judo, Martial art that emphasizes the use of quick movement and leverage to throw an opponent. Its techniques are generally intended to turn an opponent’s force to one’s own advantage rather than to oppose it directly. The opponent must be thrown cleanly, pinned, or mastered through the application of pressure to arm joints or the neck. Judo is now practiced primarily as sport. It became an Olympic sport in 1964; women’s judo was added in 1992. The sport evolved out of jujitsu in late-19th-century Japan.