Though active, and well known in the field of martial arts (for example, in May 1879 he was part of a group that performed a martial arts demonstration for the former American president, U.S. Grant), the life of Jigoro Kano extended far beyond his creation of his art. He was an educator and spent much of adulthood in the field of education, even making a field trip to Europe in 1889 to study educational institutions. In 1909 he became the first Japanese member of the International Olympic Committee. His achievements and tireless energy were rewarded in 1922 when he was elected to the House of Peers*. Later, in 1938, on the brink of a European war, he pushed for Tokyo to be the site of the twelfth Olympic games. Kano died at sea while returning from the conference of the Olympic Committee where he had made this proposal.
Kano saw his art as providing different forms of training that included, but went beyond, the purely physical. The first type of training undertaken was in kata, the traditional method of learning an art form in Japan. The student repeats a series of pre-established techniques against a willing partner in order to perfect his technique and grasp the deeper principles of the art. The second method of development was through randori, or free practice, reminiscent of a Judo match, but done as practice with no points scored or recorded. Randori is essentially practice for tournament fighting and has today become the focus of much Judo training. That said, Kano saw both these physical training methods as being linked to the training of the mind. He particularly believed that randori taught the trainee, among other things, to search for weakness, to become earnest in their pursuit of the art, and to investigate the mind-body link in themselves and in their opponent. Kano further held, like other Japanese masters, that training in Judo would benefit an individual’s ethics. Here he meant that people would become calm, confident, happy and content. Kano was also keen to point out that Judo is an art form: the beauty of the techniques are themselves a reward. Finally, Kano stressed that the lessons learned in combat were not just for the dojo (training hall) but should be applied to the world at large, the most important of which is perhaps the admonition that we should be both humble and alert in victory.
Judo is often translated as ‘the way of gentleness’ or ‘the way of softness’, though witnessing a competition reveals it to be anything but. Rather the title describes the approach taken by a practitioner to effect his techniques. Rather than oppose force with force, the practitioner uses the strength of his opponent against him. Momentum generated by the attacker is absorbed, redirected and augmented as leverage is applied. In this manner an opponent may loose his balance while the judo ka maintains his. Kano himself saw Judo as being the ‘most efficient use of energy’.
Training today consists of exercises designed to strengthen and stretch the body, rigorous practice of break falls (which also serves as a warm up), practice of individual techniques, and finally randori. Kata tends not to be practiced nowadays.
In combat, the master of Judo seeks to close with his opponent and throw him forcefully to the ground. Follow-up techniques include pinning or strangling an opponent. While part of the original syllabus, today’s art tends not to focus on strikes to weak body points, except for the highest level practitioners.
* The Japanese Diet was made up of two houses, a House of Peers and a House of Representatives. The House of Peers was made up nobles and imperial family members appointed by the emperor. The House of Representatives on the other hand was composed of publicly elected members. Either house could call for the introduction of bills.
