Judo Blog: Happy 60th Anniversary Black Belt!

2021 marks the 60th Anniversary Black Belt Magazine. Back In the 60's Black Belt was the first magazine to feature multiple martial arts even though it was mostly about judo back then. I enjoyed reading the articles and learned a great deal from judo legends like Hayward Nishioka and the late Harold Hal Sharp who were regularly featured with in-depth stories on both technical and philosophical aspects of judo and the martial arts. I would have never dreamed that when I grew up these leading figures in judo would become my mentors and personal friends.

Over the years, I have authored these articles and videos which proudly appeared in Black Belt!

The article below from 1968 by my friend and mentor 2x Black Belt Hall of Fame Member Hayward Nishioka actually helped inspire me to stay with judo. I read it after I had been studying under Kyu Ha Kim for several years. Once I asked Mr. Kim (as we called him back then) about the Kano's philosophy and he told me stay with judo and someday you'll come to understand it well. However, I still wanted to know more. That's when Black Belt published this feature by Nishioka Sensei, which I kept from 53 years ago...