Kano Jigoro Founds Judo

In 1882, Kanō Jigorō, a young educator in Tokyo, founded the Kōdōkan, a school devoted to a new system of unarmed combat and physical education that he called judo. By reorganizing the techniques of older jujutsu schools around safer training methods and a broader educational purpose, Kanō created a discipline that would become one of the world's most widely practiced martial arts and, in 1964, an Olympic sport.

Jujutsu had developed over centuries among Japan's warrior class as a set of methods for grappling, throwing, striking, and joint locking, often as part of a larger curriculum that included weapons. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan's social order was upended. The samurai lost their privileged status, and Western ideas and institutions were adopted rapidly. Many traditional martial schools lost students and patrons, and jujutsu was often seen as outdated. Kanō, who was small in build and had been bullied as a boy, studied several jujutsu styles as a university student, including the Tenjin Shin'yō and Kitō schools, under teachers who were sometimes struggling to keep their traditions alive.

Kanō's innovation was to select and systematize what he found most effective while discarding or restricting the most dangerous elements. He emphasized randori, or free practice, in which students could train against resisting partners at full effort without serious injury. He also taught principles such as efficient use of force and mutual benefit, and he named his art judo, meaning "the way of gentleness," to signal that it was a path of self-development rather than merely a fighting technique. The Kōdōkan began very small, reportedly in a modest space at a temple in Tokyo, with only a handful of students.

The school grew after its members performed well in contests against jujutsu practitioners, a story often told in the 1880s, though details are better documented in some accounts than others. Kanō himself became a prominent figure in Japanese education, serving as a school administrator and helping to bring judo into the school system. He also played a leading role in Japan's involvement in the international Olympic movement and became the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee in 1909.

Judo spread abroad through demonstrations, travelling instructors, and clubs in Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere in the early twentieth century. It also influenced later arts, including Brazilian jiu-jitsu and modern mixed martial arts. Kanō died in 1938, but the Kōdōkan still operates in Tokyo. Judo's belt-and-rank system, competition rules, and emphasis on both sport and character development remain part of his legacy.