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The early history of Judo and that of its founder, Japanese polymath and educator Kano Jigoro (1860-1938), are inseparable. Kano was born into a well-to-do Japanese family. His grandfather was a self-made man, a sake brewer from Shiga prefecture in central Japan; however, Kano's father was not the eldest son and did not inherit the business, but instead became a Shinto priest and government official, with enough influence for his son to enter the second incoming class of Tokyo Imperial University.
Kano was a small, frail boy, who, even in his twenties, did not weigh more than a hundred pounds, and was often picked on by bullies. He first started pursuing jujitsu (柔術), at that time a flourishing art, at the age of 17, but met with little success---in part due to difficulties finding a teacher who would take him on as a serious student. When he went off to the University to study literature at the age of 18, he continued his martial efforts, eventually gaining a referral to Hachinosuke Fukuda , a master of the Tenjin Shinyo Ryu (天神真楊流) and ancestor of noted Japanese/American judoist Keiko Fukuda, who is one of Kano's oldest surviving students. Fukuda is said to have emphasized technique over formal exercise, sowing the seeds of Kano's emphasis of randori (乱取り), or free practice, in Judo.
Little more than a year after Kano joined Fukuda's school, Fukuda took ill and died. Kano then became a student in another Tenjin Shinyo school, that of Masatomo Iso, who put more emphasis on formal kata than did Fukuda. Through dedication, Kano quickly earned the title " shihan", or master, and became assistant instructor to Iso at the age of 21. Iso, too, took ill, and Kano, feeling that he still had much to learn, took up another style, becoming a student of Tsunetoshi Iikubo of Kito Ryu. Like Fukuda, Iikubo placed much emphasis on free practice; on the other hand, Kito Ryu emphasized ground techniques (matwork) to a much greater degree than Tenjin Shinyo Ryu.
By this time, Kano was devising new techniques, such as the kata guruma (fireman's carry) and uki goshi (floating hip toss). His thoughts were already on doing more than expanding the canons of Kito and Tenjin Shinyo Ryu; full of new ideas, in part as a result of his education, Kano had in mind a major reformation of jujitsu, with techniques based on sound scientific principles, and with focus on development of the body, mind, and character of young men in addition to development of martial prowess. At the age of 22, just about to finish his degree at the University, Kano took 9 students from Iikubo's school to study jujitsu under him at the Eishoji Temple. Although two years would pass before it would be called by that name, and Kano had not yet been accorded the title of "master" in the Kito ryu (起倒流) -- Iikubo would come to the temple to help teach three days per week, this was the founding of the KodokanThe KODOKAN Founded in 1882 BY Jigoro Kano. The Kodokan is the home of the martial art and sport of Judo. (講道館) or "place for learning the way."
The word Judo is comprised of two kanji: "ju" (柔), which means gentleness or giving way, and "do" (道), meaning way of life (the same character as the Chinese "tao".) Thus Judo literally means "the gentle way" or "the way of giving way". Judo takes from jujutsu ("gentle art") the principle of using one's opponent's strength against him. Kano saw jujutsu as a disconnected bag of tricks, and sought to unify it according to some principle: he found it in the notion of "maximum efficiency". Jujitsu techniques which relied solely on superior strength were discarded or adapted in favor of those which involved redirecting the opponent's force, off-balancing the opponent, or making use of superior leverage.