EveryDojo

Chapter 1 of 7 · 4 min

Who taught Jigoro Kano?

Japan's old fighting schools were disappearing, and a young man set out to find the teachers who were left.

Read the version for teenagers and adults

Imagine Tokyo in the 1870s. The city is changing fast. Japan is busy taking up new ideas from Europe and America, and many old ways are being left behind. 1,2

A Tokyo street of the 1870s where people in kimono and people in Western suits pass each other.

For hundreds of years Japan had schools of fighting without weapons. Together they were called , and each school was a . 1,2 Now hardly anyone wanted them. Many teachers gave up. Some turned to bone setting, treating injuries, to earn a living. 1,2

An older man in a kimono gently steadying a patient's wrist in a small Japanese room.

A young man called Jigoro Kano wanted to learn jujutsu anyway. He had been born in 1860. 2 He set out to find a teacher who was still teaching.

Free practice or set forms?

Kano found a school called Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu. His first teacher there was Hachinosuke Fukuda. 1,2,5 Fukuda liked best. Randori is free practice, where two people try their techniques on each other. 1,2,5

Two young men gripping each other in free practice in a small old dojo while an older teacher watches.

Fukuda died in 1879. Kano carried on with another teacher from the same school, Masatomo Iso. 1,2,5 Iso was an expert in . 1,2,5 In judo a kata is a set form, done by two partners, always in the same order. 96 Then Iso died too, in 1881. 1,2,5

An older teacher slowly showing a set form to a young student in a small dojo.

Iso also taught striking at weak points of the body. 1,2,5 In judo today, strikes only appear inside a few kata. You will never strike anyone in randori or in a contest. 1

Two teachers, two ways to learn. One loved free practice. The other loved set forms. Keep that in mind, because Kano kept both. 1

The throwing teacher

Kano did not give up. Next he trained with Tsunetoshi Iikubo, who taught a different school, Kito-ryu. 1,2,6 Kito-ryu was strong in throwing. 1,2 Iikubo gave Kano a teaching certificate dated October 1883. 2,6,173

A strong older teacher throwing a young student over his hip in an old dojo.

What Kano kept

So what did Kano take from all three teachers? The Kodokan, the school he went on to start, says he mastered both schools and added ideas of his own. 66 Put simply, the throwing came from Kito-ryu, and the holds and strangles came from Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu. 2 The old jujutsu idea was "defeating strength through flexibility". Kano turned it into something bigger: use your body and your mind in the most efficient way you can. 66

One old Kito-ryu form is still practised today. It is called Koshiki-no-kata, and it is done as if both partners were wearing armour, like warriors long ago. 26,68 Kano kept it almost unchanged, so that judo would never forget where it came from. 68 British Judo calls kata like this "a sort of living judo museum". 96

Two judoka moving slowly and heavily through an old kata, with a faint suit of armour behind them.

When was Kano born? On 28 October 1860 by the old Japanese calendar, which is 10 December 1860 in the calendar we use today. That is why World Judo Day, which marks his birth every year, is on 28 October. 1,2,174

By 1882 Kano was in his early twenties, and he had learned from three masters. Now he was ready to start a school of his own. 1,2

Quick quiz

Three questions, just for you. Nobody is keeping score.

1. Why were jujutsu teachers hard to find in the 1870s?

2. What did Kano's first teacher, Fukuda, like best?

3. Which school was strong in throwing?

Next: What happened on 12 mats in a temple?

Written from checked sources, listed on the sources page. Pictures are drawn, with computer help, under our direction; none shows a real child. Recorded chapters and words are read by a computer voice; a word not yet recorded uses your device's own voice.