Jigoro Kano's pursuit of “Judo as a martial art”

Abstract

Jigoro Kano (1860-1938) created Kodokan based on the Jujutsu of the Edo period. Kano formed research institute of martial towards the end of the Taisho era (early 1920s), and recommenced the study of practical Jujutsu. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate why he felt the need for advancing such research. As a hypothesis, during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) was taught as a version of Jujutsu, being aimed for the most part as a form of education for the masses. However, he felt a range of different martial arts techniques should be taught in addition to competition oriented techniques. To this purpose Kano advocated an in-depth study of other forms of combat. It is also plausible that one of the reasons for this approach was due to the increasing popularity of overseas, where it was perceived that it could be enhanced by maintaining continuity with combat effective techniques from traditional Jujutsu. First, I analyzed the timeframe for literature written by Kano in response to queries about Judo as a martial art. Questions of this nature gradually became more frequent from the Taisho and subsequent eras. There was also more contact with martial arts such as Karate and Aiki-jujutsu from around from the end of the Taisho era. Investigating of the spread of in Britain as an example of its international propagation, it became clear that modifications in thought succeeded in aiding Judo's popularity overseas. Jujutsu experts such as Yukio Tani and Gunji Koizumi were able to convert to whilst maintaining their connection to traditional Jujutsu schools. Moreover, Kano concluded that it was necessary maintain the association with Jujutsu in order to highlight the individual characteristics of compared to Western sports.