Minoru Mochizuki
Minoru Mochizuki was a Japanese martial artist who studied under Jigoro Kano and Morihei Ueshiba, founded the Yoseikan dojo, and taught Aikido in postwar France.
People Who Shaped Japan
Gozo Shioda
Gozo Shioda was a student of Morihei Ueshiba and the founder of Yoshinkan Aikido, known for systematic basic training and postwar police instruction.
Mitsuyo Maeda
Mitsuyo Maeda was a Kodokan judoka whose international contests, teaching, and settlement in Brazil formed an important link in the history of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Katsu Kaishū
Katsu Kaishū was a Tokugawa naval official and Meiji statesman central to Japan’s naval modernization and the peaceful surrender of Edo Castle.
Mataemon Tanabe
Mataemon Tanabe was a Fusen-ryū jujutsu teacher and judo hanshi whose groundwork became prominent in early inter-school contests.
Kyūzō Mifune
Kyūzō Mifune was a Kodokan 10th-dan judoka known for technical precision, teaching, kata development, and influential writing on judo.
Sakujirō Yokoyama
Sakujirō Yokoyama was an early Kodokan leader, teacher, curriculum contributor, and co-author of an influential judo manual.
Saigō Shirō
Saigō Shirō (1866–1922) was an early Kodokan judoka associated with Yama Arashi whose documented career became intertwined with the fictional hero Sanshirō Sugata.
Morihei Ueshiba
Morihei Ueshiba founded Aikido by transforming Daitō-ryū-derived technique through decades of teaching, religious thought, and institutional change.
Takeda Sōkaku
Takeda Sōkaku was the central documented transmitter of modern Daitō-ryū and the teacher who decisively shaped Morihei Ueshiba’s martial development.