KODOKAN JUDO
Kodokan Judo History
KODOKAN JUDO
Kodokan Judo History
The word "judo" is written with two Chinese characters. Firstly "ju", this means gentleness, signifying the philosophy that force should not be met with more force, but moulded and taken advantage of. "Do" simply means path, way or ethics. Therefore, put together, judo means "gentle way".
The art of judo is derived from ju-jutsu (also called taijutsu). Jujitsu was significantly more violent than judo and involved slashing, stabbing, hitting, kicking, twisting of limbs, in addition to many of the techniques of modern day judo. It was over a century ago now that Jigoro Kano, having studied jujutsu, laid down the concepts of Kodokan judo.
Modern judo is a refereed and regulated sport, with specific rules and conventions, where the aim of any contest is to safely throw or immobilise an opponant rather than cause physical harm (to obtain a symbolic death or defeat).
Jigoro Kano was born in 1860 in Japan during the Meiji era. When Kano began his study of jujutsu, his masters were stuggling to earn a living from their teaching, this wasn't helped by the reform during the Meiji caused by the West, as everything Eastern was considered naive and old fashioned in comparison. This lead to the demise of the samurai warrior class, culminating, in 1873, with a decree that the samurai were forbidden to wear their cherished swords in public. Many became policemen, able to wear their swords on duty, others formed resistance groups, however, all rebellion was eventually suppressed and the teaching/passing on of the martial arts suffered as a result. Despite these problems, Jigoro Kano, by the age of 23, understood the principles of Jujutsu well enough that he felt he was able to rent a small room in the Eishoji temple and in 1882 opened the first kodokan (literally: the school for studying the way) for the study of Kano judo. The new art of judo was initially shunned by some machi dojos (backstreet gymnasiums), so many judo dojos were upturned. For the sake of honour, a challenge match was arranged, Sakujiro Yokohama represented the Kodokan as he was the outstanding player in the day, and invariably Kano judo was triumphant proving that judo was superior. Jigoro Kano died in 1938 while his art of judo was flourishing.
After the Second World War, Japan and subsequently all things Japanese were hit pretty hard. As part of the war, all martial arts instructors were ordered to teach unarmed combat to the Japanese army and civilians. In retaliation, the "occupation forces" banned the practise of all martial arts in schools and public institutions. The ban was not lifted until 1951. Thankfully after this was lifted the Kodokan was allowed to be largely re-established unhindered.
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