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Jigoro Kano in Japan, By Unknown (Asahi Shinbun) –

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Kan艒 Jigor艒

Kan艒 Jigor艒  was a Japanese educator, athlete, and the founder of Judo.  Judo was one of the first Japanese martial art  to gain widespread international recognition, and the first to become an official  Olympic sport. He was born  on 10th  December 1860  and died on 4th  May 1938.

His  father was a great believer in the power of education, and he provided Jigor艒, his third son, with an excellent education. The boy’s early teachers included the neo-Confucian scholar, Yamamoto Chikuun and Akita Shusetsu.

Here are the top 10 interesting facts about Kano Jigoro that you should consider knowing;

1. He  was also a pioneer of international sports 

 His international sports accomplishments include being the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)   which he served from 1909 until 1938. He was also officially representing Japan at most Olympic Games held between 1912 and 1936 and was serving as a leading spokesman for Japan’s bid for the 1940 Olympic Games.

2. He was an educator

In his professional life, Kan艒 was an educator. Important postings included serving as director of primary education for the Ministry of Education from 1898 to 1901, and as president of Tokyo Higher Normal School from 1900 until 1920. He played a key role in making judo and kendo part of the Japanese public school programs of the 1910s.

3. He was inducted as the first member of the International Judo Federation (IJF) Hall of Fame

On 14 MAY 1999 Kano was inducted as the first member of the International Judo Federation Hall of Fame. The IJF was founded in July 1951. It was originally composed of judo federations from Europe plus Argentina. Countries from four continents were affiliated over the next ten years. Today the IJF has 200 National Federations on all continents. There are over 20 million people around the globe who practice judo, according to the IJF. Since 2009, IJF has organized yearly World Championships and the World Judo Tour consisting of five Grand Prix, four Grand Slams, a master tournament, and a Continental open tournament.

4. He founded Kodokan Judo Institute

The Kodokan dojo main entrance, Tokyo, Japan, By Henrik Probell (Probe II) ,

Kan艒 oversaw the development and growth of his judo organization, the Kodokan Judo Institute. This was a remarkable effort in itself, as the Kodokan’s enrollment grew from fewer than a dozen students in 1882 to more than a thousand dan-graded members by 1911. The Kodokan Institute now offers classes for those who want to master judo. The program is authorized as a non-regular school by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Its courses include the theories and practice of judo and matters of general education. The course is divided into two parts: a general course for novices, and special courses for those who have completed the general course or its equivalent.

5. Kano and Reverend Thomas Lindsay introduced a lecture called Jiujitsu

Kan艒 demonstrated j奴jutsu for Ulysses S. Grant when the former U.S. president visited Japan in 1879.By Brady-Handy photography,

On 18 April 1888, Kan艒 and Reverend Thomas Lindsay presented a lecture called “Jiujitsu: The Old Samurai Art of Fighting without Weapons” to the Asiatic Society of Japan. This lecture took place at the British Embassy in Tokyo. Its theme was that the main principle of judo involved gaining victory by yielding strength.

6. He participated in a Jujutsu demonstration

On 5 August 1879, Kan艒 participated in a jujutsu demonstration given to former United States President Ulysses S. Grant. The demonstration took place at the home of the prominent businessman Shibusawa Eiichi. Other people involved in this demonstration included the j奴jutsu teachers Fukuda Hachinosuke and Iso Masatomo, and Kano’s training partner Godai Ryusaku. 

7. Google has celebrated kano鈥檚 161st birth anniversary with a doodle on its homepage

On 28 October 2021, Google celebrated Jigor艒’s 161st birth anniversary with a doodle on its homepage. His official honors and decorations included the First Order of Merit and Grand Order of the Rising Sun and the Third Imperial Degree. The order of the rising sun is awarded to those who have made distinguished achievements in international relations, promotion of Japanese culture, advancements in their field, development in welfare, or preservation of the environment. 

8. He opposed Japanese militarism

Kan艒 Jigor艒 after the IOC vote on 31 July 1936 in Berlin, which decided to organize the 1940 Olympics in Tokyo, By Unknown (Asahi Shinbun), Wikipedia

Although there is no known contemporary documentation to support this claim, Kano’s opposition to Japanese militarism was well-known, and many others who also opposed it were allegedly assassinated. Japanese militarism referred to the ideology in the Empire of Japan which advocates the belief that militarism should dominate the political and social life of the nation, and the belief that the strength of the military is equal to the strength of a nation.

9. Kan艒 has also been compared to the 9th Marquess of Queensberry 

Kano’s Kodokan rules for his version of jujitsu brought a new, safer kind of fighting to Japan in the same way that the Queensberry Rules, introduced some two decades earlier in 1867, did for boxing in England. Both the Marquess of Queensberry and Dr. Kano transformed their sports, making them cleaner and safer. One man took the grappling out of boxing; the other took the boxing out of grappling. One worked with a padded fist; the other with a padded floor. In the latter years of the nineteenth century, the martial histories of eastern and western civilization had reached a point at which two men at opposite ends of the globe produced, within a few years of each other, the rules which were to herald unarmed combat鈥檚 age of enlightenment.

10. He was an idealist

Jigoro Kano in Japan, By Unknown (Asahi Shinbun) –

Being an idealist, Kan艒 had broad aims for judo, which he saw as something that simultaneously encompassed self-defense, physical culture, and moral behavior. He, therefore, categorized Judo into three parts, rental-ho, shobu-ho, and shushing-ho. Hentai-ho refers to Judo as a physical exercise, while shobu-ho is Judo as a martial art. Shushan-ho is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue as well as the study and application of the principles of Judo in our daily lives.