An Introduction to Judo

Judo was created by Kanō Jigorō in 1882 as the ‘Way of Flexibility’—a system to strengthen body, character, and society. It blended Confucian self‑cultivation with modern Western ethics into a social pedagogy, in equal parts moving meditation, exercise, hand to hand combat, competition and expressive dance. It was in turn adapted for school children, mobilized for total war, banned under MacArthur’s Occupation, then recreated as a peacetime sport. Today, with over 200 national federations and tens of millions of practitioners, judo is the world’s largest combative sport—raising one question: how does Kanō’s vision survive in modern competitive judo?

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This event is a part of YCAPS' "Getting to Know Japan Series".

Speaker:

Lance Gatling founded The Kanō Chronicles©, www.kanochronicles.com, a history of modern Japan and martial arts through the life and times of judo’s founder, Kanō Jigorō. He retired as a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel after serving as a Northeast Asia Foreign Area Officer, operations planner, and as a U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer. His Nexial Research, a Tokyo-based consultancy served the defense, space, and government sectors. In over four decades in Japan and Asia, he held senior roles in top U.S. aerospace, defense and IT companies technology programs ranging from ammunition to robots to spacecraft. He holds degrees from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Western Kentucky University, and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. He was the only foreign member of the Japan space agency Satellite Utilization Advisory Committee, a founding board member of a Ministry of Education technology education initiative, and is a first foreign board member of the Tokyo Judo Federation, Japan’s largest.

Member, Japanese Academy of Martial Arts

Director / Instructor, U.S. Embassy Tokyo Judo Dojo

Format: This event will be recorded and published in our web archive. Questions are encouraged during the live event.

Registration: Required Link

Moderators: Amani Kidd and Jeffery Mazziotta

Webinar Cost: Free of charge