![]() ![]() Through his experience fighting challenge matches, Maeda developed his own system, based in part on Kano's judo, but also retaining techniques that Kano had removed from randori. Furthermore, fighting for money was strictly forbidden by Kano. This was a significant change from the severely restricted randori practiced at the Kodokan. Maeda became a travelling "performer,'' (under the stage name "Count Koma") accepting challenges from all comers, and fighting with essentially no rules. Perhaps in an attempt to demonstrate judo's effectiveness, (or perhaps merely to pay his bills) he began accepting paid challenge matches. Maeda did not have much success promoting judo in the U.S. ![]() Maeda quickly became one of the Kodokan's best students, and in 1904 Kano, who wanted to promote judo internationally, chose him to be an ambassador for the sport, and sent him to the United States. At eighteen he began studying judo at the Kodokan. To this day, Tokyo police cadets learn Judo.4Īs judo and judo competitions became more popular, however, the nature of randori changed: more emphasis was placed on throws, with matches usually terminating when one opponent took the other down-thereby largely negating the need for grappling techniques. Kano's students dominated the students from other jujutsu schools. The significance and efficacy of this transformation was demonstrated dramatically in 1886, when the Tokyo police department held a competition to determine which jujutsu school should train its police officers. In order to execute a technique successfully, a student had to place his opponent into a position from which he could not escape. It turned a performance between a designated attacker and a compliant recipient of that attack into a genuine-though safe-form of combat, with no preordained winner. This innovation allowed randori to be practiced at full power. (He did, however, continued to teach these techniques as kata.) ![]() He then removed techniques that he considered dangerous, including all atemi-waza, from randori. Kano divided jujutsu into three components: throws, nage-waza grappling techniques, katame-waza and striking techniques, atemi-waza. In order to make this method of training safe, however, he removed the more dangerous techniques from randori. This method allows moves that would otherwise be deadly or debilitating to be practiced safely.īy contrast, Kano put primary emphasis on randori, or live sparring. ![]() Most Japanese forms of jujutsu (and aikido which was also developed from jujutsu) are still taught this way: techniques are presented as two-man-katas performed as drills with one student applying the hold or take down and the other student tapping or accepting the throw. At that time, most of the emphasis in jujutsu instruction was on kata: prearranged moves performed either alone or between two students. Then in 1882, at the age of twenty-two, he opened his own school, the Kodokan. Kano studied with various masters for five years. Perhaps as important as this principle itself, however, was simply the notion that jujutsu should be presented as a unified system. Kano decided that this principle was: "to make the most efficient use of mental and physical energy."3 This led my to look for an underlying principle in jujutsu."2 "When I encountered differences in the teaching of techniques, I often found myself at a loss to know which was correct. Furthermore, there were inconsistencies between the teachings of various masters. He studied with many masters, and found that each master presented jujutsu as a specific set of techniques, but that none presented jujutsu systematically. Kano, who was born in 1860, began studying jujutsu when he was seventeen years old. Some of these techniques may have gone back to the samurai, or even to Chinese monks, but much of the traditional "history" of Asian martial arts is semi-legendary, and should be treated with skepticism. The term "jiu-jitsu," (or, more properly, "jujutsu") was used in nineteenth-century Japan to describe a collection of various techniques for hand-to-hand combat.Īccording to Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, jujutsu was: ".a system of attack that involved throwing, hitting, kicking, stabbing, slashing, choking, bending and twisting limbs, pinning an opponent, and defenses against these attacks."1 ![]()
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