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Kan Jigor was a Japanese educator and athlete, the founder of Judo. Judo was the first Japanese martial art to gain widespread international recognition, and the first to become an official Olympic sport. Pedagogical innovations attributed to Kan include the use of black and white belts, and the introduction of dan ranking to show the relative ranking among members of a martial art style. Wellknown mottoes attributed to Kan include Maximum Efficiency with Minimum Effort Seiryoku Zenyouand Mutual Welfare and Benefit Jita Kyouei.

Kan Jigor was born to a sakebrewing family in the town of Mikage, Japan . The family sake brands included Hakushika, Hakutsuru, and KikuMasamune. But Kans father Kan Jirsaku was an adopted son and he did not go into the family business. Instead he worked as a lay priest and as a senior clerk for a shipping line. Kans father was a great believer in the power of education, and he provided Jigor, his third son, with an excellent education. The boys early teachers included the neoConfucian scholars Yamamoto Chikuun and Akita Shusetsu. Kans mother died when the boy was nine years old, and his father moved the family to Tokyo. The young Kan was enrolled in private schools, and had his own English language tutor. In 1874 he was sent to a private school run by Europeans to improve his English and German language skills.

Source: Wikipedia