Matsugoro Okuda
Matsugoro Okuda | |
---|---|
Born | July 8, 1854 Aizu, Mutsu Province, Japan |
Died | November 29, 1931 Morioka, Iwate, Japan |
Native name | |
Nationality | Japanese |
Style | Fukuno-ryū Kitō-ryū Tenjin Shinyō-ryū |
Teacher(s) | Yoshikatsu Okuda Takeshi Sawada |
Matsugoro Okuda (
Biography[edit]
Okuda started learning jujutsu from his childhood at the dojo of his father Yoshikatsu (also known as Mankichi Okuda). He first started in the native Fukuno-ryū style, but later branched off to the more popular Kitō-ryū and Tenjin Shinyō-ryū, training under master Takeshi Sawada.[2] As a young teenager, he joined the Tokugawa shogunate's hatamoto force, eventually becoming a liaison agent (
In 1876, Okuda had the chance to meet Takamori Saigo, his former enemy in the Boshin War. Learning that Okuda was a jujutsu expert, Saigo hired him as an instructor in his samurai school in Kagoshima. However, with the beginning of the Satsuma Rebellion, Okuda resigned and moved to Yokohama, becoming a freelance jujutsu teacher.[1][3] He eventually landed in Tokyo, where he fought in 1879 a challenge match against an American wrestler at the Shibusawa Library. Although Okuda was outweighed to the point of looking like a child next to his opponent, he won the match, throwing the American down with seoi nage and tomoe nage. The same year, Okuda opened a Kitō-ryū dojo, and became a hand-to-hand instructor for several police services, among them the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.[1][3]
In 1884, while still a police teacher, Okuda created a personal jujutsu style, Okuda-ryū (
Okuda didn't participate further in the Kodokan-Totsuka rivalry, and in 1893 he moved his field of activity to the Iwate Prefecture by invitation of governor Ichizo Hattori.[4] As a consequence, he was not among the jujutsu masters gathered by Kano at the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai to inaugurate its jujutsu division in 1895 either. However, Okuda would join at some point, being granted the title of honorary judo master (
Okuda had a last highlight in 1903 when he faced a young Kyuzo Mifune in a sparring, throwing him four times, though not without predicting Mifune would become a judo legend.[1][3] Afterwards, he dedicated himself to teaching, becoming the master of judo historian Fukuichiro Haruyama. Okuda died in his house in 1931.