History UsefulNotes / Judo

* Still in MMA, many judokas have stood out through its history. In the PRIDE era, the so-called "judo mafia" was composed by Hidehiko Yoshida' and Wrestling/TsuyoshiKohsaka's respective teams and contained names like Kazuhiro Nakamura, Makoto Takimoto, Hirotaka Yokoi and Michihiro Omigawa, while other decorated judoka like Wrestling/NaoyaOgawa, Pawel Nastula and Dong-Sik Yoon went on their own way. Later the UFC got people like Karo Parysian, Hector Lombard and Yoshihiro Akiyama.

* Creator/JamesCagney demonstrated some judo in ''Film/BloodOnTheSun''.

** In recent times (2010s) the IJF has been criticized for severly restricting the kudo ruleset to differentiate itself from wrestling and maintain its place in the Olympics. The most controversial changes include completely banning leg grabbing (punishable by disqualification) and severely limiting time for ''ne-waza'' in matches. It remains to be seen if these rules will stick past the 2016 Olympics, though referees have been more lax in enforcing the ne-waza restriction as of late.

* Creator/BruceLee: The legendary martial arts film star trained in judo, allegedly after meeting Creator/GeneLeBell. There is some controversy about whether he ever was ranked in the art, but he know the techniques and used them in his films.

* Fedor Emelianenko: The UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter aptly nicknamed "The Last Emperor" is hardly the only on the business to having judo on his background, but he two national bronze medals and is known for his wide usage of judo throws during his matches.
* Creator/RondaRousey: The former standardbearer of female MMA, Ronda Rousey, stands out for his judo background, being a medalist in Olympic Games, Panamerican Championships and World Championships. Her mother Annmaria de Mars is another world medalist.

* Creator/TheodoreRoosevelt: But Putin is not the only world leader in having worn a gi: Teddy was the first American to reach brown belt, and loved practising it in the White House.
* Rabindranath Tagore: The Indian poet and writer whose books you were probably forced to read in highschool? A crazy judo fan who personally arranged exhibitions in India and tried all he had to popularize it there.

[[caption-width-right:220:High and low.]]

** The ''yama arashi'' or "mountain storm" was a technique used by ancient judoka Shiro Saigo to beat people left and right, supposedly causing concussions. While there is a move called Yama Arashi in the current moveset of judo, it is believed that it is not the same move used by Saigo, which has been apparently forgotten.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Mataemon Tanabe helped Kodokan to refinate their groundwork technique after trashing them in said field (according to others, Kano paid him a lot). Over time, he gained a black belt and an instructor rank, though declined to join officially the school.

* ForgotFlandersCouldDoThat: Among grappling circles, judo is somewhat infamous for allowing only chokes and armlocks, thus excluding leglocks, which are a large part of the submission curricula nowadays. However, ancient judo books show all kinds of leglocks, including several ones which were thought to have originated in other forms of wrestling; even Brazilian jiu-jitsu historians argue that the dangerous heel hook was taught to them by the Butokukai judoka Takeo Yano. Apparently, leglocks were only banned in the art when a competitor got his leg horribly broken in front of the Emperor during a judo exhibition.

* UseYourHead: Believe it or not, the way of softness once contained an acumen of headbutt technique. It was called ''atama ate waza'', and was innovated by masters like Kyuzo Mifune and Mikinosuke Kawaishi who knew a lot about streetfighting.

* TheWorfEffect: Perhaps inevitable due to being one of the first growing and popular martial arts to worldwide scale, but a lot of stories which build the badassery of other fighting styles often have it being demonstrated over one or more judo practitioners, who were the established badasses until that point. To enumerate: shuai jiao practitioner Chang Tung Sheng defeated judokas in China, mizongyi stylist Huo Yuanjia (yes, the one from ''Film/{{Fearless}}'') supposedly beat some judokas hard, aikijutsu master Sokaku Takeda was rumored to put a beating in the Kodokan guys, the Fusen-Ryu school made the same, and Ad Santel had their famous UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling challenge matches.
* WrestlerInAllOfUs: The Boston crab (yes, the pro 'rasslin' move) is present in ancient judo rulesets under the name of ''ryo ashi hishigi''. The ''kata guruma'' is also basically an earlier form of Wrestling/JohnCena's Attitude Adjustment.

