History of Judo
Judo in the past has been considered many things, a self defence, a sport and some even believe it to be a form of meditation, but none of these are incorrect because Judo contains all of these plus more. The Japanese do not distinguish between work and play and they tend to translate their everyday life into their sport and leisure life.
This is what makes Judo different from the rest and why each and every individual judoka chooses Judo for their own reason, for practice, reaching their own goals and their own methods of doing the sport. Naturally as in every sport there are a set of rules to follow. These rules are there for your own safety because Judo is primarily about you, the individual.
Judo comes to us from the Kodokan in Japan. Founded in 1882 by Professor Jigaro Kano, Judo is a refinement of an ancient martial art known as Jujitsu. Professor Kano, who was the president of the university of Education in Tokyo, studied these ancient forms and integrated what he considered to be the best of their techniques into what is now the modern sport of Judo.
The first ever Judo Dojo was called 'Eisho-ji Temple' in Tokyo and had just 9 members. The members were supplied with everything and where not charged any fees. Kano worked late into every night translating texts to pay for the running of this Dojo. But the great interest in Judo occurred when the metropolitan Police board of Tokyo held a tournament between the Kodokan and the Totuka, which was one of the biggest Ju-jitsu schools in Japan. Kano’s club won 14 bouts in a row and drew the last 2.
In 1964 judo had a major step when it was introduced to the Olympic Games and now is practiced by millions of people worldwide.
When Professor Kano formed Judo, which was his idea to train healthy minds inside healthy bodies, he took techniques from Ju-jitsu to produce a system where he could use his opponent’s strength against him.
Even in Judo today all around the world we still follow Professor Kano’s concept, which was,
'Maximum Achievement with Minimum Effort’.