Tenjin Shin’yo-ryu and grandfather of Keiko Fukuda (born 1913), who is Kano’s only surviving student, and the highest-ranking female judoka in the world. Fukuda Hachinosuke is said to have emphasized technique over formal exercise, sowing the seeds of Kano’s emphasis of free practice (randori) in judo.
