Born in 1860 in Mikage village in Settsu Province (present-day Higashinada, Kobe) into a family running shipping and sake-brewing businesses. While studying political science and finance at the Faculty of Letters of Tokyo University, he trained in the Tenjin Shin'yo and Kito schools of jujutsu. In 1882, at twenty-two, he distilled a rational system from jujutsu techniques and founded the 'Kodokan' at Eishoji temple in Shitaya. Preaching 'maximum efficient use of energy' and 'mutual prosperity for self and others,' he elevated the old jujutsu into 'judo' as a means of education and character formation. From 1893 he served for over twenty years as principal of Tokyo Higher Normal School (present-day University of Tsukuba), incorporating physical education and sports into school curricula. In 1909 he became the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee. From the Stockholm Games of 1912 he led Japan's Olympic delegations and worked to bring the 1940 Olympics to Tokyo. In 1938, returning from the IOC session in Cairo, he died of illness aboard the liner Hikawa Maru at the age of 77.

A small man but a practitioner who threw giants with ki and wit. He held the creed 'lose without leaving regret, win without arrogance,' and taught his disciples strict courtesy, research, and self-mastery. As an educator, he combined the international sensibility of a man fluent in English with the backbone of an Edo-samurai lineage. Throughout his life he continued to insist that 'to train the body is the same as to train the spirit.'

Kodokan judo has become an international martial art practiced by tens of millions in over 180 countries and was adopted as an official Olympic event from the Tokyo Games of 1964. The education at Tokyo Higher Normal School trained most of the prewar physical education teachers and sports leaders, and as the first president of the Japan Amateur Sports Association (today JSPO) he laid the foundations of the Japanese sports world. His ideals of 'maximum efficient use of energy' and 'mutual prosperity for self and others' continue to exert influence at home and abroad as a Japanese educational philosophy that reaches beyond sport.