Newsgroup: it.sport.arti-marziali
Titolo: Masahiko Kimura

Masahiko Kimura --- Japan's Greatest Judo Fighter
By Robert Smith
When I lived in Seattle (1952-54), the old-time judoka there told me of
Masahiko Kimura, a 7th-dan who had visited Seattle in May, 1952, as part of
a pro ĄĽrassling group. Although Kimura had been show-rassling since
October, 1950, evidently he didnĄŚt like it much, and he left the troupe
soon thereafter. There are different accounts why this happened. One says
that the promoter, a Hawaiian named Tetsuro Higami, felt that Kimura was too
unreliable and did the rest of the tour without him. Another says that
Kimura was so ashamed that he unilaterally returned to Japan in disgust. I
like to think that it was the latter. Kimura may have been the best judoka
Japan ever produced, though Sakujiro Yokoyama might stir in his grave at
such a judgment. But there is a saying in Japan that goes, "No one before
Kimura, no one after Kimura!"
Something of a child prodigy, Kimura was already a 4th-dan as a high school
senior in 1935. Then the boy wonder trained at Takushoku University under
Tatsukuma Ushijima (9th-dan), and won the All-Collegiate Championship at
seventeen. Ushijima (died 1985, at 81) was a perfect complement to Kimura:
one, the greatest fighter ever, the other, the greatest teacher ever. Tough
as nails and charismatic - he looked like a muscular Omar Sharif - Ushijima
was twice All-Japan Champion. He was perfectly poised between standing and
ground judo, training summers at the old Kodokan at Suidobashi in Tokyo and
winters at the Budokuden in Kyoto. Canadian judo instructor John Hatashita
was at the Kodokan after World War II and saw Ushijima, then in his fifties,
randori with an All-Japan contender that year. The young buck threw
Ushijima, who, humiliated, rose and ripped the youngster apart, annihilating
him without mercy.
Before World War II intervened, Kimura captured the All-Japan Championships
three consecutive times. After the war, the championships were resumed in
1949 when Kimura was held to a draw by T. Ishikawa, both being adjudged
winners by referee Kyuzo Mifune. Ishikawa, who had been beaten by Kimura in
1940 and 1948, told me once that he was so frightened by the overwhelming
Kimura in 1939 that heĄŚd run like a thief. By 1949, however, things had
changed and he chased instead of being chased. But he still remembered, John
Anderson (6th-dan) of Baltimore tells me, the fantastic grip Kimura had on
his jacket, "It felt like two steel I-beams." Yoshima Osawa (9th-dan), the
great stylist, recalled that during practices Kimura threw him off the mat
regularly. And everyone told me how people hid whenever Kimura appeared at a
dojo. Paul Nurse adds that his own students dreaded him: "His training
regime was so severe that they feared every practice session. The only thing
they were more afraid of was not showing up for practice. He was known to go
to your house and tear the place apart demanding to know why you were absent
without leave."
After his bout with Ishikawa in 1949, Kimura retired from amateur judo and
tried to start a pro judo circuit. When this failed, he became a pro
ĄĽrassler. First stop Hawaii. A good source, Revue Judo Kodokan (Paris:
January 1952) carried this brief report on KimuraĄŚs 1951 visit there:
"The gallant challenge of $1,000 to anyone who can beat him in judo garb
that M. Kimura has thrown to the world has already brought him some
surprises...Kimura has long been judo champion of Japan but has broken,
amiably I believe, with the Kodokan in Tokyo. In Hawaii, KimuraĄŚs first
opponent approached him and smashed him in the nose with a magnificent
punch, and immediately jumped out of the ring to hide. The "spiritual
pursuit" which then ensued amongst the audience lasted eight minutes, when
at last Kimura caught his adversary and threw him into some chairs, and an
atemi knocked him dizzy. KimuraĄŚs second opponent lasted fifteen seconds
before a shoulder throw left him unable to continue. His next stop, the
U.S., is preparing to welcome him."
This report reeks of the real. It is unlikely that Kimura would have
accommodated the first opponent to the extent of letting him bash him in the
nose. And, if it were show, the second opponent would not have been
destroyed so quickly - the crowd wants more time than fifteen seconds. If a
pro ĄĽrassling circuit was involved, however, the report still must be taken
guardedly.
In the same year, Kimura fought Helio Gracie in Brazil. Since the Gracie
family is all the rage these days, it may be well to analyze the account by
Don Beu, "Put to the Test: The True Account of Gracie JujutsuĄŚs Toughest
Proving Ground," that appeared in the February 1990 issue of Karate/Kung-fu
Illustrated. Graham Noble sent me a copy of the article, adding that it was
skewed toward Gracie. How right he was. ItĄŚs "as biased as a scream from
the dentistĄŚs chair," to borrow journalist Bugs BaerĄŚs famous line.
Before he could fight Kimura, Gracie first had to fight another Japanese
named Kato, who purportedly weighed 180 pounds. Beu writes that they first
went to a draw ĄV Gracie had a broken rib ĄV and so they went again. I have
seen this bout in the film Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (1988) and it is underwhelming.
Gracie towered over the short Kato, and though it is difficult to tell in a
gi, I would say that Kato may have had ten pounds on the 140-pound
Brazilian, but certainly not forty.
They began with Kato being conservative, biding his time. Kato moved well;
Gracie stood and moved like an amateur, foolishly picking his feet up. He
tried a couple of weak sweeps, a knee wheel that wasnĄŚt even close, and
then turned into Kato for an attempt at a frontal throw. When Kato didnĄŚt
budge, he jerked back out of it. Just after this, Kato threw Gracie with
what looked like a shoulder technique (seoi-nage), a beautiful throw that
bounced Gracie off the ropes and back into the ring. A little higher and he
would have been out into the crowd and in great danger. Kato then threw
Gracie under the ropes using a scratchy tai-otoshi. After this, the referee
brought the two men back into the center. Near the ropes, Kato nailed Gracie
with another pretty shoulder throw. Here Kato made a fatal error. He should
have continued throwing Gracie at will until the Brazilian quit. But on top
of Gracie after the throw, he foolishly got into groundwork and was caught
by GracieĄŚs powerful choke from underneath.
