Keiko Fukuda and judo

           
     Keiko Fuku was born on April 12, 1913. She is the highest ranked female judo practitioner in history, holding the rank of 9th dan from the Kodokan and the United States Judo Federation (USJF), and 10th dan from USA Judo, and is the last surviving student of Jigoro Kano, founder of judo. She is a renowned pioneer of women's judo, being the first woman promoted to 6th dan (c. 1972), and later 9th dan (2006), by the Kodokan. She is also the first and, so far, only woman promoted to 10th dan in the art. After completing her formal education in Japan, Fukuda visited the United States of America to teach in the 1950s and 1960s, and eventually settled there. She continues to teach her art in the San Francisco Bay Area.

               
                    Fukuda was born on April 12, 1913, in Tokyo, Japan. Her father died when she was very young. As a youth, she learned the arts of calligraphy, flower arrangement, and the tea ceremony; typical pursuits for a woman in Japan at that time.  Despite her conventional upbringing, Fukuda felt close to judo through memories of her grandfather, and one day went with her mother to watch a judo training session. A few months later, she decided to begin training for herself. Her mother and brother supported this decision, but her uncle was opposed to the idea. Her mother and brother had thought that Fukuda would eventually marry one of the judo practitioners, but she never married, instead becoming a judo expert herself.

       

                 Fukuda's grandfather, Fukuda Hachinosuke, had been a samurai and master of Tenjin Shinyo ryu jujutsu, and he had taught that art to Jigoro Kano, founder of judo and head of the Kodokan. Kano had studied under three jujutsu masters before founding judo, and Fukuda's grandfather had been the first of these men. Kano had taught female students as early as 1893, and had formally opened the joshi bu of the Kodokan in 1926. He personally invited the young Fukuda to study judo an unusual gesture for that time as a mark of respect for her grandfather. She began training in judo in 1935, as one of only 24 women training at the Kodokan. Apart from instruction by judo's founder, Fukuda also learned from Kyuzo Mifune.

             Fukuda still teaches judo three times each week, hosts the annual Fukuda Invitational Kata Championships, and teaches at the annual Joshi Judo Camp. She has established the Keiko Fukuda Judo Scholarship to encourage and enable women to continue their formal training in the art. Apart from teaching in the USA, she has also taught in Australia, Canada, France, Norway, and the Philippines. Fukuda's personal motto is: "Be gentle, kind, and beautiful, yet firm and strong, both mentally and physically.

             
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