Kanō Jigorō

Kanō Jigorō (嘉納 治五郎; 10 December 1860 – 4 May 1938) was a Japanese judoka, educator, politician, and the founder of judo. Judo was one of the first Japanese martial arts to gain widespread international recognition, and the first to become an official Olympic sport. Pedagogical innovations attributed to Kanō include the use of black and white belts, and the introduction of dan ranking to show the relative ranking among members of a martial-art-style. Well-known mottoes attributed to Kanō include "maximum efficiency minimal effort" (精力善用, seiryoku zen'yō) and "mutual welfare and benefit" (自他共栄, jita kyōei).

In his professional life, Kanō was an educator. Important postings included serving as director of primary education for the Ministry of Education (文部省, Monbushō) from 1898 to 1901, and as president of Tokyo Higher Normal School from 1900 until 1920. He was the educational founder of Nada High School in Kobe, Japan. He played a key role in making judo and kendo part of the Japanese public school programs of the 1910s.^{[citation needed]}

Kanō was also a pioneer of international sports. Accomplishments included being the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (he served from 1909 until 1938), officially representing Japan at most Olympic Games held between 1912 and 1936, and serving as a leading spokesman for Japan's bid for the 1940 Olympic Games.^{[citation needed]}

His official honors and decorations included the First Order of Merit and Grand Order of the Rising Sun and the Third Imperial Degree. Kanō was inducted as the first member of the International Judo Federation (IJF) Hall of Fame on 14 May 1999.

Kanō Jigorō was born to a sake-brewing family in the town of Mikage, Japan (now within Higashinada-ku, Kobe). The family sake brands included "Hakushika", "Hakutsuru", and "Kiku-Masamune". However, Kanō's father Kanō Jirōsaku (née Mareshiba Jirōsaku) was an adopted son and he did not go into the family business. Instead he worked as a lay priest and as a senior clerk for a shipping line. Kanō's father was a great believer in the power of education in the modern world, and he provided Jigorō, his third son, with an excellent education. The boy's early teachers included the neo-Confucian scholars Yamamoto Chikuun and Akita Shusetsu. Kanō's mother died when the boy was nine years old, after which his father moved the family to Tokyo. The young Kanō was enrolled in private schools, and had his own English language tutor. In 1874 he was sent to a private school run by Europeans, Ikuei Academy, to improve his English and German language skills. He was fluent in English, kept his diary in that language and wrote it in a very elegant style.

At the time of his adolescence, Kanō stood 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in) but weighed only 41 kg (90 lb). He was frequently bullied at Ikuei due to this small size and his intellectual nature, to the point other students sometimes dragged him out of the school buildings to beat him up, so he wished he were stronger in order to defend himself. One day, Nakai Baisei, a friend of the family who was a member of the shōgun's guard, mentioned that jūjutsu was an excellent form of physical training, and showed Kanō a few techniques by which a smaller man might overcome a larger and stronger opponent. Seeing potential for self-defense on this, Kanō decided he wanted to learn the art, despite Nakai's insistence that such training was out of date and dangerous. By the time Kanō moved to Kaisei Academy, his bullying had died off, but his interest in jūjutsu had not. His father also discouraged him from jūjutsu, as he ignored the bullying his son had suffered, but after noting Kanō's deep interest in the art, he allowed him to train on condition Kanō would strive to master it.

Kanō matriculated at the University of Tokyo in 1877 and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy in 1882. During his time at the university, he started looking for jūjutsu teachers. He first looked for bonesetters, called seifukushi. His assumption was that doctors who knew the martial art were better teachers. His search brought him to Yagi Teinosuke, who had been a student of Emon Isomata in the Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū school of jūjutsu. Yagi, in turn, referred Kanō to Fukuda Hachinosuke, a bonesetter who taught Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū in a 10-mat room adjacent to his practice. Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū was itself a combination of two older schools: the Yōshin-ryū and Shin no Shindō-ryū.

Fukuda's training method consisted mostly of the student taking fall after fall for the teacher or senior student until he began to understand the mechanics of the technique. Fukuda stressed applied technique over ritual form. He gave beginners a short description of the technique and had them engage in free practice (randori) in order to teach through experience. It was only after the student had attained some proficiency that he taught them traditional forms (kata). This method was difficult, as there were no special mats for falling, only the standard straw mats (tatami) laid over wooden floors.