Kanō Jigorō

Kanō Jigorō (10 December 1860 to 4 May 1938) was a Japanese judoka, educator and politician, and the founder of judo. Judo became the first Japanese martial art to gain wide international recognition and the first to become an official Olympic sport, in 1964 for men and 1992 for women. Kanō introduced the black and white belts and the dan ranking system to show relative rank in a martial art. Professionally he was director of primary education at the Ministry of Education and president of Tokyo Higher Normal School, and from 1909 to 1938 he was the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee. He was the first person inducted into the International Judo Federation Hall of Fame, in 1999.