Way of life vs. Game
In 1922 judo founder Jigoro Kano resigned from his position as head of the Japan Amateur Athletic Association because he disagreed with its policy of encouraging professionals to enter international competition in hope of inflating Japanese medal counts. [EN1] A few years later, Kano told Olympic leader Pierre de Coubertin that judo was inappropriate for inclusion in the Olympics because it was not a sport but a school of life: judo, said Kano, was not a game, but instead it was "like a church, it teaches a man a moral sense." [EN2] In 1933, Kano told the young British judoka Trevor Leggett that, while he had nothing against competition, he was against championships; to his thinking, championships degraded people by placing too much emphasis on winning. [EN3] Finally, during a luncheon speech given at the Pan-Pacific Club in Tokyo on June 14, 1935, Kano complained that "competition sometimes makes men go to extremes and results in their doing themselves serious internal injury."[EN4] So, despite the International Olympic Committee announcing on March 16, 1938 that judo, kendo, and kyudo (Japanese archery) would be demonstration sports featured at the 1940 Olympics, [EN5] it seems clear that in his time, Jigoro Kano never wanted judo in the Olympics.
