Jigor Kano
Col. William E. Fairbairn, The Father Of Modern Hand-To-Hand Combat
The more I have been reading about Col. Fairbairn and the fighting system of Defendu or gutter fighting, the more intrigued I have become.
Defendu incorporates movements and techniques from Tenshin Jiu Jitsu, but what makes it unique, is that with the assistance of Eric A. Sykes, he actually made techniques easy to learn and to remember, especially when under stress.
As this system does not call for any complicated moves and physical fitness, just about anybody can achieve proficiency in a fairly short period of time.
Originally, Fairbairn developed and taught Defendu to the 9,000 Shanghai police officers and even to the famed 4th Marine Regiment known as the China Marines.
Get this: Fairbairn founded, developed, trained, and headed the Shanghai Riot Squad. It was the first ever Special Weapons & Tactics Unit, and even today it serves as the prototype for S.W.A.T. teams as we know them.
Did I mention that this all occurred between 1907 and 1940 in Shanghai which was considered one the most dangerous cities in the world at the time?
First an international settlement and later under Japanese occupation, Shanghai dealt with a tremendous amount of gang wars, drug trafficking, murder, political assassination, prostitution and kidnapping, just to name a few.
Defendu is considered as the first police defensive tactics system. Defendu includes striking, kicking, biting, gouging, trapping, holds and joint locks, throwing etc. in close quarters.
What appeals to everyone serious about self-defense is that it gets right to the point and avoids high kicks and jumping techniques which can look great on the Big Screen, but shouldn’t necessarily be used when you just want to get home safely.
Fairnburn was an accomplished Kodokan judoka (certified by Jigoro Kano!) who also incorporated some basic ground fighting techniques along with chokes and take downs as the basic grappling defenses.
After retiring from his police work in Shanghai in 1940, Fairbairn returned to war-time Great Britain where he received the assignment to train British and Allied commandos at a top-secret location. The special operators were then responsible for training the US Army, Marines, Rangers and OSS (later CIA) operatives.
Col. William Ewart Fairbairn was born in 1885 and died in 1960. He was a British soldier, police officer and while training WWII Allied forces and later Western intelligence services, he was considered the most knowledgeable expert of hand to hand combat at the time.
Here you can see Fairbairn demonstrating elements of his system together with another close combat legend, Rex Applegate.
And here is what Bill Wolfe has to say about Col. Fairbairn:
Tipping Off March Madness With The Week In Review
“Variety is the spice of life.”
I am trying to live up to that saying by posting about different topics that relate to martial arts or not. Anyway ….
In case you were too busy being busy, here’s what you missed:
Bulgarian Greco-Roman Wrestler Is Big In Japan: The David Beckham Of Sumo
It Happened In 1935 … Sarah Mayer, First Non-Japanese Female Judo Black Belt
The Question Is: “Honestly, Are You Really Prepared To Fight If You Have To?”
With ‘The Sensei ‘, She’s Creating Buzz In The Movie Industry And Let’s Just Face It … With A Name Like Lee Inosanto, She’s Got To Be Good
What Goes Up, Must Come Down. With This Guy, Things Appear To Be A Bit Different. Thai Action Movie Star Tony Jaa Defies The Law Of Physics.
There you have it: The Week In Review At TheMartialArtsReporter.com
Have a great Sunday!
I will be reporting again from here tomorrow.
Sarah Mayer, First Non-Japanese Female Judo Black Belt
The same year that Amelia Earhart flew from Honolulu to Oakland Ca (non-stop, of course), driving tests were introduced in Great Britain and Parker Brothers launched their game of Monopoly, the martial art of Judo awarded its first black belt to a non-Japanese female judoka.
This all happened in 1935!
Sarah Mayer started Judo in London, England at the Budokwai, which had been founded by Gunji Koizumi in 1918.
She visited Japan in the 1930′s and studied at the birthplace of Judo, better known as ‘Kodokan’.
Later she went on to study at the Kyoto Butokukai, which had been established in 1890 and was led by founder Jigoro Kano’s representatives, for about 2 years.
On March 1, 1935 the Japanese Times bore the headline “Foreign Woman wins Shodan at the Butokukai”.
To Sarah Mayer’s surprise, she was offered this rank on February 27, 1935 and was the first non-Japanese woman in the world to be awarded black belt rank in Kodokan Judo.
She returned the same year to Britain and practiced at the Budokwai for a while before setting up her own dojo in her home in Burgh Heath.
The Highest Ranking Female Judoka In The World
As you know by now, it is always a pleasure for me to post something interesting and inspirational about and for female martial artists.