Next it was KimuraĄŚs turn. Going into this match on October 24, 1951,
Kimura was nine years younger and eighty pounds heavier than his Brazilian
opponent. Given KimuraĄŚs unbeatable skill in both standing and ground
wrestling, one could reverse those figures, making Kimura older and lighter,
and he still would have prevailed. As it was, the greater mass and youth
promised certain doom for Gracie. ThatĄŚs my physiological judgment.
Philosophically, bear in mind that there is no distance greater than that
between an accomplished amateur and an incomparable professional.
Kimura straight-away tossed Gracie with his famed shoulder throw and landed
on top of him. Beu writes that Kimura stumbled and landed on top only
because Gracie relaxed. That is analogous to saying that Max SchmelingĄŚs
jaw beat the hell out of Joe LouisĄŚs fist during their second fight. The
two men then rolled around a bit before Kimura secured dojime. (This is a
dangerous pinning technique banned in judo; it involves encircling the
opponentĄŚs body with the legs and squeezing.) This rendered Gracie
unconscious. Then, says Beu, Gracie recovered, only to be headlocked so
strongly that a blood vessel broke in his ear, causing it to bleed all over
KimuraĄŚs sleeve. Three points in as many minutes, unconscious once, and
bleeding from the ears ĄV but no submission! So off they go again. Kimura
gets an armlock that Gracie canĄŚt escape and finally the BrazilianĄŚs
corner throws in the towel. The ever-credulous Beu then adds that since
Kimura had never been extended beyond three minutes before and Gracie had
gone thirteen, Gracie had held his own against the very best that Japan had
to offer.
This is nonsense. Kimura nearly kills Gracie, yet Gracie is the winner?
Among KimuraĄŚs many victims, I would guess that many went beyond three
minutes. After all, this was pro ĄĽrassling for a crowd that didnĄŚt like
thirty-second falls. As for Kimura having never gone beyond three minutes,
note that the bout in Hawaii lasted eight minutes, while his 1949 draw with
Ishikawa went fifty minutes. That is the second-longest match on record. The
longest match was an 1886 shiai between Sakujiro Yokoyama and Hansuke
Nakamura that lasted 55 minutes. That contest was so fierce that in the end
the officials had to literally pry the combatantsĄŚ fingers off the otherĄŚs
jacket.
Now what does the Gracie film show? It shows professional doctoring. All the
telling points Beu grudgingly acknowledges have been cut out. This is what I
saw in the less than two minutes left in. Kimura and Gracie take hold.
Kimura blasts Gracie to the mat with a large outer reaping (o-soto-gari).
Unafraid of GracieĄŚs chokehold, he follows him down and controls him the
rest of the way. I thought Kimura could have ended it sooner, but
"accommodated" by permitting some rolling. Of course, this could have been a
function of the editing. But even in the bit that the Brazilian censors have
left us, Kimura is so overwhelming that one can only shudder at the stuff
left on the cutting room floor.
Another indication of accommodation is the first technique Beu mentions, the
famed shoulder throw, after which Kimura lands on top of Gracie
(significantly, not shown in the film). Donn Draeger once told me that,
during the Thirties, Kimura would lie down on his back and let anyone in
Japan have one of his arms ĄV and still escape. Kimura was a bear down
there. Therefore, with Kimura at 220 pounds, there was no 140 pound human
anywhere in the galaxy who could have lasted ĄV without KimuraĄŚs help.
I donĄŚt want to be too harsh on Gracie. IĄŚll stipulate that, irrespective
of rules, he would have beaten film stars Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in a
couple minutes, and the rest of the larcenous la-la land fighters from
Hollywood (Seagal, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, ad nauseum) together in the
same ring in under five. But, without jackets, let him face a freestyle
wrestler like Dan Gable and he would fall fairly quickly. Give him a jacket,
and he would have fallen for good sambo players like E. Chumakov, and did
fall for a judo man named Kimura.
Sickened by show ĄĽrassling, Kimura returned to Japan and became a coach at
Takushoku University. Though he never regained his lost prestige at the
Kodokan, he stayed fit. Paul Nurse tells me that before the Tokyo Olympics
of 1964, Kimura, then coaching at Takushoku, worked out with the Japanese
Olympic Team. This included Donn DraegerĄŚs weight-training protege, Isao
Inokuma, and Kaminaga. Kimura, aged 46 or 47 at the time, tore them all
apart. A week later, Doug Rogers of Canada (a student of Kimura and a silver
medalist in those Olympics) saw Inokuma (the future gold medalist) outside
the Kodokan. Rogers told Inokuma heĄŚd heard about what Kimura had done to
the Japanese Olympic team. Inokuma just shook his head in shock, saying,
"Yes, amazing, amazing." Thinking to needle him, Rogers told Inokuma that
Kimura was planning on coming out of retirement to try out for the team. At
this, Inokuma was visibly shaken and told the Canadian that he had no doubt
that Kimura could have any place on the Japanese team, including InokumaĄŚs
own, if he desired.
Later, according to Wayne Erdman (6th-dan), Canadian National judo coach,
Kimura, at 64 and weighing 165 pounds was still able to convey raw power
into his judo. Rainier Fischer of Judo Ontario described this power
following KimuraĄŚs visit to Montreal in 1980: "Being an extremely humble
and quiet person, it is hard to believe that he was responsible for ripping
off an opponentĄŚs ear while doing o-soto-gari or breaking arms when
applying ude-garami. But unless a person has trained very hard himself, he
can never really appreciate the accomplishments of Mr. Kimura. Imagine
bench-pressing 80 kilos (176 pounds) for 500 consecutive repetitions!
Imagine doing 1000 push-ups every day in your room after training! Mr.
KimuraĄŚs judo includes no counter or combination techniques. His philosophy
was geared toward ippon (full point) judo with himself attacking and his
opponent attempting to defend. For him, there was no retreating. For every
imaginable situation, the master had a specific technique. His ippon
seoi-nage alone had a dozen different entries."
Kimura visited North America in 1970 and attracted as many as 350
participants to his seminars. He died in 1993 at age 75.
Excerpted from Martial Musings: A Portrayal of Martial Arts in the 20th
Century by Robert W. Smith. Published by Via Media Publishing Company, 1999.

