Yamashita Yoshitsugu (, February 16, 1865 – October 26, 1935), also known as Yamashita Yoshiaki, was a Japanese judoka. He was the first person to have been awarded 10th degree red belt (jūdan) rank in Kodokan 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. 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 schools of Yōshin-ryū and Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū jujutsu.Sol, Kim. "Part 8: Kodokan Becomes an Organization." bstkd.com In August 1884, he joined the Kodokan judo dojo of his childhood friend Kano Jigoro as its nineteenth member. He advanced to first degree black belt (shodan) 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 jujutsu teams during the mid-1880s,Abel, Laszlo (December 1984). "The Meiji Period Police Bujutsu Competitions: Judo versus Jujutsu," JMAS Newsletter, v. 2:3, pp. 10–14.Muromoto, Wayne. "Judo's Decisive Battle: Great Tournament between Kodokan Judo's Four Heavenly Lords and the Jujutsu Masters." Furyu, v. 3. 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.
A notoriously violent man, Yamashita was known for his many street fights. 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 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."Tuhy, John E. (1983) Sam Hill: The Prince of Castle Nowhere. Beaverton, Oregon: Timber Press. p. 71. . Hill spoke to a Japanese American business associate, Masajiro Furuya,Iwamoto, Gary (September 6, 2005), "Rise & Fall of an Empire", International Examiner. 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.Letter from Sam Hill to Y. Yamashita dated July 21, 1903, in Maryhill Museum of Art collection. 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.Letter from Y. Yamashita to Sam Hill dated August 26, 1903, in Maryhill Museum of Art collection.
The ship carrying the Yamashita party docked in Seattle on October 8, 1903."List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the U.S. Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival," SS Shinano Maru, October 8, 1903, in National Archives and Records Administration microfilm roll M1383, 'Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Seattle, Washington, 1890–1957,' Roll 2 (April 17, 1900, SS GOODWIN – January 17, 1904, SS TOSA MARU). 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 Russell Alger, and assorted Sportswriters.Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 25, 1903. 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, and in March 1904, the Japanese naval attaché, Commander Takeshita Isamu, took Yamashita to the White House to meet President Theodore Roosevelt.Roosevelt, Theodore (1919). Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children. Joseph Bucklin Bishop, ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 113–114. Roosevelt practiced wrestling and boxing while in the White House, and he had received jujutsu jackets from William Sturgis BigelowBrousse, Michel and Matsumoto, David (2005). Judo in the U.S.: A Century of Dedication. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books. pp. 23–24. . and jujutsu lessons from J. J. O'Brien, a Philadelphia police officer who had studied jujutsu while living in Nagasaki.New York World, October 26, 1902.Anonymous (August 27, 1927). "Training the Helpless Flapper to Fight Her Own Battles". Literary Digest, p. 47.Earns, Lane. "Nagasaki Kyoruchi no Seiyojin (Westerners of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement)". University of Wisconsin Oshkosh 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.New York Sun, p. 2, April 17, 1904. 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), Hallie Elkins (wife of Senator Stephen Benton Elkins), and Grace Davis Lee (Hallie Elkins' sister), and their children."Jiu-Jitsu for Women," Sandow's Magazine of Physical Culture. December 7, 1905, with annotations by Joseph R. Svinth. "Jiu-Jitsu for Women". Despite what one sometimes reads,"The World’s Greatest Judo Competitors". Grace Davis Lee was not related to General Robert E. Lee. Photographs of Yamashita, his wife, Kawaguchi, and some of their students can be viewed online; see Yoshiaki Yamashita Photograph Album (PH 006). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst. "Yoshiaki Yamashita Photograph Album, ca.1904". 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. There were about 25 students in his class, including a future admiral, Robert L. Ghormley.Army and Navy Journal, March 25, 1905. The position ended at the end of the school term, and Yamashita was not rehired for the following year.Sweetman, Jack (1995). The U.S. Naval Academy: An Illustrated History, 2nd edition, revised by Thomas J. Cutler. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Academy Press. p. 269. . 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.Memorandum from Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy, to Chief, Bureau of Navigation, dated November 3, 1905, in US Naval Academy archives. Consequently, Yamashita's judo was taught at the Naval Academy throughout the first six months of 1906.Letter from Superintendent of Naval Academy to Chief of Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department, dated May 4, 1906, in US Naval Academy Archives.
Later life
At the end of the 1906 academic year, Yamashita left the United States for Japan.Letter from Imperial Japanese Embassy to the Bureau of Navigation, The Navy Department, dated December 19, 1906, in US Naval Academy archives. On July 24, 1906, he participated in a conference in Kyoto that had been called for the purpose of standardizing judo forms (kata) 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.For a description of such an event in Kobe in 1925, see O'Neill, Frank (November 1925). "The Brown Man in the Field of Sports," The Ring. p. 19. 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.Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Administrative Division, Planning Section, Ed. Torite no kata – Keishicho Judo Kihon (警視庁柔道基本 – 捕手の形). Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency, 1926.
An example of Yamashita's teaching method is the advice:"Do's and Don'ts in Learning Judo by Yoshiaki Yamashita". JudoInfo.com
Yamashita's last major public appearance was probably the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Kodokan, an event which took place in November 1934. British judoka Sarah Mayer described Yamashita's participation as follows:Letter from Sarah Mayer to Gunji Koizumi dated 27 November 1934. judoinfo.com.
His ultimate promotion to 10th dan was posthumous.
References
External links
Koshiki no kata Yoshitsugu Yamashita with Jigoro Kano on YouTube