Gunji Koizumi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gunji Koizumi ( Japanese 小泉 軍 治 , Koizumi Gunji ; * July 8, 1885 in Inashiki ; † April 15, 1965 in London ), also known as GK for short among sports colleagues , was a Japanese judo professor ( sensei ) and is the progenitor (grandpa) of Called judo sports in Great Britain . He founded the European Judo Union and was a co-founder of the British Judo Association (BJA). Koizumi was honored with the 8th Dan Judo by the Kodokan.

Childhood and youth

Koizumi was born in 1885 in the village of Komatsuka Oaza , which was then about 32 km north of Tokyo and now belongs to Inashiki in Ibaraki Prefecture . He was the younger son of the land tenant and farmer Shukichi Koizumi and his wife Katsu . Koizumi had an older brother, Chiyokichi , and a younger sister, Iku . When Koizumi was twelve years old, he began to train in the school kendō , the sword art of the samurai . He learned to speak and write English from a neighbor who had returned from the United States after a long stay . In July 1900, shortly before his 15th birthday, he left his parents' home to seek his fortune in Tokyo. There he took up professional training in the state telegraph office and began in 1901 with Tago Nobushige with Jiu Jitsu training in the style of Tenjin Shinyō-ryū . After completing his professional training, he first stayed as a telegraph operator in Tokyo and then worked for the railroad in Korea . He continued his training in martial arts in 1904 with Yamada Nobukatsu , a former samurai. In 1904 Koizumi decided to study electrical engineering and said that a stay in the United States would offer the best chance. On the way there he traveled west and earned his travel money successively in Shanghai , Hong Kong , Singapore and India . When he was in Singapore in 1905, he trained with Tsunejiro Akishima .

Establishing its existence in the UK

On May 4, 1906, Koizumi arrived in the port of Mostyn on board the steamship SS Romsford in North Wales . From there he immediately traveled to Liverpool , where he briefly accepted a position as a Jiu Jitsu teacher at the Kara Ashikaga School of Ju-Jutsu . He soon moved on to London to work with the teacher of the former Bartitsu Club, Sadakazu Uyenishi , who ran a Jiu Jitsu school in Piccadilly Circus . In 1907 Koizumi began working as a Jiu Jitsu teacher at the London Polytechnic and in the Royal Navy for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve . After a few months in London, Koizumi boarded a ship to New York City , where he arrived in May 1907. He took a job with the Newark Public Railroad Company, failed to make friends with the American way of life for the next three years, and eventually returned to England. In London's Vauxhall Road , Koizumi tried to set up a business for electrical lighting, but failed because of too little of its own capital. In January 1912 he opened a studio for oriental lacquerware on Ebury Street in London , which over the course of several years helped him to achieve considerable prosperity. At his own expense, Koizumi founded the Budokwai sports club in London in 1918 , which was to offer the residents of Great Britain the opportunity to study and train in almost all Budo sports.

Koizumi bought a building for the Budokwai on Lower Grosvenor Place , directly behind Buckingham Palace, and opened the premises of the sports club on January 26, 1918. As the first professional Budo teacher, he signed Yukio Tani , who had already worked very successfully at the Bartitsu Club and gained fame through demonstrations of his martial arts in England.

In 1919, Koizumi was a founding member of the Kyosai Kai charity , which offered Japanese assistance in finding work and accommodation and provided medical assistance. This society, in which Koizumi worked as general secretary, was housed in the premises of the Budokwai. In July 1920, Jigoro Kano , the founder of the Kōdōkan , visited the Budokwai on his trip to the Olympic Games in Antwerp . After some discussion with Kano, Koizumi and Yukio Tani agreed to teach Judo according to the principles of the Kodokan. As a result, both were awarded the 2nd Dan by Kano.

Koizumi was not only a judo professor, but also an advisor to the Victoria and Albert Museum in the field of oriental lacquer art.

As an expert in the field of oriental lacquer art, Koizumi started advising the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1922 and later cataloged its entire lacquer art collection.

Under Koizumi's leadership, the Budokwai took part in the first German judo (Jiu-Jitsu) championships in Cologne in 1926 as part of the 2nd  German Fighting Games , which were advertised as an international competition. Koizumi also dealt more closely with Alfred Rhode and his ideas for the further development of Jiu-Jitsu / Judo as a martial art. Rohde and Koizumi then organized a team competition between English and German judoka in Germany in 1929. In 1928 Koizumi founded a Jiu Jitsu and Judo school in Liverpool with Mikinosuke Kawaishi , who wanted to settle in England as a Jiu Jitsu teacher. A lifelong friendship developed from this. Koizumi supported Kawaishi in 1931 in London in founding the Victoria Working Men's Club , an Anglo-Japanese judo club. He also involved Kawaishi in Jiu Jitsu and Judo training for students in Oxford. The Kodokan awarded Koizumi the 4th Dan Judo in 1932.

During the Second World War , Koizumi kept the Budokwai open for judo training at great expense. His biographer Richard Bowen points out the extraordinary fact that as a Japanese Koizumi was not interned in England during this time and was not subjected to any other restrictions. After the war, Koizumi re-established contact with Kawaishi in France. Both organized an international judo competition for the first time in 1947, with the best British and French judoka competing against each other for the Kawaishi Cup .