Today we continue our tradition and this a big one!
Our featured female martial artist, Keiko Fukuda, was born in 1913 in Tokyo, Japan.
It wasn’t until 1935 that she actually started practicing the martial art of judo at the age of 21. Look at those dates again and be amazed like I am.
At that time, Japan and many other industrialized countries were still deeply affected by The Great Depression that started in 1929 and continued for many even until the end of World War II in 1945.
I don’t consider myself a Japanology expert, but I am pretty sure that Japanese women weren’t necessarily encouraged to pursue a martial arts career in the 1930s.
Keiko Fukuda was even exceptional in those days by flat-out rejecting an arranged marriage to do just that after being being invited to study judo by its founder Jigoro Kano himself in the newly created women’s division!
Kano had been a Jujutsu student of her grandfather, Fukuda Hachinosuke, who at one time had been a samurai.
Amazingly, today Keiko Fukuda is the last living pupil of Kano.
Empowering and inspring women about the kata (forms) of Kodokan judo, Keiko Fukuda published the instructional book Born for the Mat in 1973.
In 2001, the United States Judo Federation awarded her a rare red belt for her lifelong contribution to judo.
It was in January 2006 that the Kodokan Judo Institute also awarded her the 9th degree black belt (9th dan).
Keiko Fukuda is currently the only woman in the world to hold a 9th degree black belt from any recognized judo organization.
At the time of writing this post, Keiko Fukuda is close to 97 and I bet some of you are thinking that she probably spends her days just sitting at home in front of the TV watching The Price Is Right or whatever.
Nothing could be further from the truth, because she still teaches at the Soko Joshi Judo Club in the Noe valley district of San Francisco, California as well as at the annual Joshi Judo Camp, a camp she founded in 1974 to give women judoka an opportunity to train together.
Gentle, Strong, Beautiful, she is judo pioneer, Keiko Fukuda, the highest ranking female judoka in the world.
I am dedicating today’s post to all female martial artists. Past, current and future.
The Week In Review At TheMartialArtsReporter.com
The Week In Review At TheMartialArtsReporter.com
“Time keeps on moving into the future.”
But that shouldn’t stop us from having a look at this past Week In Review. Enjoy!
This has to be my personal favorite technique ever. Don’t miss “Back To Basics: Karate Middle Punch (Chudan Zuki)“
“Chewing on” an injury myself, I thought you might benefit from “Should Injured Martial Artists Still Work Out?”
At times underrated and underestimated “Judo: No Kicking And Punching, But It Can Still Hurt Like Hell!“
Do you know who ‘The Greatest Sports Figure Of The State of Iowa’ Is? Dan Gable, Olympic Wrestling Icon From The U.S. American Heartland
Yeah, it’s that time of the year again: “Jack Bauer/Kiefer Sutherland Of “24″ And The Art Of Fighting“
Congratulations To Fellow Martial Artist, Robert Downey Jr.! Wing Chun Practitioner Wins A Golden Globe Award for Sherlock Holmes!
Take it from the Little Dragon, Bruce Lee And The Power Of Goal Setting
Enjoy your Sunday!
I’ll be back here tomorrow. You, too?
Judo: No Kicking And Punching, But It Can Still Hurt Like Hell!
The Japanese martial art of Judo, means ‘the gentle way’ in English. I still haven’t figured out the gentleness of it all.
I took some Judo classes way back when and I gotta tell ya that some of those techniques sure can hurt like hell.
Those guys would grab you and throw you around like a rag-doll.
Slam you down on the mat and then apply a lock or a bar or something else that created the feeling of “OUCH! *#%!* YOU WIN! CAN I PLEASE GO HOME NOW?”.
There was a lot of tapping going on. Not the Sammy Davis Jr. or Geogory Hines-kind of tapping.
More slapping the mat like a fish caught on board a trawler gasping and knowing that it’s going to end up in a grocery shopping aisle real soon.
I think you get my drift by now.
Judo doesn’t offer or better doesn’t allow flashy kicks that would make it so much more appealing to the masses.
But let’s face it:
Judo in all its subtle and gentle way is still an extremely effective martial art that was the base for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu developed by the Gracie family. That’s gotta tell ya somethin’!
I thought you might enjoy a video with two guys who are constantly getting out of their comfort zone by trying a different martial art on a regular base in a foreign country.
Today, they dive right into Judo in Tokyo, Japan, the birthplace of this Olympic martial art introduced by Jigoro Kano over a hundred years ago.
Very cool!
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