Keiko Fukuda

Martial artist (1913-2013)

福田敬子

Born

12 April 1913, Kyōbashi-ku

Died

9 February 2013, San Francisco

Citizenship

Japan, United States

Sport

judo

Occupation

judoka, writer

Keiko Fukuda (Japanese: 福田 敬子, Hepburn: Fukuda Keiko; April 12, 1913 – February 9, 2013) was a Japanese-American martial artist. She was the highest-ranked female judoka in history, holding the rank of 9th dan from the Kodokan (2006), and 10th dan from USA Judo (July 2011) and from the United States Judo Federation (USJF) (September 2011), and was the last surviving student of Kanō Jigorō, founder of judo. She was a renowned pioneer of women's judo, and in 1972 together with her senpai Masako Noritomi (1913–1982) was one of the first two women promoted to 6th dan (c. 1972). In 2006, the Kodokan promoted Fukuda to 9th dan, making her the first woman to hold this rank from any recognized judo organization. She is also the first and, so far, only woman to have been promoted to 10th dan in judo, which occurred in 2011. After completing her formal education in Japan, Fukuda visited the United States to teach in the 1950s and 1960s, and eventually settled there. She continued to teach her art in the San Francisco Bay Area until her death in 2013.

Awards and honours

• Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th class

Teachers

• Kanō Jigorō
• Kyuzo Mifune

External links

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q460890 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.