Quite a few things in martial arts that are claimed to be ancient are in fact turn of the century inventions by Kano Jigoro, the inventor of Judo: grades and belts, the keikogi uniform used by many martial arts today, etc.
Kano was all about modernizing what he saw as outdated and ineffective training techniques. He thought that by making jujitsu a sport he could save it from irrelevance, in an age when people where more likely to learn tennis than martial arts. He was very successful, he created Judo and some of his earlier students went on to develop BJJ.
Kano was all about modernizing what he saw as outdated and ineffective training techniques. He thought that by making jujitsu a sport he could save it from irrelevance, in an age when people where more likely to learn tennis than martial arts. He was very successful, he created Judo and some of his earlier students went on to develop BJJ.