Kano Jigoro

Welcoming a Chinese education mission to Kobun Gakuin in July 1902.

Japan's involvement with the Olympic Movement began around 100 years ago with the 1909 appointment of Kano Jigoro (1860-1938) as the first Japanese member of the International Olympic Committee.
As anybody who has experienced judo knows, Kano Jigoro was the founder of Kodokan judo, which brought together various ancient forms of jujutsu and was developed for the purpose of educating young people.

Japan took part in the Olympics for the first time in Stockholm in 1912, when it joined the entrance procession (top photograph) and won its first participation medal (bottom photograph). Kano agreed to join the IOC upon hearing about the Olympic ideal from Monsieur Gerard, the French Ambassador to Japan, because it coincided perfectly with his own ideas.

At that time, Kano was the president of the Tokyo Higher Normal School (the present day Tsukuba University) and, in addition to judo, he was an avid educator in other physical education disciplines, such as swimming, long-distance running, tennis and soccer. Starting in 1896, he also enthusiastically welcomed overseas students from China, and taught them physical education, sports and judo. Tokyo Higher Normal School accepted approximately 7,000 overseas students up to 1909. Kano believed that physical education not only served to strengthen the physique, but also enhanced morality towards oneself and to others, and enabled people to stay young and live happily if such practices were continued throughout one's life.
Kano's philosophy applied to all people irrespective of age or sex, and also did not discriminate by nationality. Kano pointed to walking, long-distance running, swimming and judo as exercises that could be enjoyed by anyone. He also believed that moral values acquired through judo and other forms of physical education could be practiced in one's normal life.
Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics and President of the IOC at the time, was also keen on educational reform based on sports, so he was eager to surround himself with people like Kano.
Upon joining the IOC, Kano became actively involved in the Olympic Movement. In response to a request by the Swedish Olympic Committee, Kano made preparations for Japanese athletes to take part in the 5th Olympic Games of 1912. Kano established the Japan Amateur Sports Association (now called the Japan Sports Association) as the organization responsible for sending Japanese athletes to the Olympics and staged a qualifying event for athletes. Two athletes, Yahiko Mishima in track and Shiso Kanaguri in the marathon, were chosen to represent Japan. However, because Kanaguri, who was a student of Tokyo Higher Normal School at the time, did not have the economic means to travel to Stockholm, Kano established a support association at the school and solicited sufficient contributions to pay for Kanaguri's journey.
And so, Japanese athletes took part in the Olympic Games for the first time in Stockholm. After that, Kano rarely missed an IOC meeting or Olympic Games. After the Olympic Games were finished, Kano visited IOC member countries to observe physical education and sports, introduce judo and build closer relations with each country.

Letter of intent (7 October, 1911) concerning the foundation of the Japan Amateur Sports Association and the staging of a qualifying event for the Stockholm Olympics.


Kano devoted his all his energy as an IOC member to supporting the bid by Tokyo to host the 12th Olympic Games in 1940. Moves to bring the Olympics to Japan started in 1931 after the Tokyo Municipal Diet passed a resolution to seek the staging of the event. The specific role that Kano played in this was as follows.

Procession of IOC members at the 10th Olympic Games held in Los Angeles in 1932.
Banquet at the Ambassador Hotel for the 10th Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

• In September 1932, Kano attended the IOC Session in Los Angeles and explained Tokyo's bid for the Olympics after handing the official letter of invitation to the IOC President Count Henri de Baillet-Latour.
• In June 1933, Kano attended an IOC Session in Vienna. On the recommendation of Kano, Mr. Yotaro Sugimura (Under-Secretary-General of the League of Nations) was appointed as the third Japanese member of the IOC.
• In November 1933, Kano attended a meeting of the IOC in Vienna and reported on the organization, arenas and costs involved in staging the Olympics in Tokyo.
• In May 1934, at the IOC Session in Athens, Kano promoted the Tokyo bid by handing out Japanese sports photographs to the other IOC members. He sensed that Rome was the clear favorite. Incidentally, following the death of Seiichi Kishi, who was the second Japanese member of the IOC, Michimasa Soejima was appointed as his successor at this Session.
• In February 1935, IOC members Sugimura and Soejima attended the IOC Session in Oslo.
• In July 1936, Kano attended and voted at the IOC Session in Berlin.

At the time, Kano was in his mid-70s, but, he thought nothing of the long journeys by ship and continued to campaign vigorously for the Tokyo bid.
The level of dedication that Kano had for Tokyo's 1940 Olympic bid may be gathered from this statement of his:

"I carry a grave resolve. The Olympics should naturally come to Japan. If they don't, the reason for this must be something unjust. Since participation entails such a long distance from Japan to Europe, if we fail, there will be no need to take part, and Japan will be justified in staging an even larger international event."