* Rabindranath Tagore: The Indian poet and writer whose books you were probably forced to read in highschool? A crazy judo fan who arranged personally exhibitions in India and attempted to popularize it in said country.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Many people are unaware that you can do chokes and armlocks in judo, thinking that they started from BJJ (which actually spun off from judo, something else many people didn't realize). It didn't help that the IJF had been de-emphasizing the ground game for years.

* DuelingDojos: Judo had to struggle through a dojo war against many jujutsu schools in order to be recognized as an art. Even inside judo, there was friction among the Kodokan school and the Butokukai institute, a military organization which adopted judo and cultivated it in a more brutal light.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Mataemon Tanabe helped Kodokan to refinate their groundwork technique after trashing them in said field (according to others, Kano paid him a lot), though declined to officially join the school.

** The European styles are quite varied, and can range from perfectly classic to crazily eclectic. However, its players typically tilt to the technical side of the spectrum, and they specifically focus on having a deep bag of tricks, like counters, sacrifice throws, rare ground techniques and, back when they were legal, leg grabs.

* TheWorfEffect: Perhaps inevitable due to being one of the first growing and popular martial arts to worldwide scale, but a lot of stories which build the badassery of other fighting styles often have it being demonstrated over one or more judo practitioners, who were the established badasses until that point. To enumerate: shuai jiao practitioner Chang Tung Sheng defeated judokas in China, mizongyi stylist Huo Yuanjia (yes, the one from ''Film/{{Fearless}}'') supposedly beat some judokas hard, aikijutsu master Sokaku Takeda was rumored to put a beating in the Kodokan guys, the Fusen-Ryu school made the same, and Ad Santel had their famous catch wrestling challenge matches.

* SignatureMove: Even though they all fight under the same rules, judoka from different countries have differing styles and favorite techniques. The Japanese like classical, upright throws such as ''uchi mata'', Russians and other Eastern Europeans favor overhead gripping and pickup throws, and Brazillian and American judoka excel in groundwork thanks to the spread of Brazillian jiu-jitsu.

* TheWorfEffect: Perhaps inevitable due to being one of the first growing and popular martial arts to worldwide scale, but a lot of stories which build the badassery of other fighting styles often have it being demonstrated over one or more judo practitioners, who were the established badasses until that point. To enumerate: shuai jiao practitioner Chang Tung Sheng defeated judokas in China, mizongyi stylist Huo Yuanjia (yes, the one from ''Film/{{Fearless}}'') supposedly beat some judokas hard, aikijutsu master Sokaku Takeda was rumored to put a beating in the Kodokan guys, the Fusen-Ryu school made the same, and Ad Santel had their famous catch wrestling challenge matches.

* ChekhovsSkill: Judo proved to be a determining factor in the famous karate/muay thai challenges in the 1963. One of the karatekas, Akio Fujihira, was pitted against a much heavier Thai fighter, Huafai Lukcontai, in which looked to be a hell for him. However, it happened that Fujihira was a black belt in judo aside from karate, and that allowed him to overcome the trouble. As muay thai rules allowed throws, he capitalized by hitting ''ippon seoi nage'' a few times, leaving his adversary weakened enough to land a punch for the KO.

* ChekhovsSkill: Unbeknownst to many people, judo proved to be a determining factor in the famous karate/muay thai challenges in the 60s. Many of the karatekas had also judo training, so they capitalized in the open muay thai rules to throw their opponents hard and weaken them in order to get the orthodox KO by strikes.

* MurderThighs: The ''sankaku-jime'' or triangle choke is a technique where the user scissors his opponent's head an arm with his legs and squeezes to cut out his blood stream. It has several variations, and classical judo is specially fond of the inverted variation or ''ushiro-sankaku-jime'' because it allows to attack turtled up people, but the most known (especially thanks to BJJ) is the frontal one, where the opponent's face is pointed towards the user's lower body.

And no, the "judo chop" is ''not'' an actual Judo move. Asking your judoka friend to do this move will result in a dirty look from said friend, and may or may not cause him/her to throw you depending on how many times you ask.

* ActionGirl: Judo had some of the first women in martial arts as of Jigoro Kano's times. Sueko Ashiya and Keiko Fukuda were some of them. Manga gave us ''Yawara'', which was embodied in real life by Ryoko Tamura in the Olympic Games. Also, nowadays Ronda Rousey has become the most badass judo gal in popular culture.
* AdaptationDisplacement: Many people are unaware that you can do chokes and armlocks in Judo, thinking that they started from BJJ (which actually spun off from Judo, something else many people didn't realize). It didn't help that the IJF had been de-emphasizing the ground game for years.

