|
HISTORY OF JUDO
The Founder
Dr. Jigoro Kano (1860
- 1938), founder of Kodakan Judo,
was born in the sea-side town of Mikage. Not being
a large and physically powerful young man, he yearned
for physical conditioning and training that would
allow him to feel as confident of his body as he
did of his mind and spirit. At the age of 18, he
started studying the art of Jujitsu under numerous
master teachers in order to strengthen his body,
and attained an expertise in the art that was hitherto
unknown. Dr. Kano found that each of the various
Jujitsu schools had techniques of merit, but no
one school gave him compete mastery. Also, at this
time in Japan, the Jujitsu schools had a reputation
of having aggressive, thuggish students, who would
use their techniques in an antisocial way.
This led Dr. Kano to found the Kodokan Judo in 1882.
It combined a compilation of what was best of the
Jujitsu techniques, added to the techniques and
philosophy of Dr. Kano. He wanted to teach not just
a dangerous martial art, but a new system of physical
culture and mental training that would benefit each
student's whole like, and that of society as well.
The Kodokan
The first Kodokan Judo dojo was
a modest 12-mat (about 12 x 18 foot) room in Eisho
Temple, where Dr. Kano lived. There were only nine
students the first year. The year 1886 marked a
watershed in Judo's history. The Chief of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police Board was interested in choosing
a form of physical conditioning for his police officers.
He admired the tenets of the new Kodokan Judo, but
like many others, felt that its practical merits
had never been proven in combat. To settle this
matter, a tournament was held between the Kodokan
Judo and the Totsuka School of Jujitsu, the school
with the greatest martial arts reputation. Each
side sent 15 men. With the Chief of Police looking
on, Kodokan members won 13 matches, and drew two!
No Kodokan Judo member was defeated. In this decisive
fashion, Dr. Kano's new art proved itself to be
more that just theory.
Legacy
Dr. Kano felt that all people
would benefit from Judo, and therefore introduced
Judo to the world. But Judo is not only for the
competitor. It is for men, women, boys and girls;
it is for the strong and the not so strong; it is
for those that desire a sport that can be practiced
from 3 to 93. Most importantly, Kodokan Judo is
a way of life for those that embrace this sport
and the guiding principles of its founder. Judo
is now the national sport of Japan.
Back to top
OLYMPIC
JUDO - HISTORY
Developed by Dr. Jigoro
Kano in the early 1880s as a gentler alternative
to the dangerous martial arts, judo traces back
to the hand-to-hand combat of Japanese samurai warriors.
Meaning "soft way," the sport uses strict
training to employ specialized principles of movement,
balance and leverage to defeat an opponent. The
competitors, or "judokas," score points
by throwing an opponent to the mat, immobilizing
an opponent, applying arm bars or choking an opponent.
In the original version of the sport, breakdowns
by weight class were not employed. The theory was
that size didn't play a factor considering the key
principles of judo were timing and balance, not
brute strength.
However, that theory changed in 1961 when a 6-foot-6,
253-pound fighter won the world championships by
crushing three smaller opponents in consecutive
rounds. Judo today takes place in seven weight classes.
Men's judo first appeared as an Olympic sport in
the 1964 Games. And after spending the 1968 Games
off the programs, has appeared in every Olympics
since 1972.
COMPETITION
Women's judo was added to the
Olympic programme in 1992. Men and women now compete
in seven weight classes each, and 400 judoka competed
at the Sydney 2000 Games. Men's contests last five
minutes. Women's contests last four.
Judoka compete in a single-elimination tournament
after being divided into two pools by a draw. An
unusual twist is that two bronze medals are awarded.
To determine them, all judoka who lose to one of
the two pools' semi-finalists fall into a further
single-elimination bracket within the same groups.
The winner in each of those groups faces the runner-up
of the opposite group in the matches for bronze.
LIST OF EVENTS
• + 100kg (heavyweight)
Men
•- 60kg Men
• 60 - 66kg (half-lightweight)
Men
• 66 - 73kg (lightweight)
Men
• 73 - 81kg (half-middleweight)
Men
• 81 - 90kg (middleweight)
Men
• 90 - 100kg (half-heavyweight)
Men
• + 78kg (heavyweight) Women
• - 48kg (extra-lightweight)
Women
• 48 - 52kg (half-lightweight)
Women
• 52 - 57kg (lightweight)
Women
• 57 - 63kg (half-middleweight)
Women
• 63 - 70kg (middleweight)
Women
• 70 - 78kg (half-heavyweight)
Women
Back to top
KOSEN
JUDO
Kosen judo
is a form of judo adopted by the major high schools
and technical schools during the Meiji era (1868
- 1914). Today it is still practised at university
clubs in Japan. Kosen judo emphasizes newaza (ground
techniques) such as controls, joint locks and strangles
more than the most common type of judo does. Kosen
judo was most influential to Brazilian jiujitsu.
