The popularity of Judo as a sport throughout the world today is so great that it has been recognized by the Olympic Committee for inclusion in the Olympic Games. Judo provides a great way to remain healthy and at peace. If this subject sparks your interest, I suggest suggest you look into it further, as you may find it to be a positive influence in your life. Olympic posters for the current and previous games can be found at Olympic gifts together with Olympic clothing, memorabilia and Olympic gifts. Judo is based on the original movements of Ju-jitsu. The origins of Ju-jitsu can be traced back two thousand years, though it is probable that the forms practised then were more like modern Japanese Sumo wrestling than the judo that we know. Some historians believe that Ju-jitsu began in China and arrived in Japan about 1645, but there is evidence that it was known in Japan long before this date. The reasons for the growth of Ju-jitsu were the need for warriors to have a means of defending themselves when they were forbidden to wear their swords, and the tradition that a warrior should be able to overcome a person of lower rank without the use of weapons.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, when feudalism declined in Japan, and with it the martial arts. Ju-jitsu masters were forced to close their schools for lack of pupils. The art may have been lost altogether, but for a Dr. Jigoro Kano. He was at that time a student at the Tokyo Imperial University, and became interested in Ju-jitsu. He was short and had heard that Ju- jitsu tricks would help people like him to hold their own in combat with bigger people. Kano studied under various masters, choosing those tricks which he believed to be valuable for his own study.

In 1882 he opened his own school, The Kodokwan, in Tokyo. As he developed, Kano came to see that Ju-jitsu was not just a way of defence against attacks; it was a way of life that developed the intellect and the spirit. Kano selected those movements most suitable for practice as a sport from those that he had learnt, and he called the system he compiled "Judo" as distinct from "Ju-jitsu". "Judo" means "the gentle way", in contrast to "Ju-jitsu", which means "the gentle art".

In Britain, an early school to be established was The Budokwai, set up in London in 1918, by Mr. G. Koizumi. Mr. Tani became the Chief Instructor there. Before World War II there were about forty clubs in Britain annexed to that school, and a number of independent schools as well. Judo became so popular after the war, however, that a larger organization was necessary, and the British Judo Association was founded in 1948, with The Budokwai and its affiliated clubs as early members.Over the last twelve years about four hundred clubs have become affiliated to this organization.

Judo's beginnings in the United States are rather hazy, but it is thought that the sport was brought to America by President Theodore Roosevelt who, upon witnessing an exhibition, was so impressed that he immediately imported a Japanese instructor from whom he took lessons.