One of the first Jujitsu masters to change their school to a 'Do' (way) form was Jigoro Kano of the Kodokan Judo system. Mr. Kano a master of many of the old schools of Jujitsu formalised various techniques with the help of other Jujitsu schoolmasters.
Dr. Jigoro Kano was born in 1860 in Kobe, Japan into a wealthy family. In 1877, as a college student he studied Tenjin Shinyo Ryu Jujitsu under Hachinosuke Fukuda and Masatomo Iso. Fukuda gave Jigoro Kano a heavy iron rod, which Kano used to practice bojutsu techniques (stick fighting). After very hard workouts Kano massaged his aching body with a strong foul smelling liniment, which he prepared himself. The other students in the dojo referred to him as "Kano the Odoriferous". Fukuda died in 1880 at 52 years of age. Jigoro Kano, his student, tried to keep his dojo open, but realized he needed more training.
Kano then began his studies of Kito-Ryu under Tsunetoshi Iikubo. The Kito-Ryu emphasized nage waza (throwing techniques). These techniques complemented the grappling techniques of Tenshin-Shinyo Ryu.
In 1882 Jigoro Kano founded his school borrowing the term Judo from the Jikkishin-Kito Ryu style. To differentiate from this style he chose to use the word Kodokan as a prefix. His main objective was to form a sporting system that as far as possible occluded the risk of injury for the practitioner and to bring the Jujitsu schools together.
Dr. Kano was an educator and was successful in introducing Judo into the Japanese school system.
Dr. Kano died in 1938 on board the ship SS Hikawa Maru on a return voyage from Cairo where he had met with an Olympic committee. It was his dream to have judo in the Olympic games.

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