Yoshiaki Yamashita
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Yamashita Yoshitsugu (山下 義韶, February 16, 1865 – October 26, 1935), also known as Yamashita Yoshiaki, was a Japanese
judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...
. He was the first person to have been awarded 10th degree red belt ('' jūdan'') rank in
Kodokan The , or ''Kōdōkan'' (講道館), is the headquarters of the worldwide judo community. The ''kōdōkan'' was founded in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo, and is now an eight-story building in Tokyo. Etymology Literally, ''kō'' ( ...
judo, although posthumously. He was also one of the Four Guardians of the Kodokan, and a pioneer of judo in the United States.


Biography


Early years

Yamashita was born in Kanazawa, then the capital of the powerful
Kaga Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.
. His father was of the samurai class.Tomita, Tsuneo (November 1962). "Histoire du Judo," ''Revue Judo Kodokan'', v. 12:5. As a boy, Yamashita trained in the traditional ('' koryū'')
Japanese martial arts Japanese martial arts refers to the variety of martial arts native to the country of Japan. At least three Japanese terms (''budō'', ''bujutsu'', and ''bugei'') are used interchangeably with the English phrase Japanese martial arts. The usage ...
schools of
Yōshin-ryū ("The School of the Willow Heart") is a common name for one of several different martial traditions founded in Japan during the Edo period. The most popular and well-known was the Yōshin-ryū founded by physician Akiyama Shirōbei Yoshitoki a ...
and Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū jujutsu. In August 1884, he joined the Kodokan judo
dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...
of his childhood friend Kano Jigoro as its nineteenth member. He advanced to first degree black belt (''
shodan SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) is a fictional artificial intelligence and the main antagonist of the cyberpunk-horror themed video games ''System Shock'' and ''System Shock 2''. Character design SHODAN is an artificial in ...
'') rank in three months, fourth degree (''yodan'') ranking in two years, and sixth degree (''rokudan'') in fourteen years. He was prone to discuss the philosophy of judo with Kano, as Yamashita initially believed power should be applied before technique. He was a member of the Kodokan team that competed with
Tokyo Metropolitan Police The serves as the prefectural police department of Tokyo Metropolis. Founded in 1874, it is headed by a Superintendent-General, who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission, and approved by the Prime Minister. The Tokyo Metro ...
jujutsu teams during the mid-1880s, and during the 1890s, his jobs included teaching judo at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and Tokyo Imperial University (modern University of Tokyo). His role as a Kodokan competitor was specially notable in the Kodokan-Totsuka rivalry, in 1886. He fought and dominated famed jujutsuka Taro Terushima, although the match went to a draw when Terushima resorted to groundwork. He later rematched him, knocking him out with a hard
ippon seoi nage The is a throw in judo.Mifune, Kyuzo: ''The Canon of Judo'', Kodansha International Ltd. (Tokyo) 2004, , p. It is a variant of Seoi nage, and is one of the nineteen accepted techniques in Shinmeisho No Waza of Kodokan Judo. It is classified a ...
. A notoriously violent man, Yamashita was known for his many
street fights Street fighting is hand-to-hand combat in public places, between individuals or groups of people. The venue is usually a public place (e.g. a street) and the fight sometimes results in serious injury or occasionally even death. Some street fig ...
. In the most famous instance, he got involved in a brawl with no less than 17 laborers in Tokyo due to a dispute in a restaurant. Despite their vast numeric advantage, added to the fact that some of them wielded knives, Yamashita and a fellow judoka disposed of all the men, purposely breaking the arms of three of them in the process.Svinth, Joseph R. (October 2000
"Professor Yamashita Goes to Washington"
''Journal of Combative Sports''.
Shortly after, Yoshiaki would get into another quarrel with another cadre of laborers, this time him against 15 of them, but it ended up the same way: Yamashita maimed his attackers with chokes and throws, and even killed some of them by breaking their necks. He was arrested, but was easily acquitted after proving the uneven nature of the brawls. However, he was still suspended by the Kodokan for excessive use of violence. When confronted by Kano himself, Yamashita protested and went to the extent of challenging his master to a fight, but Kano convinced to stop his violent ways by making him realize that some day he might be harmed the same way he liked to harm people.