* AwesomeButImpractical: There is a class of moves called sutemi-waza or "sacrifice techniques", in which the user needs to put himself in a disadvantageous position, like falling or throwing himself to the ground, in order to perform a strong throw on the opponent. They are usually more dangerous than the average throw, and are taught in higher levels to prevent accidents.
* AxCrazy: Edson Carvalho was considered as one of the best judokas in Brazil during his time, but his spectacular public enmities and his not less spectacular short temper got him a bad reputation. He was expelled of Georges Mehdi's dojo for a brutally beating down Brazilian jiu-jitsu exponent Wallid Ismail, and had to face charges for attacking the president of the Brazilian Judo Federation, Mamede, who had refused him a place on the national team in order to give it to his son, who Edson had beaten in a tournament.

* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Once judo started spreading across the world, judokas often entered in wrestling contests to prove the superiority of their art over native styles. European Music halls were famous for bringing little Japanese guys to challenge and beat dozens of toughs and challengers with their exotic martial arts, and some of them even joined catch wrestling tours to keep the occupation.
** Famous judoka Tokio Hirano famously beat Dutch wrestling champion Peter Artz within his own rules (ten seconds pinfalls and no judogi).

* BoringButPractical: The ''kesa-gatame'' is a basic technique in judo which doesn’t look very impressive, resembling more your classic pro wrestling pinfall or the setup of more exotic puroresu holds like the Anaconda Vice, but a skillful judoka can pin down an opponent with it and leave him near absolutely helpless. It also enables the user to apply pressure in the opponent's neck and chest, so exceptionally strong judokas can even use it as a submission hold.
** Wrestling takedowns like single leg or double leg have their judo counterparts (kuchiki taoshi/morote gari respectively). They are plenty effective but people started overusing them for stalling in international competitions, which eventually led to the leg grab ban.
* BullyingADragon: Almost every famous judoka has a story in which somebody crazy enough picked a fight with them before being thrashed. It’s notable an anecdote by Kyuzo Mifune in which he was assaulted by ''thirteen'' thugs in a tavern, with exactly the outcome you are thinking.

* CripplingOverspecialization: Judo has a long history of this. Back in its origins, the art initially focused only in ''tachi-waza'' or throwing technique and contained little ''ne-waza'' or groundfighting, a flaw which was capitalized by an obscure jujutsu school named Mataemon Tanabe to beat Kodokan fighters – he would simply pull the judokas down and submit them with ground techniques, a field in which Tanabe was strong. After the incident, Kodokan brought him to share his knowledge and it caused a groundfighting boom inside the art, which produced a wave of specialists who later helped to create Brazilian jiu-jitsu (Mitsuyo Maeda and Soshihiro Satake being the main ones). Ironically, Jigoro Kano would return to the roots and change the judo official ruleset to restrict groundfighting, leaving only the called Kosen Judo competition to keep the former style.
** In recent times (2010s) the IJF has been criticized for severly restricting the Judo ruleset to differentiate itself from wrestling and maintain its place in the Olympics. The most controversial changes include completely banning leg grabbing (punishable by disqualification) and severely limiting time for ''ne-waza'' in matches. It remains to be seen if these rules will stick past the 2016 Olympics, though referees have been more lax in enforcing the ne-waza restriction as of late.

** The ''Yama Arashi'' or "Mountain Storm" was a technique used by ancient judoka Shiro Saigo to beat people left and right, supposedly causing concussions. While there is a move called Yama Arashi in the current moveset of judo, it is believed that it is not the same move used by Saigo, which has been apparently forgotten.
** ''Kani Basami'' (Scissors Throw) is a throw where you do a scissoring motion with your legs from the side, taking your opponent backwards. It's very easy to misjudge the distance and end up breaking your opponent's leg, which is what happened when Sumio Endo broke Yamashita's fibula using it in the 1980 All-Japan finals. The throw has been banned from competition ever since.
* DavidVersusGoliath: It pretty much faded away with the introduction of weight classes, but initially the art's philosophy disparaged size in favor of skill, so matches between judokas of wildly different size were very common. It took Anton Geesink to prove that size ''and'' skill was a trouble for just skilled opponents.
** Some open-weight judo tournaments still exist, like the All-Japan Judo Championships held every year in Tokyo.

