Google marks the birthday of judo's founder with doodle

New Delhi, Oct 28

Google on Thursday celebrated the 161st birthday of Kano Jigoro, the Japanese founder of judo, with a doodle on the ‘Father of judo’ and the sport.

The doodle, with multiple slides, shows how Jigoro, who was born on October 28, 1860, studied various martial arts techniques and founded judo.

The animated doodle depicts Jigoro developing the various throws and techniques of judo and setting up schools to teach it to other disciples.

Jigoro, a Japanese educator and athlete, who died in 1938 a the age of 77, founded the modern form of judo, modifying the traditional form to form a sport. Judo was the first Japanese martial art to gain widespread international recognition and the first to become an official Olympic sport.

It was Jigoro who invented the use of black and white belts, and the introduction of ‘dan’ ranking to show the relative ranking among members of a martial art style. Well-known mottoes attributed to Kano include “maximum efficiency with minimum effort” and “mutual welfare and benefit”.

Apart from being an educator, Jigoro was also a sports administrator and was the first Asian to become part of the International Olympic Committee, which organises the Olympic Games. IANS