Yaichihyōe Kanemitsu

was a judoka who was influential in the development of kosen judo. He is credited with the invention of judo techniques like sankaku-jime and hiza-juji-gatame, which were subsequently incorporated into other disciplines, including sambo, Brazilian jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts. He was also known as the teacher of Yasuichi and Naoichi Ono, who took part in the earlier Brazilian vale tudo scene.

Biography Early life Kanemitsu was born in Okayama Prefecture, Japan in 1892. He started training in traditional jiu-jitsu as a child, learning the styles of Kitō-ryū under Shigetaro Kishimoto and Takenouchi-ryū under Kotaro Imai. After moving to Tokyo in 1910, he joined the Kodokan school and completed his training at the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai and the Budo Senmon Gakko, where he trained under Shuichi Nagaoka and Shotaro Tabata. His previous knowledge about jiu-jitsu was such that he received a shodan or black belt in just 48 days, after which he became a teacher in several schools and universities.

Kosen judo He was especially active in the kosen judo environment of Okayama, Nagoya and Tohoku, standing out as the third greatest figure of this competition only behind Hajime Isogai and Tsunetane Oda. Kanemitsu had a particular rivalry with Oda, being referred together as and due to their respective teaching places.

In July 1921, just before the 8º national kosen taikai or interschool competition, Kanemitsu was appointed judo teacher at the koto senmon gakko of Okayama (currently Okayama Asahi High School) while Oda was at its Kanazawa counterpart (currently Kanazawa University). This led to an inevitable confrontation between their teams, adding to the fact that the Kanazawa school was having a seven years winning streak that many other schools wanted to break. Not only breaking the Kanazawa school's winning streak, the Okayama koto senmon gakko under Kanemitsu went to have its own streak, conquering the national kosen taikai eight times from 1922 to 1929. The sankaku-jime was officially adopted and endorsed by the president of the Kagawa Prefectural Judo Federation, Shozo Oyama, and soon met plenty of use both in kosen judo and in mainstream judo. This time, Hashimoto tried to finish with ouchi gari, but Kanemitsu countered and took him to the ground, where he pinned him with kami-shiho-gatame for the win. a job he kept for several years.

Death Kanemitsu died in 1966 at 77 years old and 9º dan, counting the Order of the Rising Sun among his accomplishments. His final rank was criticized by judo writer Takeshi Kuroda, who described Kanemitsu as undoubtedly worthy of the prestigious 10º dan.