(Kousaku Yokota) My father was a Kodokan judo blackbelt, so he encouraged me to take up judo when I was in junior high school. There was no judo club in my school so I went to the ward police station headquarters where the policemen were teaching martial arts (only judo and kendo). I took up judo when I was 13 and practiced for 3 years. I earned a junior black belt and won a high school championship.
One day a short boy joined the judo club. I clearly remember him to be quite strange because every time I threw him down on the mat he would spring up and gets in a strange stance (I think it was a cat stance now that I think of it). Normally a new student would not jump up from the mat after being thrown down like he did. I had never seen this unusual move. After a few weeks I got to know him better so I asked him why he did this. He said he practiced karate and he was taking up judo to learn how it was to be thrown so he could fight a judo man. Up to that time I really believed that judo was invincible and greatest martial art so I said to him “So, you learned karate cannot beat judo, right?’
To my surprise he said, “Judo is great when some body grabs you but a judo guy cannot beat a karate guy if he is more than 3 feet away.” I did not understand what he meant as I did not know the techniques of karate. He explained and demonstrated what karate could do and I was very fascinated. When I went into senior high school, although the Judo club tried very hard to recruit me, my mind was set. I wanted to start karate. Again, there was no karate club in my school so I joined a karate club at the main YMCA in my hometown, Kobe. That dojo happened to be the headquarters of JKA (Japan Karate Association) of Hyogo prefecture taught by late Master Sugano (9th dan).