Kano said these words during the IOC Session held at the end of July 1936 to determine the host city for 1940. It was a declaration that if Tokyo was not selected, it would mean the IOC was in error, and Tokyo would stage its own, separate international event. Kano went into the IOC Session with the firm conviction and confidence that the Olympics should be staged in Tokyo.

Commemorative photograph in front of the monument to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the restoration of the Olympics, following the end of the IOC Session at Olympia, Athens, on 23 June, 1934. From the left of the monument are IOC President Count de Baillet-Latour, Greek representative Mr. Bolanaki, Kano Jigoro, and the representative from the Netherlands.


What was the logic of Kano around this time? Since the Olympics, which had once been limited to the Greeks, were restarted in the modern age with the aim of spreading participation throughout the world, Kano thought the Games should not only belong to Europe and the United States but must also be staged in the Far East. He also felt that out of all the candidates, Japan was one of the most enthusiastic.
At that time, air travel was still not very advanced. In order to reach Japan from Europe, it was necessary to make the trip by boat or via the Trans-Siberian railway, requiring almost 20 days in either case. For the Europeans, the idea of sending athletes to Japan must have seemed unthinkable. Many of the IOC members at the time were opposed to the idea on the grounds that it would be too time-consuming and costly.

Banquet to welcome IOC President Count Henri de Baillet-Latour to Japan in 1936.

However, Kano utilized this same argument in reverse to push his own case. He said that since Japanese athletes had consistently participated in the Olympics since 1912 in spite of such distances, it shouldn't be such a great effort for European and American athletes to gather in Japan; rather, doing so would help transform the Olympics from a European and American event into one of a global nature. He skillfully utilized the other side's logic to reinforce his own argument. You could say he displayed the spirit of judo by using his opponent's strength against him.
In the vote conducted at the Berlin IOC Session in July 1936, Tokyo beat off the challenge of Helsinki by 36 votes to 27. Kano said the following at this session: "My 27 years of Olympic activity since becoming an IOC member have finally borne fruit. Now, the Tokyo Olympics must be an example to the world and the Olympics must use this opportunity to become a part of global culture." In an interview given to the American media, Kano said that the Tokyo Games would be smaller than the Berlin Olympics, reasoning that competing in terms of scale would have harmful effects. The idea of a compact Olympics already existed at this time.

Kano Jigoro in the International Olympic Committee.


What did Kano mean when he talked about making the Olympics into a part of global culture? He meant incorporating the spirit of martial arts formed through Kodokan judo into the Olympic Spirit.
In 1881, after graduating from the University of Tokyo's Department of Aesthetics and Morals, where he majored in political science and economics, he spent another year researching ethics in the Department of Philosophy. This was because he was deeply interested in the inward development of human beings. After graduating the following year, he founded Kodokan judo. Kano believed that judo was intrinsically connected to inner growth in the human being.
After he became involved with the Olympic Movement, Kano strived to fuse the Olympic Spirit with the spirit of martial arts. While the Olympic Spirit is an extension of Hellenistic philosophy, which seeks the harmonized development of mind and body, the spirit of martial arts, as espoused by Kano, aimed to train the mind and body so as to contribute to society. It is a way of thinking that does not contradict the Olympic ideals; rather, it aims to extend them further. Kano's outlook on martial arts could be reduced to the mottoes of "Maximum efficient use of power" and "Mutual Welfare and Benefit" (practicing in real life an approach utilizing the most effective methods for achieving goals, thereby contributing to the progress and development of society).
It may be said that Kano envisaged incorporating the martial art spirit of "Maximum efficient use of power" and "Mutual Welfare and Benefit" with Western sports culture. The 1940 Olympic Games in Tokyo would be the perfect opportunity for realizing this ideal. However, Kano passed away in May 1938, and only two months later the Japanese government decided to forfeit the Tokyo Olympics after becoming embroiled in the Sino-Japanese war.

Up-and-coming prodigies and students of Kano during the Kami-Nibancho era (around 1885). Jojiro Tomita, Shiro Saigo, Yoshiaki Yamashita, Takejiro Yuasa and others can be seen around Kano Jigoro in the center.

Kano Jigoro attending the IOC Session in Cairo.

After the war, Japan once again launched a bid to host the Olympics in Tokyo. American Avery Brundage became IOC President from 1952. He had a close friendship with Kano and had also been a supporter of the 1940 Tokyo Olympics right up until the end.
Brundage continued to lend strong support for Japan's bid to bring the Olympics to Tokyo after the war, and the decision to stage the 18th Olympic Games in Tokyo was finally taken at the IOC Session in Munich in 1959. Two years later, it was decided to introduce judo at the Tokyo Olympics. The International Judo Federation and the European Judo Federation worked tirelessly to make judo an Olympic event. There is no doubt that the network of people developed by Kano during his 29 years as an IOC member made a major contribution to realizing the Tokyo Olympiad of 1964 and having judo recognized as an Olympic sport. Having said that, rather than just making judo an Olympic discipline, it was Kano Jigoro's aim to incorporate the spirit of martial arts into the Olympic Movement.