On July 24, 1948, the British Judo Association (BJA) was founded with the participation and support of Koizumi . The founding members of the BJA appointed him inauguration president. On Koizumi's initiative, the European Judo Union (EJU) was re-established in 1948 and the Kodokan awarded him the 6th Dan Judo. At Koizumi's suggestion, the European John Barnes was appointed founding president of the EJU. From 1949 Koizumi withdrew from his business in order to devote himself to judo training in Great Britain with all his might. In 1951 the Kodokan awarded him the 7th Dan Judo.

Koizumi was married with a daughter named Hana , who was later married to Percy Sekine , one of Koizumi's judo students.

End of life

In 1954 Koizumi visited Tokyo and his birthplace, which had perished in the city of Inashiki, for the first time in over 50 years.

On September 19, 1954, the Budokwai moved to new, larger premises. Shortly afterwards, Koizumi visited Japan for the first time in over 50 years. His sister, some relatives, and a delegation from the Kodokan headed by President Risei Kano , a son of Jigoro Kano, received him solemnly at Tokyo Haneda Airport . The Kodokan treated him as a guest of honor. He did not recognize his place of birth in the urban area of Inashiki . After traveling to Japan, Koizumi returned to London, which had become his home, and wrote several judo books, including Judo: The basic technical principles and exercises. and My study of Judo: The principles and the technical fundamentals. He continued his teaching activities as a judo professor in Budokwai and in institutions and events of the BJA until the early 1960s.

The night before Koizumi died, Charles Palmer , one of Koizumi's students and then president of Budokwai and the BJA, noticed that something was wrong with Koizumi. "Instead of the usual friendly 'good-night', Koizumi took Palmer's hand, shook it and said 'good-bye' to him." On April 15, 1965, Koizumi committed suicide in his Putney apartment . Koizumi's suicide rocked the judo community worldwide and was judged inconsistently. Some saw his suicide as dishonorable, while others suspected that he had determined the end of his life as an honorable samurai himself. According to C. Grant, Koizumi was awarded the 8th Dan Judo by the Kodokan while he was still alive. Alan Fromm and Nicolas Soames, however, established in 1982 that the 8th Dan had only been awarded posthumously.

Richard Bowen , Charles Palmer (President of the IJF), Sarah Mayer (first woman outside of Japan to be awarded a Dan by the Kodokan) and Percy are among the large number of students who learned the sport of judo to perfection at Koizumi in Budokwai To highlight Sekine (President of Budokwai).

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f C. Grant: A Judo landmark: Gunji Koizumi - GK's 'New Judo' attracted Britain's professional classes. ; Judo-Journal Black Belt , Volume 3, Issue 11, 1965, pp. 10-14.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f K. Tsumura: He died a Samurai's death: Two world Judo leaders defend the honor of GK, Founder of British Judo, who took his own life. ; Judo-Journal Black Belt , Volume 4, Issue 6, 1966, pp. 48–50.
  3. ↑ JD Schilder: Grandpa sets an example. ; Judo-Journal Black Belt , Volume 5, Issue 2, 1967, pp. 46–47.
  4. ↑ a b c d Budokwai: The History of Budokwai. (English; published 2005; last accessed on February 25, 2010.)
  5. ^ A b Thomas A. Green, Joseph R. Svinth: Martial arts in the modern world. ; Praeger Publishers, Santa Barbara 2003, ISBN 978-0-275-98153-2 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Ian Hill Nish, Hugh Cortazzi: Britain & Japan. ; Routledge Shorton, London / New York 2003, ISBN 978-1-903350-14-0 .
  7. ^ GG Chatterton: The gentle art of ju-ju-tsu. ; Chambers's Journal, No. 7, 1907, pp. 751-752.
  8. ↑ Gunji Koizumi: My study of Judo: The principles and the technical fundamentals. ; Sterling Publishing, New York 1960, pp. 17-18.
  9. ↑ a b Keiko Itho: The Japanese community in pre-war Britain. ; Routledge Shorton, London / New York 2001, ISBN 978-0-7007-1487-2 .
  10. ↑ a b c S. Walker: Gunji Koizumi (1885–1965) ( Memento of March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English; published 2005; last accessed on February 25, 2010.)
  11. ↑ Gunji Koizumi: Lacquer work: A practical exposure of the art of lacquering together with valuable notes for the collector. ; Pitman House Limited, London 1923.
  12. ↑ a b c Budokwai: Personalities of the past. ( Memento of the original from September 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English; published 2005; last accessed on February 26, 2010.) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.budokwai.org
  13. ↑ On the initiative of the Deutscher Judo-Ring and Alfred Rhodes, a European Judo Union was formed for the first time in Zurich in 1932 , but it perished in the turmoil of World War II due to the political influence of the Nazi state .
  14. ^ Richard Bowen: An Englishwoman's description of learning Judo in Japan: Letters from Sarah Mayer to Gunji Koizumi, 1934-1935, Part I .; Journal of Combative Sport Science. (published February 2000; last accessed February 26, 2010.)
  15. ↑ Gunji Koizumi: Judo: The basic technical principles and exercises, supplemented with contest rules and grading syllabus. ; Foulsham, Berkshire UK 1958
  16. ↑ Gunji Koizumi: My study of Judo: The principles and the technical fundamentals. ; Sterling Publishing, New York 1960.
  17. ^ Alan Fromm, Nicolas Soames: Judo, the gentle way. ; Publisher Routledge / Thoemms Press, London 1982, ISBN 978-0-7100-9025-6 .
personal data
SURNAME Koizumi, Gunji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES GK; 小泉 軍 治 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese Jiu Jitsu and Judo professor, pioneer of Jiu Jitsu and Jūdō in the United Kingdom
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Inashiki
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1965
Place of death London