** Some throws like uchi-mata or harai-goshi require the thrower to stand on one leg while loading the opponent on their hip. They are highly effective techniques often seen in top-level competition, but newbies generally won't be able to do them until they have a few years under their belt to refine their balance.
** Foot sweeps like deashi-barai require very precise timing and positioning to execute properly, but if you get it just right you can quite literally sweep someone off their feet with very little force.

** Brazilian judo master Georges Mehdi was respected and feared enough to render his school free of the challenges and dojo stormings common in the old vale tudo scene. Some of his apprentices, like Luis Virgilio Castro or Edson Carvalho, were similarly feared as well.
** Jon Bluming was known as the Beast from Amsterdam for a reason, and his fame was such that people often dropped off from tournaments to avoid facing him.
** Yasuhiro Yamashita in his prime.
* EscalatingBrawl: A colorful and somewhat crazy anecdote tells how the legendary judoka Shiro Saigo was expelled from Kodokan for causing one of those. He supposedly went with some colleagues to drink and he decided to challenge Araumi, a hulking 400 ib sumotori. He threw him down and won the match, but Araumi bite him in the shin in revenge and Saigo struck him in the face to make him release his leg, which caused both his and Araumi’s posse to react and start a battle. Soon the police arrived, but Saigo wanted none of it and he started throwing cops left and right, even tossing some of them into a river. Unsuprisingly, he was jailed until Kano could free him, and when he got out, the master was not happy with him.
* FourIsDeath: Back in the days of the contests between the Kodokan and other jujutsu schools, the four judokas Shiro Saigo, Yoshiaki Yamashita, Sakujiro Yokoyama and Tsunejiro Tomita were called ''Kodokan Shitenno'' ("The Four Heavenly Kings of Kodokan") for his victories against jujutsukas, being considered Jigoro Kano’s PraetorianGuard.

* HandicappedBadass: Judoka rely on sensing their opponent's weight through their limbs rather than on sight, so visually impaired people can enjoy the sport with only slight modifications to the rules (contestants must remain gripped up at all times). Watch Judo in the Paralympic Games and you won't believe these athletes have any disabilities when they grip up and fight.

* MightyWhitey: Americans like Donn F. Draeger, Brazilians like Georges Mehdi and Dutchmen like Jon Bluming and Anton Geesink has been described as such by the very Japanese.

* SadistTeacher: Some of the teachers at the Kodokan school weren’t shy on hitting students with shinai and forcing them to train to extenuation.

* SignatureMove: Even though they all fight under the same rules, judoka from different countries have differing styles and favorite techniques. The Japanese like classical, upright throws such as uchi-mata. Russians and other Eastern Europeans favor overhead gripping and pickup throws. Brazillian and American judoka excel in groundwork, thanks to the spread of Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Ask any judoka and they can probably pinpoint the exact IJF rule change that ruined the art (at least for them), but none caused more angst than the leg grab ban in 2008.

* TheWorfEffect: Perhaps inevitable due to being one of the first growing and popular martial arts to worldwide scale, but a lot of stories which build the badassery of other fighting styles often have it being demonstrated over one or more judo practitioners, who were the established badasses to that point. To enumerate: shuai jiao practitioner Chang Tung Sheng defeated judokas in China, mizongyi stylist Huo Yuanjia (yes, the one from ''Film/{{Fearless}}'') supposedly beat some judokas hard, aikijutsu master Sokaku Takeda was rumored to put a beating in the Kodokan guys, the Fusen-Ryu school made the same, and Ad Santel had their famous challenge matches.

** ''Kani Basami'' (Scissors Throw) is a throw where you do a scissoring motion with your legs from the side, taking your opponent backwards. It's very easy to misjudge the distance and end up breaking your opponent's leg, which is what happened when somebody broke Yamashita's fibula using it in the 1980 All-Japan finals. The throw has been banned from competition ever since.

Practitioners of the sport are called ''Judoka''. Equipment consist solely of a white uniform called judogi or keikogi (sometimes abbreviated as "gi"), composed of a louse jacket and pants tied with a belt called obi.

** In modern times, Teddy Riner from France has stood on top of the heavyweight division for years, getting two Olympic gold medals, ''seven'' world championships and has been undefeated in international competitions for ''six years''.

