Kano Jigoro (1860 - 1938) opened his first Kodokan dojo in July 1883 at the Eishoji temple in Asakusa, Tokyo. In 1886, he moved to a dojo in Fujimicho located on the property of a friend.
The Kodokan moved several times before settling at its present site in Kasuga, Bunkyo-ku. From its original location at Eishoji temple, it moved to Minami Jimbocho, Kanada; then to Kami Niban-chi; next to Fujimicho, also in Kojimachi; on to Shimo Tomizaka-cho, Koshikawa; from there to Sakashita-machi, Otsuka; and finally to the now familiar location near Suidobashi.
During the Kodokan's years in the Fujimicho Dojo, Judo almost completely smothered the prevailing Jujitsu traditions of the area.
Perhaps the primary reason for this was Judo's success in direct competitions with various Jujitsu forms.
The Police Agency of the early Meiji period (1868 - 1912) decided to adopt Jujitsu in January 1883, as part of police self-defense training.
During the following March, a large number of applications were received from various Jujitsu traditions from all over Japan.
Some of those
selected were:
Yoshin Ryu Totsuka-ha -
Terushima Taro, Nishimura
Sasasuke and six other
instructors
Sekiguchi Ryu - Naka
Danzo, Hisatomi Tetsutaro and one other
instructor
Ryoi Shinto Ryu -
Nakamura Hansuke and Uehara Shogo
Kito Ryu - Okuda
Matsugoro
Takenouchi San-to Ryu -
Samura Masaaki
Takenouchi Ryu - four
instructors
Tenjin Shinyo Ryu -
three instructors
Shinkage Ryu - one
instructor
Shinmel Sakkatsu Ryu -
one instructor
Yagyu Shingan Ryu - one
instructor
Even though Jujitsu proved
useful to the police, the Mombusho (Ministry
of Education) of that time thought it to be
inadequate for educational purposes, and
never made it a compulsory subject in
schools. This fact, coupled with Kano's
influence within Mombusho ranks, moved the 5th
Chief of the National Police Agency to
organize a series of competitions between
Kodokan Judo and Jujitsu to resolve whether
Kano's innovations made Judo superior to
traditional systems.
The first of these police
bujutsu taikai (martial arts meets) was in
honor of the opening of a new shrine
commemorating the spirits of those policemen
who had sacrificed their lives in the
Satsuma (Seinan) Rebellion of 1877. Varying
dates have been given for this tournament,
but it is likely that it was held in 1886.
The vagueness of the dates and other
particulars concerning these taikai or
tournaments give them an almost mythic
character.
Among the most
notable competitors for the Kodokan were:
Saigo Shiro
Yokoyama Sakujiro
Yamashita Yoshikazu
Tomita Tsunejiro.
The most famous of the
Jujitsu competitors were:
Terushima Taro
Nakamura Hansuke
Enchi Kotaro.
According to Koizumi Gunji,
the final score was nine victories and one
draw for the Kodokan. Like the dates of the
event mentioned above, this figure is also
subject to some variation depending on the
sources used. That the Kodokan was an
overwhelming victor is beyond dispute.
Saigo Shiro (February 4,
1866 - December 22, 1922) was born in
Kushima. His opponent, Terushima Taro, was
one of the strongest exponents of Yoshin Ryu
Totsukaha Jujitsu. Their match was a great
surprise to all the spectators. The fight
went on for about 15 minutes before a sudden
inward movement by Terushima opened his
defenses, enabling Saigo to throw him using
a technique called "yama-arashi"
(mountain storm). This legendary movement is
not a Judo technique, but has been likened
to Judo's seoi-nage (shoulder throw) and
tai-otoshi (body drop). Yama-arashi was a
product of Saigo's grueling years of
training in unarmed fighting prior to his
joining the Kodokan. Donn F. Draeger in
Modern Bujutsu and Budo writes this of
Saigo, who at the time still used his
original family name of Shida.
In 1877, Saigo Taigo Tanomo
Chikamasa sponsored Shide Shiro and took him
to Aizu to teach him Oshiki-uchi (the secret
hand-to-hand fighting art of the Aizu-han).
After three years of arduous training, Shida
moved to Tokyo to further his education.
While studying at the Seijo Gakko, a
training school for army personnel Shida
enrolled in the lnoue Dojo of the Tenjin
Shinyo Ryu in 1881.
Two years later, he caught
the eye of Kano Jigoro who was also a
disciple of the Tenjin Shinyo Ryu. Kano was,
at this time, struggling to build a
reputation for his Kodokan. Shida's skill in
hand-to-hand encounters convinced Kano that
it would be a good idea to offer Shida an
assistant instructorship at the Kodokan and
Shida accepted.
Saigo's victory made him the
most famous figure in Judo history. He did
not last long in the Judo world, however.
His loyalty was deeply divided between his
old ko-ryu (traditional martial arts)
teachers and Kano. This finally led to his
resignation from the Kodokan and his
departure from Tokyo. He never again
practiced either Judo or Oshiki-uchi, but
instead devoted himself to Kyudo, the Way of
the Bow and Arrow.
Yokoyama Sakujiro (1864 -
1914) was born in Tokyo. His fight with
Nakamura Hansuke of the Ryoi Shinto Ryu
attracted the most attention and speculation
of the tournament. The bout lasted an
incredible 55 minutes before it was called a
draw. The referee, Hisatomi Tetsutaro of the
Sekiguchi Ryu had to pry each of their
fingers apart to break the almost weld-like
grip the two fighters held for so long.
