Yamashita Yoshiaki

Infobox_martial_artist
name = Yamashita Yoshiaki
(山下 義韶)
residence =
other_names =


imagesize = 175px
caption = Yamashita Yoshiaki, first 10th dan judoka
birth_name =
birth_date = birth date|df=yes|1865|02|16
birth_place = Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
death_date = death date and age|df=yes|1935|10|26|1865|02|16
death_place =
death_cause =
martial_art = Judo
teacher = Kano Jigoro
rank = Judo: Founder
Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū: Complete license
students = Theodore Roosevelt; Imperial Japanese Naval Academy; Tokyo Imperial University ; US Naval Academy; Tokyo Municipal Police
website =
footnotes =

Yamashita Yoshiaki (山下 義韶, 16 February 1865–26 October 1935, also known as Yamashita Yoshitsugu), was the first person to have been awarded 10th degree black belt ("jūdan") rank in Kodokan judo. He was also a pioneer of judo in the United States.

Early years

Yamashita was born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan. His father was of the samurai class.Tomita, Tsuneo. "Histoire du Judo," "Revue Judo Kodokan", November 1962, 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." [http://www.bstkd.com/JudoHistory/HistoryEight.htm] ] In August 1884, he joined the Kodokan judo dojo of Kano Jigoro (嘉納 治五郎 "Kanō Jigorō", 1860–1938), as its nineteenth member. He advanced to first degree black belt ("shodan") rank in three months, fourth degree ("yondan") ranking in two years, and sixth degree ("rokudan") in fourteen years.Tomita, Tsuneo. "Histoire du Judo," "Revue Judo Kodokan," November 1962, v. 12:5.] He was a member of the Kodokan team that competed with Tokyo Metropolitan Police jujutsu teams during the mid-1880s, [Abel, Laszlo. "The Meiji Period Police Bujutsu Competitions: Judo versus Jujutsu," "JMAS Newsletter", December 1984, 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. [http://www.furyu.com/archives/issue3/judo.html] ] and during the 1890s, his jobs included teaching judo at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and Tokyo Imperial University (modern University of Tokyo).Tomita, Tsuneo. "Histoire du Judo," "Revue Judo Kodokan," November 1962, v. 12:5.]

Introducing judo to America

In February 1902, a Seattle-based railroad executive named 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. "Sam Hill: The Prince of Castle Nowhere". Beaverton, Oregon: Timber Press, 1983, p. 71.] Hill spoke to a Japanese American business associate, Masajiro Furuya, [Gary Iwamoto, "Rise & Fall of an Empire", "International Examiner", September 6, 2005.] 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 21st Jul 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 26th August, 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 Record Administration microfilm roll M1383, "Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Seattle, Washington, 1890-1957," Roll 2 (Apr. 17, 1900, SS GOODWIN - Jan. 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. "Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children," Joseph Bucklin Bishop, ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1919, pp. 113-114.] Roosevelt practiced wrestling and boxing while in the White House, and he had received jujutsu jackets from William Sturgis Bigelow [Brousse, Michel and David Matsumoto. "Judo in the U.S.: A Century of Dedication." Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2005, 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. "Training the Helpless Flapper to Fight Her Own Battles," "Literary Digest," August 27, 1927, p. 47.] [Earns, Lane. "Nagasaki Kyoruchi no Seiyojin (Westerners of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement)". [http://www.uwosh.edu/cols/StaffBooks/earns.htm] ] Roosevelt was impressed with Yamashita's skill, and during March and April 1904, Yamashita gave judo lessons to the President and interested family and staff in a room at the White House. ["New York Sun", April 17, 1904.] Svinth, Joseph R. "Professor Yamashita Goes to Washington." [http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth1_1000.htm] ] 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," December 7, 1905, with annotations by Joseph R. Svinth. [http://ejmas.com/jalt/jaltart_sandow's_0800.htm] Despite what one sometimes reads, [http://www.judoinfo.com/greats.htm] 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. [http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/ead/muph006.htm] .]

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. "The U.S. Naval Academy: An Illustrated History," 2d edition, revised by Thomas J. Cutler. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Academy Press, 1995, 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 Nihongo|Tokyo Higher Normal School|東京高等師範学校|Tōkyō Kōtō Shihan Gakkō".Svinth, Joseph R. "Professor Yamashita Goes to Washington." [http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth1_1000.htm] ] In this capacity, he often attended judo tournaments and exhibitions. [For a description of such an event in Kobe in 1925, see Frank O'Neill, "The Brown Man in the Field of Sports," "The Ring", November 1925, 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. [http://judoforum.com/index.php?showtopic=26617&st=12] ]

An example of Yamashita's teaching method is the advice: ["Do's and Don'ts in Learning Judo by Yoshiaki Yamashita," JudoInfo.com. [http://www.judoinfo.com/yoshiaki.htm] ]

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 November 27, 1934. [http://www.judoinfo.com/mayer.htm] [http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_mayer1_0200.htm] ]

His ultimate promotion to 10th "dan" was posthumous.

Video footage

* [http://www.judovision.org/?p=37 Koshiki no kata] Yoshiaki Yamashita with Jigoro Kano

References