Keiko Fukuda

Keiko was a living link to judo's formation. Her grandfather Fukuda Hachinosuke was a Japanese samurai and jujitsu master. One of his last students, Kano Jigoro, began developing judo in the early 1880s as an offshoot of jujitsu, combining balance and strength with holding and throwing techniques. In the early 1930s, Kano invited Keiko to join a new judo class for women at the school he founded in Tokyo. It was rare for women to learn judo at the time.

Keiko became captivated by judo. During WWII she braved the streets of firebombed Tokyo and commuted daily to teach her beloved judo classes By 1953 she was among the senior-most female judoka in the world. In 1966 she moved to the United States and opened the Soko Joshi Judo Club in San Francisco, teaching judo to women until just before her death in 2013 at age 99.