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TRANSFORM FROM ZERO TO HERO! TAKE UP JUDO! ·
For discipline and building self-condifence ORIGINS OF JUDO The Kodokan Judo of today is based on traditional jujitsu of old Japan of which the origin is lost in the mist of antiquity. The techniques of the latter, re-examined, refined, systematized and welded to an ideal, became Kodokan Judo. Professor Jigaro Kano, founder of Judo, established his own school named Kodokan in 1882, and began to teach his own exercise called Judo. (Ju-soft, Do-way or Doctrine). Professor Kano having endured every hardship, overcame many difficulties, made rapid progress, winning wide public recognition. Then it gained in dramatic fashion, undsiputed leadership in the field, when the Tokyo metropolitan polica board took an active interest. In 1886, under the auspices of the chief of metropolitan police, a grand tournament was arranged between the Kodokan school and the Jujitsu school. This was a decisive battle. Defeat would have been fatal to the Kodokan, but in that tournament, to which each school sent 15 picked men, the Kodokan won all the bouts except two, which ended in a draw. That brilliant victory established once and for all the supremacy of Kodokan Judo, not only in principle, but also in techniques. Judo is now an Olympic sport and is practiced according to the same rules everywhere all over the world. |