Google doodle today celebrates Kano Jigoro, the Japanese martial artist, better known as the “Father of Judo”. Today is his 161st birth anniversary. The clickable doodle has eight slides opening with a sketch of Jigoro and other slides showing the practice of judo.
Jigoro was born on this day in the Japanese town of Mikage (now part of Kobe city) in 1860 and died at the age of 77, 1938.
Kano Jigoro was 22 when he created the martial art in 1882 and named it “judo”. He inspired by traditional forms of combat to create a method of physical, intellectual and moral education.
Jigoro, who had a height of 5 feet, 2 inches and weighed 41 kg, added his own ideas to his jiu-jitsu experience to develop a complete fighting system which personified "Maximum Efficiency with Minimum Effort", according to the website of the International Judo Federation.
It was only decades later that judo became universal when it was added to the Olympic sport in the Tokyo Games in 1964. He founded The Kodokan in 1882 and became the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee.
The International Judo Federation today brings together more than 200 national federations and 5 continental unions.
Kano Jigoro had this to say about the martial art: “Judo is the way of the highest or most efficient use of both physical and mental energy. Through training in the attack and defence techniques of judo, the practitioner nurtures their physical and mental strength, and gradually embodies the essence of the Way of Judo.”
