Tokyo (AFP)

If the Olympic Games take place in a year in Tokyo, judo, born in Japan and which became Olympic sport for the first time in 1964 in the Japanese capital, will be back home.

Between Japan, the Olympic Games and judo there is an inseparable link, symbolized by the founder of the discipline, Jigoro Kano, who later became the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Kano, whose portrait hangs in each dojo, represented Japan for its first participation in the Olympic Games in 1912 in Stockholm, where he met Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

It is also thanks to him that Tokyo obtained the organization of the Olympic Games in 1940; Olympics that never took place because of the Japan-China dispute and the start of the Second World War.

Coubertin believed that the philosophy of judo, whose name means "path of wisdom" and whose practice would develop both body and mind, corresponded to the Olympic values.

Ahead of his time, Kano encouraged women to indulge in "his" sport and did not charge for lessons. According to him, everyone, whatever their social origin, should be able to practice this sport.

The creator of judo also participated in the development of sport in Japan by overseeing the introduction of physical education in schools. "Nothing is more important than education in this world," he thought.

It is still held in high esteem today by the judokas, especially at the Kodokan in Tokyo, an international center that attracts practitioners from all over the world.

- "Work together" -

Judo is the main provider of Olympic medals for Japan, with 39 Olympic golds, ahead of wrestling (32) and gymnastics (31).

Japan is thus the country having won the most titles at the Games in this event, as much as the four countries which follow it in the ranking: France (14), South Korea (11), China (8) and Cuba (6).

Before the postponement of a year of the Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese team was a big favorite thanks to the world titles won at the Worlds-2019 at home (Abe and Sone in the ladies, Maruyama and Ono at the gentlemen).

To highlight the importance of judo for Japan in view of the Olympic Games-2020, AFP publishes a series of multimedia reports which analyze the deep links uniting this sport and this country.

AFP journalists interviewed members of the Kano family, brewers of sake, the traditional Japanese drink, interviewed judokates in order to understand the place occupied by feminine practice in Japan and met a mother of three judokates gold medalists at the Olympic Games.

Other reports return to the practice of judo as therapy, or to an old kimono factory which continues to weave its own uniforms.

This series is not limited to Japan, with a portrait of a "judo missionary" in Bali, who has spent his life traveling in twenty countries to teach this sport, which sends a strong message in this pandemic period .

"It is time to put the spirit of the great Kano master, the Jita-Kyoei (mutual aid and mutual prosperity) into practice," said Tsuneo Sengoku, 75, who exported the practice of judo worldwide, while the world is affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

"I want to call people to hang on and work together," he says.

© 2020 AFP