The art also gave birth to other martial arts like sambo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu after its expansion to Russia and Brazil, respectively, and its connection can be spotted in their mostly similar techniques. There is also a related form of university competition called kosen, which is actually a remnant from other times in which judo was developing and had more open rules, and still perdurates.

* TheAce: The sport had an ace-like figure in the legendary Wrestling/MasahikoKimura, who is called by many the best judoka of all time. In more recent times, the not much less legendary Yasuhiro Yamashita could be the next in occupy that role, with his four world championship wins and legendary skill.

The art also gave birth to other martial arts like sambo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu after its expansion to Russia and Brazil, respectively, and its connection can be spotted in their mostly similar techniques). There is also a related form of university competition called kosen, which is actually a remnant from other times in which judo was developing and had more open rules, and still perdurates.

And no, Judo does ''not'' have a move called the judo chop.

** In modern times, Teddy Riner from France has stood on top of the heavyweight division for years, getting two Olympic medals, ''seven'' world championships and has been undefeated in international competitions for ''six years''.

* CounterAttack: A good chunk of the judo moveset is based around reversing and countering other moves, as well as subtlety manipulating the opponent's balance when trying his own moves.

** In recent times (2010s) the IJF has been criticized for severly restricting the Judo ruleset in order to maintain its place in the Olympics and differentiate itself from wrestling. The most controversial changes include completely banning leg grabbing (punishable by disqualification) and severely limiting time for ''ne-waza'' in matches. It remains to be seen if these rules will stick past the 2016 Olympics, though referees have been more lax in enforcing the ne-waza restriction as of late.

** ''Kani Basami'' (Scissors Throw) is a throw where you do a scissoring motion with your legs from the side, taking your opponent backwards. It's very easy to misjudge the distance and end up breaking your opponent's leg, which is what happened when somebody did the throw to Yamashita in the 1980 All-Japan finals. The throw has been banned from competition ever since.

* DifficultButAwesome: Some throws like uchi-mata or harai-goshi require the thrower to stand on one leg while loading the opponent on their hip. They are highly effective techniques often seen in top-level competition, but newbies generally won't be able to do them until they have a few years under their belt to refine their balance.

A discipline spread out worldwide, its philosophy and subsequent pedagogy became the model for other modern Japanese martial arts, and the art itself became part of the Japanese educative system, with judo clubs and teams established in almost every school and university. Judo is an Olympic sport, and its ruleset is regulated by the International Judo Federation. Japan as the originator of the sport usually tops the medal table, except for a disappointing showing at the 2012 London Olympics. Their usual rivals are France, Brazil, Russia and South Korea.

** In recent times the IJF has been criticized for severly restricting the Judo ruleset in order to maintain its place in the Olympics and differentiate itself from wrestling. The most controversial changes include completely banning leg grabbing (punishable by disqualification) and severely limiting time for ''ne-waza'' in matches. It remains to be seen if these rules will stick past the 2016 Olympics, though referees have been more lax in enforcing the ne-waza restriction as of late.

A discipline spread out worldwide, its philosophy and subsequent pedagogy became the model for other modern Japanese martial arts, and the art itself became part of the Japanese educative system, with judo clubs and teams established in almost every school and university. Judo is an Olympic sport, and its ruleset is regulated by the International Judo Federation.

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: The ''Yama Arashi'' or "Mountain Storm" was a technique used by ancient judoka Shiro Saigo to beat people left and right, supposedly causing concussions. While there is a move called Yama Arashi in the current moveset of judo, it is believed that it is not the same move used by Saigo, which has been apparently forgotten.

* PintSizedPowerhouse

Judo (translated as "gentle way") is a Japanese martial art and combat sport, created by Jigoro Kano from several jujutsu styles. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the objective is to throw an opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue him with pins, joint locks and chokes.

* BeatThemInTheirOwnGame: Once judo started spreading across the world, judokas often entered in wrestling contests to prove the superiority of their art over native styles. European Music halls were famous for bringing little Japanese guys to challenge and beat dozens of toughs and challengers with their exotic martial arts, and some of them even joined catch wrestling tours to keep the occupation.

* UserYourHead: Believe it or not, the way of softness once contained an acumen of headbutt technique. It was called ''atama ate waza'', and was innovated by masters like Kyuzo Mifune and Mikinosuke Kawaishi who knew a lot about streetfighting.