Masahiko Kimura

Masahiko Kimura (木村 政彦) was a Japanese judoka and professional wrestler who is widely considered the greatest judoka of all time.

Kimura was born on September 10, 1917, in Kumamoto, Japan.

He was promoted to 7th dan at age 30, a rank that was frozen after disputes with Kodokan over becoming a professional wrestler, refusing to return the All Japan Judo Championship flag, and issuing dan ranks while in Brazil.

Kimura also trained in karate, believing that karate would strengthen his hands.

First, he trained what today is known as Shotokan Karate under its founder Gichin Funakoshi for two years, then switched to training Goju-Ryu Karate under So-Nei Chu (a pupil of Goju-Ryu founder Chojun Miyagi) and finally became an assistant instructor, along with Gogen Yamaguchi and Masutatsu Oyama in his dōjō (the latter also going to university together with him and aikido master Gozo Shioda ).

In his autobiography, Kimura attributes the use of the makiwara (a karate training implement) as taught to him by So Neichu and his friend and training partner Masutatsu Oyama, as being a significant contributor to his consequent tournament success.

He began using the makiwara daily prior to his first All Japan success and never lost another competition bout.

In 1935, at age 18 he became the youngest ever godan (5th degree black belt) when he defeated eight consecutive opponents at Kodokan (headquarters for the worldwide judo community).

Kimura's remarkable success can in part be attributed to his fanatical training regimen, managed by his teacher, Tatsukuma Ushijima.

Kimura

reportedly lost only four judo matches in his lifetime, all occurring in 1935.

He considered quitting judo after those losses, but through the encouragement of friends he began training again.

He consistently practiced the leg throw osoto gari (large outer reap) against a tree.

Daily randori or sparring sessions at Tokyo Police and Kodokan dōjōs resulted in numerous opponents suffering from concussions and losing consciousness.

Many opponents asked Kimura not to use his osoto gari.

At the height of his career, Kimura's training involved a thousand push-ups and nine hours of practice every day.

He won the All-Japan Judo Championships three times in a row for the first time in history and had never lost a judo match from 1936 to 1950.

In submission grappling, the reverse ude-garami arm lock is often called the "Kimura", due to his famous victory over Gracie jiu-jitsu co-founder Hélio Gracie.

In the Japanese professional wrestling world, he is known for being one of Japan's earliest stars and the controversial match he had with Rikidōzan.

He won the All-Japan Judo Championships, an openweight competition, for three straight years in 1937, 1938, and 1939.

In 1949, after touring for Hawaii, Kimura and his troupe formed by judoka Toshio Yamaguchi and Yukio Kato went to Brazil after an invitation by the Sao Paulo Shimbun.

There they were challenged by Hélio Gracie of the Gracie family.

Gracie proposed a match under what would be known as the "Gracie Rules", in which throws and pins would not count towards victory, with only submission or loss of consciousness.

This played against judo rules in which pins and throws can award someone a victory, but they accepted nonetheless.

Kato was the first to accept the challenge, drawing with Hélio Gracie in their match at the Maracana stadium.

However, he lost to Gracie by gi choke in the rematch at the Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo.

Hélio proposed to continue with the challenge, and Yamaguchi appointed himself the next to fight.

Kimura, however, volunteered to fight in his place.

The bout between Gracie and Kimura took place again in the Maracana stadium, before an audience of 20,000 people, including president of Brazil Getúlio Vargas.

The expectation was such that, according to a source, Kimura had been warned by the Japanese embassy that he would not be welcomed back in Japan if he lost the match.

Kimura was received in the arena with raw eggs and insults by the Brazilian crowds, and the Gracie challengers brought a coffin to symbolize Kimura would be dead, just like they had done with Kato.

At the start of the match, Hélio tried to throw him down with osoto gari and ouchi gari, but Kimura blocked them and scored multiple throws by ouchi gari, harai goshi, uchi mata and ippon seoi nage.

However, Helio Gracie was able to perform ukemi thanks to the soft mat used in competitions, so Kimura could not subdue him by throwing alone.

The judoka started planning a way to win between throw and throw, and at the second round he took the fight to the ground, pinning Gracie with kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame.

After a number of holds by the Japanese, including kesa-gatame, sankaku-jime and do-jime, the Brazilian looked unable to breathe under Kimura, but he persevered until he tried to switch position by pushing with his arm.

At that moment, Kimura seized the limb and executed gyaku-ude-garami.

Hélio did not surrender, and Kimura rotated the arm until it broke.

As Gracie still refused to give up, Masahiko twisted the arm further and broke it again.

Masahiko Kimura began training judo at the age of 9 and was promoted to yondan (4th dan) at the age of 15.

He had defeated six opponents (who were all 3rd and 4th dan) in a row.