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Kano was born to a family operating a small sake brewry. Never
physically strong, he suffered from various illness as a child and was
constantly bullied. He tried to learn jujutsu to get even, but was
opposed by his parents who feared he could be seriously injured. His
parents instead had him study rigorously and in 1877, Kano enrolled in
Imperial University. Away from his parents, he finally started learning
jujutsu. He studied two different jujutsu styles each focusing on
different aspects of fighting techniques.
It was during these early jujitsu training days Jigoro Kano worked
out some new throws and turned his attention more and more to ways of
reforming jujitsu into some kind of new system. While practicing at the
Tenjin-shinyo Training Hall, he ran up against a big, 200-pound bruiser
named Kenkichi Fukushima. Outweighed by 100 pounds, the lightweight
youth invariably lost to the bigger man. He wanted to beat Fukushima so
badly he could taste it, studying everything he could get his hands on
-- books on sumo techniques, training books from abroad, etc.
Finally,
Jigoro worked out a new technique. The next time he met his burly rival
he charged in low, lifted Fukushima onto his shoulders, whirled him
around and easily tossed him on the mat. He promptly dubbed his new
throw "kata-guruma," or shoulder whirl. Other throws he worked out
include "uki-goshi" (rising hip throw) and "tsuri-komi-goshi"
(lift-pull hip throw).
The original idea was merely to
reform jujitsu rather than found a new system. Kano was well aware of
the shortcomings, but felt these could be weeded out with the result
that jujitsu could be beneficial to young men -- not only as a martial
art, but also as a form of physical education as well as training and
discipline of the spirit; in short, a valuable preparation for one's
daily life.
He dedicated himself to formulating a system
of reformed jujitsu founded on scientific principles, integrating
combat training with mental and physical education. He borrowed the
"katamewaza" (mat techniques) and "atemi-waza" (throwing techniques) of
Kito-ryu, holding onto those techniques that conformed to scientific
principles and rejecting all others. All harmful and dangerous
techniques were eliminated.
In 1882, Kano founded Kodokan
Judo. His system of martial arts (judo) all but replaced the parent
arts of jujutsu in Japan. Kano also successfully introduced judo into
the Japanese school system.
Also a member of the
International Olympic Committee for Japan, Kano believed in the games
as a way to bring countries together. This finally happened in 1964,
after his death, when the Games were held in Tokyo. For this occasion,
Judo became an olympic discipline. Kano has always been opposed to
organized competition in Judo, for he believed it would taint the
non-opposition spirit of his art. 
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