“Judo together with fencing and other martial exercises, was practiced by our old Samurai, and the spirit of the high code of honor they observed has been handed down to us through the teaching of the art.”
Dr. Jigoro Kano
Judo Founder
(1860-1938)
History
The Judo school was founded by Jigoro Kano. After mastering Jujutzu, the martial art of the Samurai, he found ways to improve it, so Kano adopted the superlative parts of all the Jujutzu schools, got rid of the precarious parts and established the new Kodokan Judo, a new martial art with the guiding principle of reaching maximum efficiency with a combination of mind, techniques and movement, rather than the use of brute strength. Kano transformed an art to kill into an art to live by. The teachings of Judo may be applied to many aspects of life, self-development, family, work, business, etc.
The creation of Judo and the proliferation of Judokas created tensions with the well established old Jujutzu school, so in 1886 the two schools faced each other in a tournament at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Academy to see which one was the best martial art.
After this event, Judo came to take the place of Jujutzu and became the most popular and practiced martial art in Japan and later in the world. Nowadays, the Tokyo Police still use Judo to fight crime.
Since the Olympic games in Tokyo in 1964, Judo became an Olympic sport. People practice Judo to excel in competition, to be in shape, to develop self-confidence, but most of all, people practice Judo just for the fun of it.