Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

A photo of the women’s section at the Kôdôkan dôjô, 1935. Kanô Jigorô is seated at the center and K. Fukuda is
kneeling in the front row, third from the left. (Courtesy of Joe Svinth)
212 Jûdô
came from Yôshin-ryû and became Kanô’s right-hand assistant. Certainly
the most dramatic instance of the latter came with the “great tournament”
of 1886, a jûjutsu competition in which Kanô’s school (represented by Yamashita
and some other highly skilled students) scored decisive victories
over prominent and long-established jûjutsu styles.
After this tournament, Kôdôkan Jûdô enjoyed increasing levels of
governmental support, and was eventually (in 1908) even made a required
subject in Japanese schools. This was especially gratifying to Kanô, whose
intended focus was on character development for the succeeding generations
rather than simple martial prowess for a selected elite.
Even before the turn of the century, jûdô had also attracted attention
overseas. Stories of the prowess of jûjutsu practitioners had circulated in
the West since the opening of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century. Now a
new form of this art had arisen, and it was not only shorn of the feudal secrecy
that tended to shield jûjutsu from Western eyes, but was being developed
and promoted by a fluent English speaker well versed in Western educational
thought. Thus, jûdô was the first Oriental martial art to be truly
accessible to the West, and it caused an immediate sensation upon reaching
foreign shores.