Description
Many schools of jujutsu still prospered even after Jigoro Kano, the Founder of Judo, make his style, which was based principally on the Kito Ryu style he had learned as a young man, dominant. He achieved this by making Judo “safe” by eliminating many of the most effective combat orientated techniques, and by harnessing the power of the Japanese emergence from a Feudal Society to a modern industrialized nation.
He derived great political power from his position as Japanese representative to the Olympic movement; power he uses very skillfully to ensure the domination of Judo over the older but more effective methods.
For those looking for a deeper insight into the development of jujutsu/judo please see the 1943 movie, Sugata Sanshiro by the cinema genius Akira Kurosawa. For its action scenes you will also enjoy Aka Hige by the same director starring Toshiro Mifune as Dr. Kyojo Niide a physician and (as was so often the case in those days) jujutsu master.
