Shihan Keiko Fukuda (1913-2013)
Shihan Fukuda is the highest-ranking female practitioner of judo in the world. She was born in Tokyo, and began the practice of judo in 1935 at the age of 21. Fukuda Sensei was revered as the last living disciple of Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo. Kano, who opened his judo school — known as the Kodokan — in Tokyo in 1882 and added a “Women’s Section” about 40 years later. When Shihan Fukuda began taking lessons in 1935, she was one of only two dozen women in the school, which is known today as the Kodokan International Judo Center. Kano had invited her to study judo because of her martial art lineage. She was the granddaughter of a renowned jujitsu master, Fukuda Hachinosuke, who had taught that Japanese martial art to Kano.
In 1973, Fukuda published Born for the Mat, an instructional book intended for women about the kata of kodokan judo. In 2005, Fukuda published Ju-No-Kata: A Kodokan textbook, Revised and Expanded from Born for the Mat (Publisher: North Atlantic Books): A pictorial textbook for performing Ju No Kata, one of the seven Kodokan Kata.
She was awarded a rare red belt in judo by the United States Judo Federation in 2001 for her lifelong contribution to the martial art. In January of 2006, at its annual Kagami Biraki New Years celebration, the Kodokan Judo Institute also awarded her the 9th degree black belt (9th dan). She is the only woman to ever hold this high rank from any recognized judo organization. In July, 2011 Shihan Fukuda made further history by being awarded the 10th dan by AJJF. She is one of three to hold this rank and the only woman.
Shihan Fukuda first visited the United States at the invitation of a judo club in Oakland in 1953. She stayed for almost 2 years. She returned to California in 1966 and traveled all over the state giving seminars. That same year, she gave a judo demonstration at Mills College, and the school immediately offered her a job. She taught judo there for more than a decade.
During those same years, Fukuda also taught in her home. When the number of students swelled, she moved her classes to a Buddhist temple in Japantown. Her club, the Soko Joshi Judo Club (“The Women’s Judo Club”), moved to its current quarters, at Castro and 26th streets, in 1973. She is a recipient of the Emperor of Japan Distinguished Cultural Award.
Dr. Feng met Shihan Fukuda when she was teaching at Mills College. He subsequently studied at her dojo in San Francisco.
Shihan Fukuda’s legacy and inspiration continue to be nutured by the Keiko Fukuda & Shelley Fernandez Girls & Women’ s Judo Foundation, Inc. The Foundation has built and staffed judo classes for girls and women in Patiala, India and Sensei Feng accompanied Dr. Fernandez there to teach in 2015.