Great post Tim.

Does anyone know how Judo became so popular, aside from the famous Jujitsu-Kodokan challenge?
One less famous (nowadays) 'situation' happened when the Kodokan sent ON PURPOSE his best fighters at the port and created a giant fight for test. Men resulted crippled and casualties were counted among fishermen. Kodokan was closed for..one month and some police officer unoffcialy but loudly praised the 'samurai'. A different environment produces different styles, doesn't it?

Edit by SysOp - Moved to this thread

One factor was that Kano taught in the western fashion, he explained and demonstrated. This allowed much faster progress in learning new movements than the traditional method.

Another was that after Japans defeat, General McArthur banned the practice of budo (the warrior arts), so they were notpracticed except in private, but judo was presented as a sport so was not included in the ban.