A few words about Jigoro Kano.
The creator of the martial art called JUDO.
(compiled from different sources from around the web)
Jigoro Kano was born in 1860, in japan. The third son in a family of three boys and two girls, young Jigoro was physically weak in his early years. In fact, he was beaten up so often by local bullies he resolved to strengthen himself the best way he could. It was this unrelenting drive to learn how to defend himself that eventually led to his formulation of Judo. One wonders what would have happened had Jigoro Kano been a big brute of a man instead of the 5-foot, 2-inch, 90-pound weakling he was in his teens.
He was obsessed with learning in
general, perfecting himself and learning self-defense
especially. He attended the Tokyo Imperial University at
the age of 18. When he wasn't in class or studying, he would go off in
search of an osteopath because they had all received jujitsu training.
Jigoro Kano considered in his young years that ju-jitsu was the best way a
man can learn to defend himself, so he studied jujitsu intensively.
He studied so intensively, that he almost became ill, and sometimes was totally exhausted.For a few years, Jigoro Kano ate, drank and slept jujitsu, practicing night and day at the point of exhaustion. Things got so bad he was even having nightmares about the martial art, shouting jujitsu terms in his sleep and kicking out at his quilt.
The sensei saw his dedication and promise and soon made him an assistant. Jigoro instructed 20 or 30 students, starting with kata and then moving on to free fighting. By the time he was 21 years old in 1881, Kano had become a master in Tenjin-shinyo-ryu jujitsu.
Being defeated a few times by much heavier opponents than himself, Jigoro Kano set his mind to reform and reformulate the jujitsu systems he learned, because he was frustrated with the inefficiency of his art when facing a much heavier opponent. He modified a few of the techniques even from his early years in training, and modified the basis of the action taken in fight, which later became the basis of Judo.
Jigoro Kano visited many countries to make his art known, and he even visited Romania in 1929, when he layed the grounds for most of romania's martial arts history.
Jigoro Kano was unusually strict with his students, and everyone who seriously studies Judo recognises the worthiness of this. According to Jigoro Kano -and if you are of sane mind, you agree with this - it is not important to be better than someone else. It is only important to be better than we were yesterday.
Jigoro Kano was and remains in our memory as a great instructor, a great fighter, a great and mystic man !