Root Arts of Judo.

[jujutsu1]

Judo was created by Kano but he had a lot of political support to create something to change the image of jujutsu. If you look at early pictures of the first students they looked like a pack of Samurai and in reality they were pretty close. They came from many old schools of jujitsu-lots of technique! There was a great deal of political pressure to give the out of work warriors something to do other than ravage the country side. The government supported early contests that put schools of Judo and Jujitsu up against each other in a effort to develop something closer to a national sport. Although others made efforts to compete the Kodokan students won most tournaments and ultimately became the popular style.

To me the most brilliant thing done in Judo was to take jujitsu and make it more trainable! Many classical jujitsu people train with joint locks at slow speed to prevent injury and never truly develop the technique. Judo people train in slightly less dangerous technique but practice on resisting opponents at full speed. I’m not bad mouthing jujitsu because I practice it myself. I do however believe in training under resistance.