Here's a link to a short news article about her: Woman 98-year old awarded judo 10th dan. And here's a wiki about her : Keiko Fukuda
In this YouTube video where she talks about her life (up to 2006 when she was awarded her 9th dan). It's quite poignant and moving in places, particularly when she talks about making her choice between judo and marriage.
What an amazing lady and ambassador for Judo and women in the martial arts generally.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
15 comments:
Love it - even if it took sooo long for her to be awarded her 10th dan (mainly due to the politics of having a female judoka reach this milestone). She is quite the inspiration.
Felicia, Hi! Still going strong at 98 is an amazing achievement but I think her greatest achievement was breaking through the glass ceiling at 6th dan and thus paving the way for other women to follow. We have a lot to thank her for...
I remember the first article on Sensei Fukuda, both were inspiring. I had a hard time keeping the tears back.
There are very few who gain this much humility and inspire so many to succeed.
Thanks Sue!
You're welcome Charles...
Great achievement and very inspiring to everyone! Where there is a will there is a way.
Absolutely! Thanks for your comment...
It doesn't matter what style you study, learning about Fukuda Sensei should be required homework. And I agree with you that in many ways the 6th dan achievement could be the most significant for all others who followed. Thanks for posting about such an important martial artist and achievement.
What a wonderfully inspiring story. While the Kodokan and by implication Kano are described as being sexist, it should be remembered he explicitly instituted a women's section in his Kodokan Judo. He took those first tentative steps. We need to acknowledge those steps, even though now we may see them as being not big enough or meaningful enough.
Given my current condition (burnout), I confess to relating to Fukuda's emotions concerning her choice of her martial art over marriage. It's an easy choice to make at the time, but, there can be pain felt at a later date.
Journeyman, You're welcome. I'd like to think that I'll still be doing martial arts at 98!
John, you're absolutely right, Kano did open the door for women to enter judo so we really shouldn't think of him as sexist, he was clearly quite forward thinking.
Very inspiring post! Love it, Not only is her story inspiring, but she herself.
She certainly is Mr Martial Arts, thanks for commenting.
Wow! Just wow. Talk about putting your mind to something and completing it at all costs!
Ninja Weapons... there are no barriers to achievement except the ones we put there ourselves...
Thanks for some other informative blog. The place else could I get that type of info written in such an ideal manner? I've a mission that I'm simply now working on, and I've been at the look out for such info.
Also see my webpage: Organic Coffee with Ganoderma Lucidum from Organo Gold
Anon. Thank you for your kind words, glad to be helping with your mission...
Post a Comment