Professor Kano Jigoro had formalized Judo as a sport that brings people together, even while grappling with opponents. On his birthday, Los Angeles-based artist Cynthia Yuan Cheng illustrated the doodle to pay tribute to the Judo progenitor.
The Google Doodle on Thursday honored Professor Kano Jigoro, who is known as the ‘Father of Judo,’ on his 161st birthday. The doodle has several slides and animations as well to showcase the Judo founder’s life and work in a series of frames to show him teaching his students how to master the art. On his birthday, Los Angeles-based artist Cynthia Yuan Cheng illustrated the doodle to pay tribute to the Judo progenitor.
WHO IS KANO JIGORO?
Professor Kano Jigoro had formalized Judo as a sport that brings people together, even while grappling with opponents. Born into an affluent family, Jigoro has an academic upbringing and, from the age of seven, studied English, Japanese calligraphy, and the Four Confucian Texts. He started boarding at an English-medium boarding school in Tokyo at the age of fourteen. In this school, he encountered bullying from his peers, which led him to seek out Jujutsu (a family of Japanese martial art and a system of close combat).
At first, Kano Jigoro trained under Fukuda Hachinosuke. After Fukuda died in 1880, Kano continued his studies under Iso Masatomo and later under Iikubo Tsunetoshi. After founding his school and dojo (a place for immersive learning and meditation), Kano established the sport of Judo by combining Jujutsu, which is a form of wrestling, with mental discipline.
 Kano studied both the Tenjin Shinyo-Ryu and Kito-Ryu styles of classical Jujutsu and eventually mastered their most profound teachings. He supplemented this training with an avid interest in other combative forms as well. Kano integrated what he considered the positive aspects of these combative forms with his ideas. He then took the conventional Jujutsu principle of “defeating strength through flexibility” and transformed it into a new code of “maximum efficient use of physical and mental energy,” which resulted in a new system that Kano believed matched the needs of modern people much better.
THE PURPOSE OF JUDO
The very essence of Judo is the principle of “maximum efficient use of energy.” Kano believes that this principle can be helpful in many aspects of life, the practical application of which he felt could contribute to much of human and social development.
The most prominent feature of Judo is its element of competition, where the main objective is to pin the opponent to the ground or force submission from the opponent by with a choke or joint lock. Various martial arts worldwide are derived from Judo, such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Krav Maga, Sambo, and ARB.
A practitioner is called a Judoka who wear traditionally wears white uniforms called judogi. Judo became an Olympic sport in the year 1964.
JUDO IN INDIA
The martial art of Judo is practiced widely in India. There is a veil of vagueness around the history of Judo in India, as most of its practice in the country is undocumented. In modern times, it was the legendary poet Rabindranath Tagore who popularized the sport in India. Hugely inspired by Jigoro Kano, Tagore invited judo coach Takagaki to demonstrate the martial art to his ashram.Â
Evidence shows that one Mr. AFS Barodawala achieved a black belt in Judo in 1930 after learning it from a Japanese duo in Mumbai. On the other hand, the official records at Kodokan (the worldwide headquarters of Judo) list Shri Deshpande as the first Indian to get a black belt in martial art in 1932. The information regarding the origin of Judo in India is, therefore, quite contradictory.
The first-ever national federation for Judo was set up in 1965. The Judo Federation of India had led the sport to new heights and popularity in the country, and the first-ever national tournament for Judo took place in the year 1965.
