Best ever

Hey All,
Just for fun... who do you, personally, think was the greatest Judoka ever? Mifune? Yamashita? Who?

Josh Gepner

[Jon S.]

Kano, of course, since he made it all happen. In terms of skill, Mifune I suppose, but this is pure speculation. Kano would probably tell you Ueshiba, wouldn't he?

Jon Small

Jon is right, more details or limits as in the "who" department. Mifune in Skill? Well, that depends on which skills, too. Most refer to his nage waza skills, kata, etc. He wasn't nearly that short sighted.

What about the more modern judoka? M. Koga has made a name for himself as one of the better competitors and his revised/ variant of seoinage alone puts him on a medium list at least.

Which Yamashita? The young guy with the great randori/shiai skill (Yasuhiro) or Yoshitsugu for his invaluable contributions to Kano's judo?

Kano may indeed answer with Ueshiba if the question were posed properly. If limited to judoka he may have answered differently, who knows? Then there is Tomiki, also. Is it the teacher or the student who made him great?

The list goes on and on. The list may not even include "the greatest." Some just didn't make themselves known in this manner. Then there are those who researched it, etc., etc.

Mark

Josh,
Would you be interested in a project of this sort? You could set the limits anyway you wish, a la Yamantaka in the aikido forum and his list of high-ranking non-Japanese aikidoka. Start a list, set the limts or territory as you see fit, and ask for those you have left out.

I don't know whether it will work or not, but judo is old enough for a long list in lots of areas.

Just a suggestion.

Mark

PS: Start a new thread of course if you wish to do so. Giving it some time may bring a lot of unknowns to the fore front. Sometimes they work when least exected. Ben started a good one in his post about Shiro Saigo. If it does become something it could be published other than a bullletin board.

Hi, Guys.

For scholorship and skills and ass-kicking toughness, I have to put S. Yokoyama in the top 5.

Regards,

Ed Burgess

PS: Yokoyama was Mifune's teacher.