Rena Kanokogi (née Glickman; July 30, 1935 – November 21, 2009) was a renowned American judo expert.

In 1959, she won a medal at a YMCA judo tournament while disguised as a man, but had to return it after acknowledging that she was a woman.

[3] In 1955, a male friend showed Kanokogi a judo technique that he had learned, and she immediately became interested in the martial art.

[5] In 1959, Kanokogi competed at the YMCA judo championship in Utica, New York, disguised as a man.

[1][8] Women were not explicitly barred from the competition, but no woman had ever tried to participate before, and there was no place on the tournament application to indicate gender.

[1][8] In 1962, with no further options for her development in the US, Kanokogi traveled to the Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo, Japan.

[14] In 1980, Kanokogi organized the first women's judo world championship in Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum,[15] sponsoring it through the mortgage of her own home.

[3] In 2008, she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class (Gold Rays with Rosette), one of Japan's highest civilian honors.

[2][8] Kanokogi died on November 21, 2009, at the Lutheran Medical Center in New York, following a battle with multiple myeloma.