Historical archive

Tokyo 1964: judo enters the Olympics

The first Asian Olympics, the new Nippon Budōkan, and a Dutch giant who changed judo for ever.

October 1964

Shoulder throw photographed in a 1905 Kanō jiu-jitsu manual — The Complete Kano Jiu-Jitsu (Jiudo), plate 113 — H. Irving Hancock & Katsukuma Higashi, 1905. Internet Archive / U.S. National Library of Medicine, public domain.

The story

Kanō Jigorō had joined the International Olympic Committee in 1909, the first Asian member, and dreamed of seeing Tokyo host the Games. When it finally happened in 1964, judo was on the programme as the host nation’s sport, and Japan built the Nippon Budōkan in Tokyo to stage it.

There were four categories: lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight and open. Japan won the first three, through Nakatani Takehide, Okano Isao and Inokuma Isao. Everything rested on the open category, the purest test of Kanō’s idea that skill beats size.

On 23 October the Dutchman Anton Geesink, almost two metres tall and trained by Japanese teachers, pinned Kaminaga Akio in the final. The Budōkan fell silent. Geesink raised a hand to stop his own team from rushing onto the mat, a gesture of respect still remembered in Japan. Judo had stopped belonging to one country.

Key dates

1909
Kanō Jigorō becomes the first Asian member of the IOC.
1964
Nippon Budōkan opens; judo debuts at the Tokyo Olympics with 4 categories.
23.10.1964
Anton Geesink wins the open category.
1968
Judo is left out of the Mexico City Games.
1972
Judo returns at Munich and stays on the programme.
1992
Women’s judo becomes a full medal event in Barcelona.

Myth and fact

Myth

Geesink’s win was a fluke against a weaker opponent.

Geesink was already world champion: in 1961 in Paris he had become the first non-Japanese to win the open world title.

Why it matters

Tokyo 1964 made judo the first Asian martial art in the Olympics and showed that it could be truly international. It also pushed judo towards weight classes and sport rules, a debate about sport versus education that continues today.

Images: public-domain or CC0 works credited under each picture, or original WABUKAN ink illustrations. Panels: the story told in numbered comic boxes.

Sources

Judo at the 1964 Summer Olympics — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
Anton Geesink — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
Nippon Budokan — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
The Complete Kano Jiu-Jitsu (Jiudo), plate 113 — Internet Archive / U.S. National Library of Medicine — archive.org

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