A novel about Judo written by a prize winning Japanese author and judo master helped launch Akira Kurosawa’s career as a film director
[UPDATED: 8-6-2024]
The first film directed by Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), Japan’s most famous film director, was Sanshiro Sugata (Judo Saga), an adaptation of a newly published novel by the judo master and Naoki Prize-winning author Tsuneo Tomita (1904-1967).
The action film was set in the 1880s when judo was founded by Jigoro Kano (1860-1938) out of the traditional Japanese martial art Jujitsu with the help of the author’s father – one of the Four Guardians of Kodokan Judo – and other similar exceptionally proficient fighters.
The film established Kurosawa’s reputation in Japan as an exciting and important newcomer, and alongside the book, helped shape how Kurosawa portrayed fighting and fighters in his films.
Kano, like Kurosawa himself, had a major lasting impact on how the world saw Japan as a nation as well as his chosen profession. He was, for instance, the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Kano helped shape many things besides his sport, which would many years later become a popular international and Olympic sport. He also influenced the Olympic movement in Japan, the nation’s so-called Olympic Literature, and indirectly Kurosawa’s career through his sparring partner’s son’s novel, Sanshiro Sugata, published in 1942, the year before Kurosawa’s first film with the same name went on general release.© Red Circle Authors Limited
