More than a martial art, Judo is also a way of life, one that stresses self-respect and respect for others. Despite its origin in Jujitsu, a method of hand-to-hand combat used by the samurai in ancient Japan, Judo stresses gentleness over force. It is the art using an opponent’s own movement against him, subduing him not just with strength, but also with grace and flexibility.

History of Judo

Judo is an offshoot of Jujitsu, a fighting technique used on the battlefields of ancient Japan. Unlike other techniques, Jujitsu emphasized skill over force: the goal was to know how and when to strike an opponent in order to throw him off balance. Samurai in Japan’s feudal period studied Jujitsu as part of their training, which also included swordsmanship, horsemanship, archery and etiquette. During this violent period, Jujitsu was used often on the battlefield, but during the 300 years of peace following the Japanese civil wars, heavy warfare was less frequent. Instead, Jujitsu found its greatest use in unarmed combat among common citizens, and the art was adapted for everyday life.

Judo was developed in the late 1800s by Dr. Jigoro Kano, a pacifist who started practicing Jujitsu at age 17. Kano was of slight stature, and often picked on by bullies, but he was drawn to Jujitsu more for its spiritual and intellectual components than for its self-defense aspects. He studied two of the major Jujitsu traditions, the Kito and the Tenshin-Shinyo, but wanted to expand on their principles. Kano sought an art that stressed development of body, mind and character, and he believed the techniques should be based on scientific principles. While still studying Jujitsu, Kano began developing his own techniques, with the idea of reforming the art. He borrowed from the Jujitsu traditions he had studied, incorporated his own techniques, and in 1882 founded his school, the Kodokan, at the Eishoji Temple. He called his new method Judo, or “the gentle way.”