According to E. J. Harrison
in his book, The Fighting Spirit of Japan,
Yokoyama started to train in Jujitsu under a
master of the Tenjin Yoshin Ryu at a dojo in
the Nezu area of Tokyo. Harrison also
describes the contests of the time as being
extremely rough, and injuries and even
fatalities were not uncommon results.
Yamashita Yoshikazu (February 16, 1865 -
October 26, 1935) became a student of Kano's
at the age of 19. He was a native of
Kanazawa, where in pre-Meiji days his family
had held some position in the clan, which
involved martial instruction. His rise
through the Kodokan ranks can only be
described as meteoric. He gained his Sho Dan
(1st degree black belt) after only three
months practice, 2nd dan in June
1885, 3rd dan in September of 1885 and 4th
dan in May 1886. In 1898, he became the
first person to receive the rank of 6th dan.
In the first tournament, he
fought Yoshin Ryu Totsuka-ha advocate Enchi
Kotaro. (Another record states that his
opponent was Terushima Taro. Yamashita was
ranked 4th dan at this time; a fact, which
supports those who assert that this taikai
was, held in the latter half of 1886. Not
many details are known about their fight
other than that Yamashita threw Enchi with
seoi-nage.
Tomita Tsunejiro, (February,
1865 - ?) was Kano's first student and the
first, together with Saigo Shiro, to receive
the rank of Sho Dan. He came from Shizuoka.
The name of his opponent in this tournament
apparently went unrecorded.
Other participants in this
taikal are also unknown. Surely some of the
other Jujitsu instructors who had been hired
by the police took part. As for the Kodokan,
those who remained with Kano during his move
to the Fujimicho dojo could have also been
involved.
The most proficient
of these were:
Arima Sumitomo who
authored a book on Judo
Sato Noriyasu
Tobari Takizaburo who
later became a teacher of the Tenjin
Shinyo Ryu after studying under lnoue
Keitaro.
Kinotsuk Soji
Other early, though
not as expert, practitioners included:
Kawai Keijiro, Munataka
ltsuro, Otsubo Katsukazu,
Oda Katsutaro, Yoshimura
Shinroku, Honda Masujiro,
Hirose Takeo, and Oshima
Elsuke, who co-authored a book about
Judo in English with Yokoyama Sakujiro.
In another taiki, held
during 1888, in which 14 or 15 persons
participated, Yamashita faced Terushima,
Stao Noriyasu took on Nishimura Sadasuke of
the Yoshin Ryu Totsuka-ha, and Enchi Kotaro
was again pitted against Saigo. There were
two or three draws, but the Kodokan was
again the overall victor. Ten of the fights
were against Yoshin Ryu Totsuka-ha
advocates1 indicative of a strong rivalry
between the two factions. Totsuka Hikosuke
(-1813 - 1886) headed this style of Jujitsu,
who had a dojo in Tokyo's Agata-cho
district. He had over three thousand
student’s form all over Japan.
The rivalry between the two
systems must have been all the more intense
since Kano forbade his students from
engaging in purely personal matches. Thus,
these taikai were the only chance for the
older Jujitsu traditions to try their
strength against the Kodokan.
We are fortunate to have
available a few physical statistics on some
of the main contenders. They make
interesting reading:
Contender
Height
Weight
Age
Nishimura
174
cm
91 kg
33
yrs. old
Saigo
159
cm
58 kg
20
yrs. old
Terushima
171
cm
83 kg
27
yrs. old
Yokoyama
169
cm
95 kg
26
yrs. old
Both Tomita and Yamashita
were 21 years old at the time of the first
taikai and Kano himself was only 26. Thus
youth was surely on the side of the Kodokan.
The rules also favored the
Judo men. There seems to have been no time
limit. The use of striking and kicking
techniques known as atemi-waza and joint
techniques called kansetsu-waza were
prohibited, thereby drastically limiting the
Jujitsu men. Clean throws indicated victory,
and this, too, must have placed the Kodokan
people at an advantage.
It should be noted, however,
that prior to being recruited by Kano
Jigoro, many of his men were already well
experienced in Jujitsu. This point is of
great importance because at the time of
these confrontations, the techniques of Judo
were still in an embryonic stage of
development. The Kodokan nage-waza (throwing
techniques) originally comprised 42 kata
called Go Kyu no waza and were selected only
in 1895. Later, in 1920, they were revised
and six new forms, giving the present 40
standard kata replaced eight of the original
forms.
At the time of the
competitions, the Kodokan relied almost
entirely on nage-waza. This left the Kodokan
practitioners very vulnerable to the ne-waza
(groundwork) of the various Jujitsu
traditions. This naturally stimulated the
development of a Kodokan katame-waza
(pinning techniques), and Kansetsu-waza
(joint locks). All this was accomplished,
however, well after the last of the
police-sponsored competitions between Judo
and Jujitsu.
Atemi-waza, too, were held
in high regard by many Jujitsu styles and
were well developed. It was not until 1907
that the Kodokan incorporated a total of 20
kata aimed at teaching such striking and
kicking attacks to the vital points of the
body.
Inquiries at the newly-built
Kodokan, searching through old Meiji period
newspapers and, where possible, police
records have so far failed to uncover any
further facts or documents related to these
historically important Judo-Jujitsu matches.
The dearth of clearer information leaves us
with questions, which hopefully will be
answered in the future. Can these
tournaments really be called Kodokan Judo
against Jujitsu; or were they merely Jujitsu
matches where Kano had been able to secure
the help of stronger practitioners? And
somewhat more curious, why didn't Kano
personally take part in any of the many
bouts?
