Mikinosuke Kawaishi

He led the development of Judo in France, with Shozo Awazu, and much of Europe and is credited with introducing the colored belt system for differentiating early grades.

Kawaishi was born in Himeji in 1899 and having studied judo in Kyoto at the Dai Nippon Butokukai (Greater Japan Association of Martial Virtue).

He left Japan in the mid-1920s to travel and see the world and began by touring the United States of America, teaching jujitsu particularly in New York City and San Diego.

With the Asian martial arts still relatively new to England, he was forced to supplement his meager earnings as a teacher by becoming a professional wrestler with the stage name of "Matsuda".

In that latter part of 1931 he returned to Japan for a short time, and it was during this trip that he renewed his association with Jigoro Kano, who awarded him with a third Dan in Kodokan Judo.