History
The roots of Kosen Judo lies
in two schools of jujutsu : The Fusen-Ryu Jujutsu
and, not surprisingly, Jigoro Kano's own ryu (school)
which was named judo , later known as Kodokan judo,
and spread worldwide.
Ancient origins
Fusen-Ryu Jujutsu was founded
by Takeda Motsuge in the early 1800's. The ryu was
based on his early jujutsu studies (even as early
as his late teens, he was considered a shihan ).
The most influential schools he had trained under
were the Nanba Ippo (from Takahashi Inobei), Takenouchi,
Sekiguchi, Yoshin, Shibukawa, and Yagyu-Ryu. The
dissolution of the samurai class was underway concurrent
with Fusen-ryu development, and it is thought that
the banning of armed combat (and hence also less
reliance on body armor) probably heavily influenced
Fusen-Ryu's emphasis on unarmed and unarmored combat
techniques. Unlike prior schools that had to contend
with strikes and grappling limited by body armor
(and to be wary of counters by knives and swords),
Fusen-Ryu was able to use a variety of do-gi (the
traditional judo or karate uniform) manipulation
techniques.
By the end of the 19th century another school of
jujutsu which had also adapted to the changing martial
environment was growing famous by beating many older,
more traditional, schools in consecutive matches.
This school was founded by Jigoro Kano, was called
Kodokan Judo, and is the source of Olympics judo
and sport judo in high schools and colleges.
Mataemon Tanabe, then the Fusen-Ryu master, challenged
the Kano school and its students and won every match.
Much to Kano's surprise, Fusen-Ryu's focus was less
on throwing techniques than on going immediately
to locks or chokes - whether applied standing up,
as part of a take-down, or applied on the ground
following a simpler form of take-down than many
elegant throws that then formed the heart of Kodokan
Judo.
Fusen-Ryu shined on the ground, where pins, chokes,
arm-locks, and leg-locks are highly effective, while
Kodokan Judo appeared to be more comfortable attacking
and defending from a standing position. Kano had
previously invited the heads of every jujutsu ryu
he encountered to contribute to the development
of Judo, and asked the same of Tanabe, persuading
him to integrate Fusen-Ryu into Kodokan Judo. With
its excellent ground work (or newaza ), Fusen-Ryu
brought a great deal to modern Judo, which now viewed
as consisting of two major skillsets, throws and
ground work, although the more traditional classification
is into throws, groundwork, chokes, and striking
(although in modern Judo almost nothing is seen
of strikes, or atemi-waza).
Early prominent Kodokan judokas, influenced by Fusen-Ryu,
include Yoshiaki Yamashita, Hirata Kanae, Tsunejiro
Tomita, Sakujiro Yokoyama and Mitsuyo Maeda . Maeda
went on to teach judo to the Gracie family, who
would later develop the martial art into Brazilian
jiu-jitsu (jiu-jitsu is an older English spelling
of jujutsu, but both are 'romanised' versions of
Japanese kanji script and rules for romanization
have changed over time). Unlike modern sport Judo
which emphasizes throws over ground work, Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu preserved, and today is famous for, its
emphasis on ground work, and probably maintains
more of a martial aspect via Vale Tudo and, today,
MMA or mixed martial arts.
The Birth of Kosen Judo
Jujutsu schools had earned a
very bad reputation in the 19th century. The art
of jujutsu was not seen as a sport, and its practitioners
were all labelled trouble-makers. This troubled
Kano as he wanted his art to be mainly taught as
a way of life and to be a fitness exercise (for
both body and mind). To this end he started promoting
the educational side of his jujutsu ryu by first
changing its name to judo. This theoretically demonstrated
that Kano's school departed from the bujutsu tradition
of warfare to a more person centered budo tradition,
where the role of the individual was the real focus.
Since Fusen-ryu matches ended in a pin or submission
instead of serious injury and it avoided difficult
throws, it was easily learned in the school setting.
Kodokan Judo had formed great newaza experts. This,
along with Kano's willingness to promote judo as
a way of life and a form of physical education,
greatly influenced the face of judo in its early
days and helped him promote it in Japanese schools.
In 1914 Kano organized all the Japan High School
Championships at Kyoto Imperial University. This
sportive style of competition was formally called
Kosen (high school).
An Expansion of Kodokan Judo
Newaza
Newaza effectivess and ease of
learning started to change the way judo matches
evolved. It was much too easy to train a bulky fighter
in newaza and have him stop the most fit opponent
from a rival school, so soon Kano saw judo becoming
a newaza only school. By 1925 so much emphasis was
on newaza, due to its success in competition, that
Kano introduced new rules limiting the amount of
time the judoka could stay on the ground. It was
stipulated that techniques had to start from tachiwaza
(standing stance). If you pulled your opponent down
more than three times he was declared the winner.
This rule continued into the 1940's but was ignored
by the Kosen schools who continued their form of
newaza competition.
The Kosen Judo is being still practiced at some
Japanese universities, particularly, at seven ex-imperial
universities of Japan. Sometimes it is called shichitei-judo.
There is an annual competition held among those
7 universities (mainly in June).