 By Robert Smith
Ehmmm.....Francescaaaaaa.....!!!!
Trasli solo per l'Aikido od anche.....
^____________^
            Maestro Mario Cosentino
 
http://web.tiscalinet.it/MarioCosentino
 
www.juko-junior-club.it
                  ICQ 46225702
                        Milano

Ciao YM
che dire dell' articolo da te proposto?
Kimura è ben noto a tutti i judoka (o ex-, come me) della mia età,
sicuramente poco conosciuto dai più giovani. L'episodio principale
dell'articolo, cioè la sfida con Helio Gracie, ha visto differenti versioni,
quasi tutte volte a salvare la faccia del "vecchio" brasiliano capostipite
della famiglia.
Certo l'episodio è un pezzo di storia del variopinto mondo marziale che
accosta talvolta  troppo avventatamente contendenti di livello ed estrazione
troppo diversi.
Divertente il contentino dell'articolista che, giudicando improponibile il
confronto con Kimura, darebbe però il vecchio Gracie, (nel fiore degli anni,
suppongo) vincitore nei confronti di Seagall, Stallone, Schwarzy, Bruce Lee
e Chuck Norris. Adesso scatenatevi !!!!!!  :-)))
Un ciccio (leggi esca) lo butto anch'io:  con i judogi addosso e parlando
ovviamente di ne-waza, un qualsiasi judoka russo o kazako di livello
mondiale (ai miei tempi nella mia categoria c'era Nevzorov) si spolperebbe
qualsiasi Gracie odierno come una quaglietta....(tanto per scatenare un po'
di casino)  ;-))
ciao   lob
-- 
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 Trasli solo per l'Aikido od anche.....
Quando vivevo a Seattle (1952-54), alcuni judoka di esperienza mi parlarono
di Masahiko Kimura, un settimo Dan che aveva visitato Seattle nel maggio del
'52...
...mica ci avrai creduto, no? ^_^ quattro pagine di post da tradurre sono
proprio troppe!
Francesca