Kawaishi Judo
川石柔道A method of teaching judo for Europe: techniques in numbered series, in a fixed order. Created by Mikinosuke Kawaishi, who arrived in Paris in 1935.
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About Kawaishi Judo
Kawaishi judo is not a separate style but a teaching method created for Europe by Mikinosuke Kawaishi (1899–1969). He arrived in Paris in 1935 as a fourth dan and was commissioned to teach jujutsu to the French police; out of that grew the whole French branch of judo. The core of the method is order. Kawaishi laid the techniques out in numbered series by group — throws, holds, chokes, joint locks — and taught them in a fixed sequence in which each one rests on the one before. Against Japanese teaching, which builds on long repetition and on imitating the master, this is a distinctly scholastic approach, and more legible to an adult beginner with no cultural grounding. That is precisely why it took hold in France. The coloured belt system is also associated with Kawaishi. The credit is probably shared: in 1928 he visited the Budokwai in London, where coloured belts were already in use, and was most likely inspired by them. He was in any case the one who brought them to France, and from there they spread across Europe. In 1946 he co-founded the French Judo Federation with Moshé Feldenkrais and served for years as its technical director. A year later he organised the Kawaishi Cup, the first recorded international judo match between two countries, Britain and France.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.