Keiko Fukuda: Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful
2009 November 10
Keiko Fukuda is a judo teacher in San Francisco who recently attained a high rank in the art, the 9th dan. In the documentary she explains how for 30 years she was kept at an artificially low ranking because she was female. Today she has rank and respect and is still teaching at age 96. Flying Carp Productions is making a documentary film about her life. They still need donations to help finish the film!
Thanks to fightingwords for the link!
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Wow, that’s amazing, and very moving.
*is blown away*
Seconded on the amazing.
Wow! Of the websites I visit regularly, this wasn’t the one where I expected to find an article about Fukuda-sensei. As a judoka, I really appreciate your posting this.
There are a lot more articles on Fukuda-sensei online; a few of them are linked from her wikipedia page, including this one on the judoinfo site.
No surprise either that there are a lot of other really amazing and inspirational women in the sport, both in the past and present. A few who jump immediately to mind:
Sarah Mayer, one of the earliest female judoka, and the first British woman to be awarded a black belt; Dr AnnMaria De Mars, 1984 world judo champion and statistics geek, and Ronda Rousey, bronze medallist at the Beijing Olympics and first American woman ever to medal in judo since it became an official Olympic sport.
I really felt for her in her decision to ‘marry’ into judo and I am glad she has spoken out.
I love this video. Sent a link to my Tai Chi sifu.
Add me to the list of people really moved by this and by Keiko Fukuda. Wow.
Hoyden About Town now has a transcript of the video for anyone who doesn’t find video accessible, thanks to Quixotess’s offer to transcribe material for blogs and communities of interest.
Thanks for posting this — as a woman in a different martial art, I really appreciated it and found it inspirational.