International judo Federation defines the sport they operate as "kodokan judo" to exclude independent schools or unauthentic cult groups like Buchido-Kai or gaidojitsu. (They attempted to acquire BJJ federation a while ago into their subdivision but failed).
Anyone can use the term Kodokan judo to describe what they do, even "inauthentic cult groups".
Kodokan judo was founded by a University of Tokyo scholar, Dr Jigoro Kano as an education system to raise youths around the world academically and physically. Kano emphasized on self-conquering and mutual growth. And if you ask any frenchy doing judo, they'll tell you half dozen of Kano quotes to explain what judo is all about.It's not about selling ass-kicking techniques for 80+ bucks an hour (muito obligado).
I am aware of Kano's history and his motivations for creating judo. I also believe he was very sincere in these. However, in my experience, those ones who quote Kano the most (or Bruce Lee, or Ueshiba, or Oyama, or... well, you get the point) are the ones most likely to charge $80 per hour, plus an extra 100 every couple of months for a grading. The most simple understanding and implementation of
jita-kyoei is a much better thing to look for in a training partner/teacher.
BJJ practitioners are always fighting against other BJJ practitioners who are supposed to be their friends.
Having the same hobby or profession doesn't automatically make them your friend.
They're so concerned with tapping out others that they forget about honor, self betterment, beauty of budo and respect for the Gracie family who introduced tremendous value of something to their life.
I would say that the loss of respect the Gracies have suffered is entirely down to the Gracies themselves. Let us stick with Rickson as an example as the Gracies are too numerous to take as a whole and his fall from grace is one I've watched in real time. When I first joined Sherdog Rickson was near-universally loved, or at least respected. That has shifted dramatically over the last 12 years and is down to Rickson's inability to shut the fuck up; his constant bullshitting about his win record which even Helio called him out on, his trash-talking other fighters (fighters who don't have to pad their record with "wins" in the training room), his refusal to accept the fact he has lost and we have even have footage of it. I could go on. But if he had just shut up he would still be held up as the paragon of old-school BJJ as he was when I first started learning about him. I don't think I need to justify why others like Rorion and his sons get little respect
Familiarity breeds contempt, and the old guard of Gracies (and their offspring) are
very familiar to us now. Gone are the days when the Gracies were the only source of information regarding their history and the creation of BJJ. Maybe we should be kind and say it was just marketing. Maybe.
Whereas, there's no domestic conflicts in judo community because kodokan teaches them to mind their own improvement.
Oh boy, for someone who criticised martial arts cults in this very same post, there is a lot of Kool-Aid drinking going on here. For a start, the IJF might be the most hated org on f12 surpassing even the IBJJF as the latter continues to lose relevance. But you know this story, so I will tell you one probably won't.
In 1955 Kenshiro Abbe arrived in the UK. I know two versions of Abbe's story, one is buck wild and most likely has more of a tall-tale flavour to it so I'll stick to the more boring one. Abbe was the shit; one of a handful of people to beat Kimura. He was not happy with how judo was taught so he started the British Judo Council, essentially a rival to the older British Judo Association, with some members of the latter leaving to join the BJC. This created decades of tension. My first two teachers were BJC, one was old enough to have trained with Abbe, even defecting from the BJA. Defecting though? Isn't that a bit of a strong word to use for this situation? Not by the standards of the day; to the BJA diehards the word often used to describe BJC members was
dissidents! As if joining the BJC was tantamount to something you deserved to be put in a gulag for. My teacher would have to leave the BJC as the BJA would not let him advance in his competitive and high-level coaching careers if was a member of both. This isn't even going into the various dramas that happened within those orgs, various dramas in online judo spaces full of back bitting and contempt for anyone who doesn't do judo in the way they believe it should be done. I don't believe for a second that this isn't a tale that has been repeated in dozens of other countries over the 100+ years of judo's presence there. So much for no domestic conflict.
But the Kodokan is above all this, right? Yes, but not for any positive reasons; it just isn't relevant enough to really get dragged into the mud. Most judoka only really pay attention to the Kodokan as a tourist destination or the arbiter of kata.