Kano Jigoro

Kano Jigoro (1860-1938), Japanese founder of judo. Due to a weak constitution, Kano began practicing the Japanese martial art jujutsu at the age of 20. He soon incorporated his philosophy of mental and physical training with aspects of jujutsu and other martial arts to develop what he called judo (Japanese for “gentle art”). In 1882 in Shitaya, Tokyo, he founded Kodokan, his first dōjō (training center), with only nine pupils. In 1885 Kano went to Britain to popularize judo in the West. By the time of his death in 1938, judo had over 100,000 black belt practitioners.