About 5-6 years ago by accident I cam across in came across an old news paper article that mentioned that the ambassador of Japan delivered to the president of our Olympic committee a black belt from the Kôdôkan. I found this very interesting since the man, although once a great athlete active in wrestling, had never learnt or done any jûdô. So our initial guess was that this was some kind of "honorary black belt".
But given that the person was relatively high-profile, at least at a national level, the information was sufficiently intriguing for a jûdô researcher to pursue. So, on my next visit to the Kôdôkan, I decided to stop at the Kôdôkan Rank Records Department (officially called the Kôdôkan Deliberation Department) and kind requested to its president if he knew anything about this and if he would be so kind to show me the record. Much to my surprise, the man with whom I had a good relationship --I thought-- reacted angrily and totally stonewalled me. This intrigued me even more since the person I inquired about was long deceased and there was not much of a protection of privacy issue and the individual had been a public and politically active person, and my interest obviously was as a scholar. If I had been quoted some article from the Japanese law on privacy that would have prevented honoring my request, I would have totally understood, but no such thing happened. So, I was somewhat surprised especially given that in the past the Kôdôkan had regularly violated the rather strict Japanese privacy laws by providing information about living people without their consent to third parties, information which wasn't always correct either. Needless to say that their refusal triggered my interest even more, especially since I was not given an alternative, such as for example "please, direct a written request to the kanchô motivating your request, signing it and provide a copy of your ID" or something similar.
Yesterday, my research on this issue finally reached an end when I discovered the original and authentic Kōdōkan rank certificate of the person. The rank certificate clearly is authentic and leaves no doubt who it was issued to, when, by whom and under what number. It clearly was not a mere "honorary black belt" rank, and even more surprising is that it was not just a shodan certificate, but a nidan certificate. As previously indicated, the person to the best of my knowledge, had never even practiced jûdô, never even been a member of a jûdô club ! In order to do justice to the individual involved himself and prevent wrong conclusions, the individual to the best of my knowledge also never claimed to have practiced jûdô either !
I find this most remarkable, even though it is known that Kanô Jigorô had given rank himself to people who had never learnt jûdô at that point, such as notably Koizumi Gunji, and this as a clear marketing strategy to get them on his side and ascertain the power of the Kôdôkan especially in foreign countries. The case of the late Shoriki Matsutarô who twice was jump-promoted and became a 10th dan largely based on his financial donations are well known among jûdô scholars and many senior Japanese jûdôka, but the current case is not public knowledge. It also differs significantly from the known cases in two ways. The other known cases involves people who either were jûdôka or later became jûdôka; Shoriki was a jûdôka, Koizumi 'became' a jûdôka the individual here never was and afterwards also never became a jûdôka. Secondly, the other cases typically involved people who held Japanese citizenship and were of Japanese ethnicity. The individual here was neither.
But given that the person was relatively high-profile, at least at a national level, the information was sufficiently intriguing for a jûdô researcher to pursue. So, on my next visit to the Kôdôkan, I decided to stop at the Kôdôkan Rank Records Department (officially called the Kôdôkan Deliberation Department) and kind requested to its president if he knew anything about this and if he would be so kind to show me the record. Much to my surprise, the man with whom I had a good relationship --I thought-- reacted angrily and totally stonewalled me. This intrigued me even more since the person I inquired about was long deceased and there was not much of a protection of privacy issue and the individual had been a public and politically active person, and my interest obviously was as a scholar. If I had been quoted some article from the Japanese law on privacy that would have prevented honoring my request, I would have totally understood, but no such thing happened. So, I was somewhat surprised especially given that in the past the Kôdôkan had regularly violated the rather strict Japanese privacy laws by providing information about living people without their consent to third parties, information which wasn't always correct either. Needless to say that their refusal triggered my interest even more, especially since I was not given an alternative, such as for example "please, direct a written request to the kanchô motivating your request, signing it and provide a copy of your ID" or something similar.
Yesterday, my research on this issue finally reached an end when I discovered the original and authentic Kōdōkan rank certificate of the person. The rank certificate clearly is authentic and leaves no doubt who it was issued to, when, by whom and under what number. It clearly was not a mere "honorary black belt" rank, and even more surprising is that it was not just a shodan certificate, but a nidan certificate. As previously indicated, the person to the best of my knowledge, had never even practiced jûdô, never even been a member of a jûdô club ! In order to do justice to the individual involved himself and prevent wrong conclusions, the individual to the best of my knowledge also never claimed to have practiced jûdô either !
I find this most remarkable, even though it is known that Kanô Jigorô had given rank himself to people who had never learnt jûdô at that point, such as notably Koizumi Gunji, and this as a clear marketing strategy to get them on his side and ascertain the power of the Kôdôkan especially in foreign countries. The case of the late Shoriki Matsutarô who twice was jump-promoted and became a 10th dan largely based on his financial donations are well known among jûdô scholars and many senior Japanese jûdôka, but the current case is not public knowledge. It also differs significantly from the known cases in two ways. The other known cases involves people who either were jûdôka or later became jûdôka; Shoriki was a jûdôka, Koizumi 'became' a jûdôka the individual here never was and afterwards also never became a jûdôka. Secondly, the other cases typically involved people who held Japanese citizenship and were of Japanese ethnicity. The individual here was neither.