Kosen Judo Evolution
At the time of the rule change
of 1925 newaza was extremely popular and well researched,
particularly by the Kosen Judo students. Since Kosen
Judo was an inter-school team contest only, there
was the possibility to draw. It was only ippon (win
by pin, submission, or a perfect throw) or a draw.
Newaza training was very useful because it is easier
to get draws in newaza, and faster to get a beginner
trained for competition. By this time turtle positions,
double leg locks (closed-guard), half-guard and
so on were extensively researched by the Kosen masters.
Kosen judo followed its own course and continued
under the old rules even to this day in the Seven
Universities Tournament. Kano was very careful not
to obliterate Kosen judo when he introduced the
new rules. He did this for several reservations:
* There were relatively
few doing newaza-only.
* He wanted newaza specialists in judo.
* He could not convince himself that doing only
newaza was in itself bad.
* Kosen judokas did also tachiwaza despite their
emphasis in newaza.
This way the rule changes were
not enforced throughout the judo world in Japan
allowing judo to evolve both standing and onto the
ground. The new rules were devised as a mean to
emphasize tachiwaza while great care was taken not
to make newaza unpopular.
The Spirit of Kosen Judo
Kosen judo followed the spirit
of bushido. Winning was the most important aspect,
although in Bushido this means winning for the group
rather than the individual. They were the elite
of the time. They never gave up, even when pinned
or having their arms broken, and succumbed to unconsciousness
rather than call maitta. World War II changed this,
as Japan lost the war and the Kodokan was closed,
eventually to become a military academy. After many
meetings it was agreed that the Kodokan could re-open
only if it taught judo in a pure democratic manner.
Kosen Judo and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu
In 1904 Mitsuyo Maeda ,judo master,
was sent to America to spread the word of judo.
He finally arrived in Brazil by 1915 and taught
judo newaza to Carlos Gracie . Hélio Gracie
learned the techniques from watching his brother
Carlos, and adapted them to his own slim and weak
body. This way Brazilian jiu-jitsu can be regarded
as a direct descendant from judo newaza, and by
extension from Kodokan Judo as it was taught before
World War II. There is a major misconception that
techniques such as turtle positions, double leg
locks (closed-guard) and half-guard were developed
by the Gracies in Brazil , while in fact they were
extensively researched by the Kosen masters before
the 1925 change of competition rules of judo.
In recent days, due to Brazilian Jiu-jitsu prominence
in the media, a rivalry between judo and Brazilian
Jiu-jitsu started to grow. Soon this was regarded
derogatory to both sports. In Brazil, practitioners
of Jiu-Jitsu never took much attention to this rivalry,
partly because they did not recognize sport-judo
as having any influence in their art, partly because
they regarded old school judo masters as very capable
fighters (Hélio Gracie's account of Masahiko
Kimura ´s skills is just one evidence among
many).
Currently there is a big trend in Brazil toward
bringing together judo and jiu-jitsu schools. Brazilian
jiu-jitsu fighters went to judo schools to develop
their throwing techniques and judokas went to jiu-jitsu
schools to develop their newaza skills. Much credit
for this has to be given to the specialized press,
which started to write accurate articles regarding
the origins of Brazilian jiu-jitsu in judo, promoting
the aproximation of both arts.
Many scholars regard Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Kosen
Judo to be more closed related to the newaza of
Kodokan Judo before World War II, than current international
judo as it is presented by the Kodokan itself.
Bibliography
* Osaekomi by Katsuhiko
Kashiwazaki
*
History of Kosen Judo
* Kosen
Judo
* A
Kosen Judo posting
* Judo
History Archive (excellent background and hard
to find judo history information)
External links
Those are the universities which still practice
Kosen Judo:
* Osaka
Univ. Judo Club
*
Hokkaido Univ. Judo Club
* Tohoku
Univ. Judo Club
* Tokyo
Univ. Judo Club
* Nagoya
Univ. Judo Club
* Kyoto
Univ. Judo Club
* Kyushu
Univ. Judo Club
Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosen_judo
"
Back to top
JUNIOR JUDO
Zenbu Judo Club currently runs
3 junior classes per week. The ages range from 5-7
years and 8-14 years.
Judo is a great martial art and sport for juniors
as it devlopes important motor skills at their developemental
stage including spacial awareness, balance, strength
and co-ordination. On top of this the junior participants
learn the begginnings of a martial art and Olympic
sport which has it's advantages in a healthy sporting
regime, self defence and most importantly developement
of self discipline.
We are very fortunate at Zenbu Judo club by having
two Olympians involved in instructing Junior Judo.
Back to top
JUDO FOR MMA
We know that Judo reigns worldwide as a valid fight sport which produces tough and extremely talented competitors. The Olympics alone showcases athletes with an extremely capable competitive form.
With the increasing popularity of MMA or Mixed Martial Arts we are finding that Judo being well rounded for stand up and ground is extremely well suited.
The following link provides a database for Judo competitors in MMA competitions - http://www.judomma.com/
Back to top
|
