Wearing white Japanese jiujitsu jackets and bloomers, with obis [sashes] smartly tied around their slender waists, and chaperoned by Miss Harrison of the Young Women's Christian Association, the members of the Girls' Reserve of the Hilo Senior High School and some public teachers enthusiastically commenced the new year's practice of the world-famous, gentle but effective art of jiujitsu last evening in the gymnasium of the Hilo Shin-yu-kwai, under the able instruction of Mr. Okazaki, Mr. Sakamoto, and their assistants.
This girls' jiujitsu class was organized in the latter part of 1923 by Miss Harrison with the view of helping the members of her sex to learn self defense.
The course is a practical one and centers on the line of ‘To-Ho-Do-Ki," or breaking of hand-grips, whereby a girl, no matter how weak, can quickly extricate herself from an attacker's grip.
In the opinion of the instructors, the girls can attain a fair knowledge of "To-Ho- Do-Ki" within a few months time.
The girls are fortunate in having as instructor, Okazaki, champion jiujitsu exponent of the Big Island, who not long ago defeated K.O. Morris in a mixed jiujitsu- boxing match.
Considerable credit must be given to the Shin-yu-kwai Association which is doing its utmost to promote interest in jiujitsu among the young people.
The present Shin-yu-kwai was a small club with few members at its origin. Among these was Okazaki, now a "ni dan," a high rank in jiujitsu sportdom.
When the beneficial results derived from practicing jiujitsu were realized by the majority of the people, increase of members followed. At present the club has about 200 members.
Ed. note: Seishiro ("Henry") Okazaki's match with boxer Carl "K.O." Morris took place in Hilo on May 19, 1922. Although his nose was broken in the first round, Okazaki caught Morris's arm during the second and then put him down for the count.
Okazaki did not teach Kodokan judo, but instead what he called Danzan-ryu, or Hawaiian jujutsu. (The Japanese name for the Big Island of Hawaii is "Cedar Mountain," hence "danzan".) He had begun studying Yoshin-ryu jujutsu in Hilo in 1910, and received his mokuroku, or instructor's scroll, in 1922. As indicated here, the latter was roughly comparable to a Kodokan 2-dan ranking.
JCS Nov 1999