Kano Jigoro on his way to North America following the IOC Session in Cairo.

The spirit of martial arts as envisaged by Kano was demonstrated at the 1964 Olympics by Anton Geesink of the Netherlands in the judo open-weight division. At the moment his victory was decided, Geesink waved away delighted countrymen as they attempted to come onto the mat, thereby demonstrating the emphasis on courtesy in martial arts. The Japanese audience was glad to see that the spirit of martial arts was common to judoka of all nationalities. However, with the subsequent internationalization of judo, the sport rapidly became Westernized. As a tide of professionalism attempts to engulf judo with the introduction of ranking systems and so on, the issue now is how to retain the spirit of martial arts.
In striving to bring the 1940 Olympic Games to Tokyo, Kano Jigoro worked to make the Olympic Movement into a part of global culture. As an educator and as a judoka, he stressed that the true ideal of the Olympic Movement was a fusion of the Olympic Spirit with the spirit of martial arts. Perhaps this amalgamation of Olympism and the spirit of martial arts as envisaged by Kano has yet to be fully realized.
Pierre de Coubertin touched on the 1940 Tokyo Olympics in one of his final personal writings. He wrote about the importance of combining Hellenism, which underpinned European culture, with the sophisticated culture and arts of Asia through the staging of the Games in Tokyo. De Coubertin stressed that the Olympic ideal had to evolve with the times and may have sought a beginning for this in Japanese culture. Japan has historically valued the concept of "wa" or "harmony," which seeks to create new culture by accepting foreign cultures. Bearing this background in mind, in order to make the Olympics a common element of global culture in a multicultural age, it could be Japan's mission to demonstrate a new ideal for the Olympic Movement through harmonizing Olympism with Japanese culture at a future Tokyo Olympics.

Boarding the Hikawa Maru out of Vancouver on his way back to Japan, after a courtesy call to the American IOC member who supported the Tokyo bid, following the IOC meeting in Cairo. (Kano fell sick immediately after departure.)

1860	28 October: Born as the third son of Kano Jirosaku Kireshiba in the town of Mikage (now Kobe), Hyogo Prefecture
1870	Moved to Tokyo with his father
1881	July: Guraduated from the University of Tokyo
1882	January: Employed as a teacher at Gakushuin
	February: Founded the Kano Juku
	March: Founded the Kobunkan (English school) in Minami-Jimbocho
	May: Founded the Kodokan Institute on the grounds of Eishoji Temple in Shitaya-Inaricho
	July: Graduated from the Faculty of Ethics and Aesthetics in the University of Tokyo's Department of Aesthetics and Morals
1885	April: Appointed steward and professor at Gakushuin
1886	June: Appointed professor and head teacher at Gakushuin
1891	August: Appointed principal at the Fifth Higher Secondary School
1893	January: Appointed Director of the Archives Division in the Education Minister's Secretariat
	June: Appointed principal of the First Higher Secondary School
	September: Appointed principal of the Higher Normal School
1896	April: Accepted 13 government-sponsored students from China
1897	September: Resigned as principal of the Higher Normal School
	November: Appointed principal of the Higher Normal School
1898	June: Appointed director of primary education at the Ministry of Education (until November that year)
1899	October: Established the Akaraku-shoin School in Kanda Misakicho for receiving students dispatched by the Chinese government. This relocated to Nishigokencho in Ushigome Ward and was renamed Kobun Gakuin in January 1902.
1909	July: Closed the Kobun Gakuin due to a decline in the number of students from China
	Fall: Appointed as a member of the International Olympic Committee
1911	April: Established a judo teacher training school in the Kodokan
	July: Established the Japan Sports Association and was appointed president
1912	July: Japan's first participation in the Olympic Games at the 5th Olympiad in Stockholm
1920	January: Retired as principal of Tokyo Higher Normal School
1921	March: Retired as president of the Japan Sports Association and became honorary president
1922	January: Established the Kodokan Culture Association
1924	March: Appointed honorary professor of Tokyo Higher Normal School
1936	July: Attended the IOC Session in Berlin where Tokyo succeeded in its bid to host the 12th Olympic Games (1940)
1938	March: After attending the IOC Session in Cairo, traveled to North America and fell ill with pneumonia on the NYK Line's MV Hikawa Maru out of Vancouver, passing away on 4 May. His body arrived at Yokohama Port on 6 May. He was 79 years old at the time of his death.

A tribute to Grandmaster Jigoro Kano by Prof.Dr.Dibyendu Nag.(N.D) JUDOKA BUDOKAN...!
Contact: +91.9874741567 | E_Mail: prof.nag@gmail.com | http://www.naginata.jp