Kanō Jigorō

Small in body and fierce in purpose, Kanō Jigorō grew into one of Japan’s great shapers of modern physical education. Born on 10 December 1860 in Mikage, Japan, now within Kobe, he came from a sake-brewing family whose brands included Hakushika, Hakutsuru, and Kiku-Masamune. His father, Kanō Jirōsaku, did not enter that trade. He worked as a lay priest and senior clerk for a shipping line, and he believed strongly in education. That belief marked Jigorō early: he studied with neo-Confucian scholars, moved to Tokyo after his mother died when he was nine, attended private schools, and became fluent enough in English to keep an elegant diary in the language.

Kanō’s interest in martial arts began from a very concrete need. As a teenager at Ikuei Academy, a private school run by Europeans where he studied English and German, he was often bullied for his small size and intellectual nature. He stood 1.57 meters and weighed only 41 kilograms. A family friend, Nakai Baisei, showed him how jūjutsu could allow a smaller person to overcome a larger one. Kanō’s father discouraged the study at first, but seeing his son’s deep interest, allowed him to train on the condition that he strive to master it.

At Tokyo Imperial University, where he matriculated in 1877 and graduated in 1882 with a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy, Kanō searched for teachers of jūjutsu. He studied Tenjin Shin’yō-ryū with Fukuda Hachinosuke, whose method favored applied technique, free practice, and learning through repeated falls over empty ritual. Kanō also experimented widely. When he struggled against a senior student, Fukushima Kanekichi, he tried sumo techniques and then studied a “fireman’s carry” from a book on western catch wrestling. That throw became kataguruma, the “shoulder wheel,” part of the judo repertoire.

Kanō is best known as the founder of judo, one of the first Japanese martial arts to gain broad international recognition. His teaching innovations included black and white belts and the dan ranking system, both ways to make progress visible within martial-art training. The ideals attached to him were equally clear: “maximum efficiency minimal effort” and “mutual welfare and benefit.” Judo later became an official Olympic sport for men in 1964 and for women in 1992, and a Commonwealth Games sport in 1990.

His work reached far beyond the dojo. Kanō was an educator, politician, and promoter of sports in Japan, including swimming, athletics, weightlifting, and other forms of physical education. Some consider him the originator of modern strength training in Japan. He helped Gichin Funakoshi and other masters introduce and systematize karate in the country, held a high position in the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, and played a key role in bringing judo and kendo into Japanese public school programs. He served as director of primary education for the Ministry of Education from 1898 to 1901, president of Tokyo Higher Normal School from 1900 to 1920, and was the educational founder of Nada High School in Kobe.

Kanō also carried Japanese sport onto the world stage. He became the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee, serving from 1909 to 1938, officially represented Japan at most Olympic Games held between 1912 and 1936, and was a leading spokesman for Japan’s bid for the 1940 Olympic Games. He died on 4 May 1938, having received honors including the First Order of Merit, the Grand Order of the Rising Sun, and the Third Imperial Degree. His words still speak because they turn competition inward, toward character and daily practice: “It is not important to be better than someone else, but to be better than yesterday.”