Google Doodle Celebrates 161st Birthday of Kano Jigoro, the Father of Judo

Google on Thursday, 28 October celebrated the 161st birthday of the well-known figure Kano Jigoro through Google's Doodle.

Kano Jigoro was Japan's "Father of Judo" who was also an educator from Japan, an athlete who founded the sport Judo. The illustration of the doodle on his birthday was made by a CA-based artist named Cynthia Yuan Cheng from Los Angeles.

Kano Jigoro was born on 28 October 1860 in present-day a part of Kobe earlier called Mikage and died at the age of 77 in the year 1938. He founded the modern formation of Judo and transformed it into a sport by bringing changes in the traditional form. He had studied and learned various techniques associated with martial arts. Judo is considered the first martial art from Japan that gained recognition on an international platform. It became the first sport of martial art which was a part of the official Olympic sport.

The Doodle by Google on Thursday shows the image of Kano Jigoro in the middle of the picture wearing the attire of martial art. One side of the illustration shows two persons practising martial arts and the other side shows Jigoro teaching in a classroom. As a whole, it is a depiction of developing numerous throws and techniques of Judo and building schools for teaching the sport to other disciples.

The invention of the advanced use of white and black colour belts was by Kano Jigoro. He was the one who made the introduction of the "dan" ranking that represents the ranking of relative among the members of a style of martial arts. Kano Jigoro was attributed with very famous mottoes and proverbs of which few are like "mutual welfare and benefit" and "maximum efficiency with minimum effort".

Jigaro being a Japanese sports educator made a lot of contributions to the world of martial arts. He was not just an educator but also a sports administrator in Japan. He was the first person from Asia to become a member of the International Olympic Committee that organizes the huge Olympic Games.

Also read: Otto Wichterle: Inventor of Contact Lenses Honoured by Google Doodle on his 108th Birthday

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