MEET IT IN 30 SECONDS
嘉納治五郎
Kanō Jigorō (1860–1938) founded Kodokan judo and worked extensively in teacher education and sports administration. His projects linked physical training, personal development and contribution to society, while bringing Japan into the modern Olympic movement.
Born in Mikage, Kanō moved to Tokyo with his father while young. He studied Tenjin Shin’yō-ryū under Fukuda Hachinosuke and Iso Masatomo, then Kitō-ryū under Iikubo Tsunetoshi. These traditions supplied important foundations for the system of judo he developed.
Kanō established the Kodokan at Eishō-ji in Tokyo in May 1882. He selected and reorganized jūjutsu techniques within an approach to physical, technical and moral education. The institution moved and expanded repeatedly, spreading its practice through instruction and teacher training.
Kata uses prescribed techniques and cooperation, while randori allows freer practice within rules. Randori already existed in the traditions Kanō studied; he further developed its methods and organization. He identified martial training, physical education and self-cultivation as purposes of judo, extending training beyond winning a contest.
The All Japan Judo Federation’s guide explains that atemi-waza, striking techniques, are excluded from randori and competition because of their danger and are studied within prescribed kata. The distinction therefore concerns what is practised as well as how: arranged cooperation permits study of certain principles, while randori develops responses within selected techniques and rules.
Kanō’s organization of jūjutsu did not place every action into free opposition. Different methods organize different learning tasks. Kata still requires instruction and control; its prescribed form does not make it unrestricted fighting.
In 1922 Kanō founded the Kodokan Cultural Association and articulated seiryoku zen’yō and jita kyōei: effective use of mental and physical energy, and mutual welfare and benefit. He wanted lessons from training applied in everyday and social life, beyond sporting competition.
The Kodokan chronology records a women’s-section head appointed in 1923, classes beginning at Kaiunzaka in 1926, and practice in a dedicated dojo in the new building in 1934. Women’s organized instruction developed through several institutional stages during Kanō’s lifetime.
After teaching at Gakushūin, Kanō served three terms as head of the Higher Normal School, totalling twenty-three and a half years according to the University of Tsukuba. Teacher education involved not only classes but also extracurricular activity, residential life and physical education.
He encouraged swimming, distance running, tennis, football and other activities. A physical-education course was established in 1915. His educational work included organizing sports and training teachers as well as teaching judo.
From 1896 Kanō accepted students sent from Qing China. In 1899 he established a school for these students, which developed into Kōbun Gakuin. A photograph records a visiting Qing educational delegation there in 1902. This work extended his educational projects to international students.
Kanō became the first Asian IOC member in 1909. He shared the educational goal of developing mind and body through sport and introduced judo during his international travels. His Olympic work connected with the Kodokan’s aims but operated through a different institution.
The Japan Amateur Athletic Association was founded in 1911 to organize participation and selection. Mishima Yahiko and Kanakuri Shisō went to Stockholm in 1912 as Japan’s first Olympic athletes, with Kanō leading the delegation. They competed in athletics; judo was not yet an Olympic event.
The Japanese Olympic Committee’s account connects the 1911 trials with participation in 1912. Mishima Yahiko was selected as a sprinter and Kanakuri Shisō as a marathon runner. Selection did not itself pay for the journey. When Kanakuri lacked sufficient funds, Kanō organized a support group at Tokyo Higher Normal School and raised money among its staff and students.
The Stockholm entrance-march photograph and participation medal record the outcome of this organizational work. Kanō led an athletics delegation in 1912; Olympic judo followed much later, in 1964.
Tokyo was awarded the 1940 Games at the IOC’s Berlin session in 1936, following a bid in which Kanō took part. He died aboard ship returning from the Cairo session in 1938. Japan relinquished the Games that July amid war, and the Tokyo 1940 Olympics never took place.
The Kodokan continued after Kanō’s death in 1938. The postwar All-Japan championship resumed in 1948, the first World Championships were held in 1956, and Olympic judo followed at Tokyo 1964. Those later competitive developments have their own history beyond his lifetime.
The Kodokan, founded in 1882.
No. He studied and reorganized techniques and training from existing schools.
Mutual welfare and benefit.
No. Mishima and Kanakuri competed in athletics.
No. He died in 1938.
Their danger calls for prescribed cooperative study; randori and competition restrict the permitted techniques.
He organized a support group and fundraising among staff and students at Tokyo Higher Normal School.