Matsugoro Okuda

was a Japanese martial artist. A master of several jujutsu styles, he was a contemporary to Jigoro Kano in the creation of a style that synthesized them all, and opposed the early judo movement before later joining it.

Biography Okuda started learning jujutsu from his childhood at the dojo of his father Yoshikatsu (also known as Mankichi Okuda). He first started in the native Fukuno-ryū style, but later branched off to the more popular Kitō-ryū and Tenjin Shinyō-ryū, training under master Takeshi Sawada.

Military career As a young teenager, he joined the Tokugawa shogunate's hatamoto force, eventually becoming a for Isami Kondo. Legend has that Okuda formed part of the Shinsengumi, and it was even rumored that he was one of the killers of Ryoma Sakamoto in 1867, but nothing of this was ever proven.

Retirement in Morioka

Okuda didn't participate further in the Kodokan-Totsuka rivalry, and in 1893 he moved his field of activity to the Iwate Prefecture by invitation of governor Ichizo Hattori. His high knowledge and personal approach to throws were popularly nicknamed his , possibly in reference to his purported participation in the killings of the Shinsengumi.

Okuda had a last highlight in 1903 when he received a young Kyuzo Mifune in his dojo in Morioka, sparring with him and throwing Mifune four times, though not without predicting Mifune would become a judo legend. Afterwards, he dedicated himself to teaching, becoming the master of judo historian Fukuichiro Haruyama. Okuda died in his house in 1931.