Anyway, in April 1886, he came to the Kōdōkan dojo in order to present a dojoyaburi challenge, but pledged himself to Jigoro Kano's teachings when he was bested right there by the much smaller Shirō Saigō.

When he was not training at the dojo, Yokoyama was outside swinging around a heavy tetsubo in order to increase his strength, and he was said to carry always a thick rope in his attire, which he would use to drag and move rocks and logs he found in the road.

Nicknamed the "Demon Slayer" and considered the toughest martial artist in Japan, Nakamura was as tall and heavy as Sakujiro himself, and it was said he was so strong that he could be hung by his neck without feeling any pain.

Although much older than Yokoyama, Nakamura was also much heavier and had also subjected himself to a hard training in order to avenge a defeat suffered at Tomita's hands years before.

Although Sakujiro was able to escape with great effort and score a harai goshi that floored the jujutsuka, he did not follow him to the ground, as he now knew Hansuke was dangerous at ne-waza.

[8] In total, they fought half an hour standing and 25 minutes on the ground, and they were rendered so tired that the referee had to forcefully pry their numb fingers apart to separate them when the match ended.

Checking up he couldn't break the hold or pick Kanaya up, Yokoyama pushed forward until placing his opponent's head against the main pillar of the dojo and started ramming it against the column.

Harrison, the English journalist, author and judoka, used a Judo anecdote from Yokoyama in his book The Fighting Spirit of Japan (published in 1913): I remember during the early part of January, 1909, I went to a certain restaurant, accompanied by Mr. Kyuzo Mifune, a fifth Dan teacher of the Kodokan.

We noticed in one corner of the room a group of thirteen young fellows drinking sake, while in an adjoining apartment there were an elderly couple and some other visitors taking food.

After the rascals had gone the old couple who had been interested spectators of the occurrence told us that they had just witnessed for the first time in their lives a practical display of jujutsu and were amazed at the wonderful feats which experts were able to perform against such odds.