SANPO TOKU

An Almost Legendary Judoka

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It took me a long time to find some written material about Sanpo Toku other than that written in Hanshi Masayuki Kukan Hisataka's books: " ... Shortly, thereafter, he went to Tokyo and studied judo under Master Sanpo Toku at the Kodokan. Interestingly, he attained the rank of fourth degree black belt in a single year."

I could not find any Judo books written in English that mentioned Judo Master, Sanpo Toku.

Finally I found this ...

Toku Sensei was the ruler of the kingdom of Tokuno Chiba situated near Okinawa. As the offspring of a noble family it was the custom that he study martial arts at a very early age. He studied kendo and was very skilled in the art of the sword. With the close proximity of Okinawa he was able to study karate. Master Toku was tall and strong and excelled in numerous martial arts, with Judo, Kendo and Karate being the principal ones. However the only art he taught was Judo, his method of teaching directly inherited from Judo founder, Master Jigoro Kano.

Minoru Mochizuki related this story about Master Toku in an interview:

"The power and force of of Master Toku meant that he quickly gained a solid reputation. He often performed impressive demonstrations in his dojo. He would launch himself from one corner of the room and with his fist held out in front, he would strike the central pillar.

According to tradition every student had a tablet of wood on which his name was written. These wooden tablets hung in lines in the dojo wall according to grade. As the student moved up the grades, his tablet moved up higher on the wall. This allowed you to see what level the student had reached.

When Master Toku struck the pillar with all his strength all the tablets on the wall would rattle, making a dreadful noise echoing in the dojo and round about which I can still remember.

For a long time Master Toku's students were proud to show visitors the mark that his kento left on the pillar in the course of these demonstrations".

Master Mochizuki said there were numerous stories about Master Toku. He continues in the interview ...

"I am going to tell you one which illustrates his character marvelously well. When Toku went to the first year of secondary school, he joined the Kendo lessons there. One day, the teacher clad in his protective armour of lacquered bamboo, picked up a an extremely sharp sword and gave it to one of his students saying, ' In turn you are going to take off from the bottom of the room and attack me '. Rather surprised the students did so. Without difficulty the teacher manged to block all the strikes. When it was his turn, Toku refused the sword ... ' Excuse me master but I cannot. I am frightened of injuring you '.

' What ! ' said the teacher. ' You dare suggest that you that you would be able touch me. Well, we'll see. Take this sword '.

Toku refused once again but he was finally forced to accept upon the insistence of the teacher.

Sword in hand, Toku went to the bottom of the room. He turned around concentrated, launched himself and cut the armour. Surprised by the rapid and precise strike Toku made to his side, the teacher did not have time to react. Already blood was flowing and spreading out on the tatami ( straw mats ) of the room. Panic-striken, some students ran to alert the head master. The school authorities took severe sanctions against Toku, who because of this incident was unable to continue Kendo lessons at the school.

At the end of the year the traditional grade-giving took place for those pupils who merited it. Obviously young Toku was not called to the dias.

Apart from this ceremony, the school organized a large judo competition which was open to all. Toku entered along with 165 other participants. The competitors had to place themselves in two rows of 83 facing one another. It was the annual combat of red verus white. They were were classed according to grade, the ungraded ones started the combat, the loser was eliminated and had to withdraw, while the victor faced the following one in the opposite row. Toku being ungraded, was placed at the very beginning of the row of reds. He faced his first opponent. He eliminated him rapidly and moved onto the second, the third and so on. His power and force along with his great concentration made Toku an invincible opponent. The crowd, who had never seen such a show, were delirious, and at each victory applause rang out. Toku heard nothing, he only saw opponents go past. Deaf and insensible to all exterior forces, he was fighting with a single idea in his head: ' I am going to die '. Finally he eliminated all the whites. Stupefied all the reds in turn placed themselves opposite Toku. In the same manner he eliminated one after the other all the members of his team. You could see the concentration on the faces of the majority of the members of the jury.

The directors of the school couldn't believe their eyes, and the public couldn't stop applauding the boy who they regarded as a small prodigy.
That was how Master Toku, while he was still adolescent, beat 165 opponents".

Master Sanpo Toku and Kaiso Masayoshi Kori Hisataka were both tall and strong men, and the with the legendary stories of Master Toku, it is no wonder that Kaiso would seek out such an individual to learn from.