Introducing judo to America

In February 1902, Seattle-based railroad executive
Samuel Hill Samuel Hill (13 May 1857 – 26 February 1931), usually known as Sam Hill, was an American businessman, lawyer, railroad executive, and advocate of good roads. He substantially influenced the Pacific Northwest region's economic dev ...
decided that his 9-year-old son, James Nathan, should learn judo, which he had apparently seen or heard about while on a business trip to Japan. In Hill's words, the idea was for the boy to learn "the ideals of the Samurai class, for that class of men is a noble, high-minded class. They look beyond the modern commercial spirit." Hill spoke to a
Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
business associate, Masajiro Furuya, for advice. Furuya referred Hill to Kazuyoshi Shibata, who was a student at Yale University. Shibata told Hill about Yamashita, and on July 21, 1903, Hill wrote a letter to Yamashita, asking him to come to Seattle at Hill's expense. On August 26, 1903, Yamashita replied, writing that he, his wife, and one of his students (Saburo Kawaguchi) would leave for Seattle on September 22, 1903. The ship carrying the Yamashita party docked in Seattle on October 8, 1903. A week later, on October 17, 1903, Yamashita and Kawaguchi gave a judo exhibition at a Seattle theater that Hill had rented for the evening. Attendance was by invitation only, and guests included Sam Hill's mother-in-law, Mary Hill (wife of railroader J.J. Hill),
Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Russell Alger, and assorted Sportswriters. Afterwards, Hill took the Yamashita party east to Washington, D.C., where Mrs. Hill and young James Nathan were then living. Meanwhile, the favorable publicity surrounding the event caused Japanese Americans living in Seattle to start their own judo club, known as the Seattle Dojo. Soon after arriving in the District of Columbia, Yamashita visited the Japanese
Legation A legation was a diplomatic representative office of lower rank than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, minister. Ambassadors diplomatic rank, out ...
, and in March 1904, the Japanese naval attaché, Commander Takeshita Isamu, took Yamashita to the White House to meet President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt practiced wrestling and boxing while in the White House, and he had received jujutsu jackets from William Sturgis Bigelow and jujutsu lessons from J. J. O'Brien, a Philadelphia police officer who had studied jujutsu while living in Nagasaki. Roosevelt was impressed with Yamashita's skill, and during March and April 1904, Yamashita gave judo lessons to the President and presidential secretary William Loeb Jr. in a room at the White House. Subsequently, at other locations, Yamashita and his wife Fude gave lessons to prominent American women, to include Martha Blow Wadsworth (sister of Kindergarten pioneer
Susan Blow Susan Elizabeth Blow (June 7, 1843 – March 27, 1916) was an American educator who opened the first successful public kindergarten in the United States. She was known as the "Mother of the Kindergarten." Early life The eldest of nine childre ...
), Hallie Elkins (wife of
Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Stephen Benton Elkins), and Grace Davis Lee (Hallie Elkins' sister), and their children. American women soon began training in jujutsu as a means of self-defense and as a symbol of their growing political empowerment. Roosevelt, concerned that the United States would lose its military supremacy to rising powers like Japan, began to advocate for jujutsu training for American soldiers. In January 1905, Yamashita got a job teaching judo at the
U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of ...
. There were about 25 students in his class, including a future admiral, Robert L. Ghormley. The position ended at the end of the school term, and Yamashita was not rehired for the following year. When President Roosevelt heard of this, he spoke to the Secretary of the Navy, who in turn told the Superintendent of the Naval Academy to rehire Yamashita. Consequently, Yamashita's judo was taught at the Naval Academy throughout the first six months of 1906.


Later life

At the end of the 1906 academic year, Yamashita left the United States for Japan. On July 24, 1906, he participated in a conference in Kyoto that had been called for the purpose of standardizing judo forms (''
kata ''Kata'' is a Japanese word ( 型 or 形) meaning "form". It refers to a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements made to be practised alone. It can also be reviewed within groups and in unison when training. It is practised ...
'') that could be taught in Japanese public schools. From the 1910s to the 1930s, Yamashita worked as a judo teacher at . In this capacity, he often attended judo tournaments and exhibitions. He also taught judo to the Tokyo Municipal Police. Thus, from September 1924 to April 1926, Yamashita was part of a committee that developed a new kata for Japanese police. An example of Yamashita's teaching method is the advice: Yamashita's last major public appearance was probably the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the
Kodokan The , or ''Kōdōkan'' (講道館), is the headquarters of the worldwide judo community. The ''kōdōkan'' was founded in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo, and is now an eight-story building in Tokyo. Etymology Literally, ''kō'' ( ...
, an event which took place in November 1934. British judoka
Sarah Mayer Sarah Winifred Benidict Mayer(née Benedict) (16 October 1896 – 19 March 1957) was an English actress and judoka. She was the first non-Japanese woman to obtain a blackbelt in judo. Biography Mayer was born as Sarah Winifred Benedict Tappin ...
described Yamashita's participation as follows:Letter from Sarah Mayer to Gunji Koizumi dated 27 November 1934
/ref> His ultimate promotion to 10th ''
dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...
'' was posthumous.


References


Video footage


Koshiki no kata
Yoshitsugu Yamashita with Jigoro Kano {{DEFAULTSORT:Yamashita, Yoshitsugu 1865 births 1935 deaths Japanese male judoka United States Naval Academy faculty Kodokan 10th dans