<Begin Segment 13>

TI: Okay, so let's, yeah, what I wanted to, to talk about next is about the time you started high school, there was another sport that you got involved in, not at school, but judo.

RY: Oh, yeah.

TI: So why don't you talk a little bit about that, and how you got involved in judo?

RY: Well, judo started when, I guess it was when I was sixteen, around sixteen. 'Cause this Mr., Sensei Horiuchi came from, from Seattle, and he was a very well-known... well, not known to me at that time, but he was, he was a very apt judo instructor. So one of the Isseis, well, couple of the Issei said, "Let's get up a judo school." So, so he encouraged this, this fellow to open up a judo school, and well, just so happened that we had a open warehouse or storage, storage room downstairs open, so we, my folks said we could have a, have the judo school downstairs. So, so that, that kept me going to judo, 'cause it was right downstairs. At those times we had, we were practicing three nights a week, and after, that's after super, naturally, and we... so since then, I was sixteen years old, I was sixteen, and we got... well, there's quite a few students then. And I don't know, I guess I was one of the, one of the good judoists, or anyway, one of the good judoists that would like to do judo. I wasn't very perfect, but then I was, I enjoyed it because I can throw some people some of the time. [Laughs] But yes, that's what got me started, Mr. Horiuchi teaching us judo.

TI: And so would you travel to different parts of the state to do tournaments and compete against other people?

RY: Yes, at that time, there was, there was a school in Seattle and Portland, and Ontario, Oregon. So that was the three schools that we competed at, and oh, we did pretty good as far as the students went, competing in all three places. We, we traveled in cars that the Isseis, if they had time, they took us to Seattle, Portland, and Ontario. And, and... most of the students -- not most of the students, lot of the students liked to travel. And, like, it was, it was, usually it was about six or seven or even ten, ten students that were going to these tournaments.

TI: And so the, the people who did judo downstairs in your, your folks' place, where did they come from? Were they all just pretty much from the neighborhood, or did they come from different parts of Spokane?

RY: Well, all the Japanese, all the Japanese around there came, I mean, they didn't necessarily live around there, but quite a few of 'em were living outside, you know, on the farms and stuff. Yeah, they came in, 'cause, well, that was the only judo place there was at that time. And we had quite a few, quite a bit of followings then, 'cause, 'cause all the Isseis encouraged their kids to come. But they, naturally they didn't all come, but we had quite a few.

TI: And so how long did the judo program go on? It started when you were about sixteen.

RY: Oh, yes, we, we did judo underneath there until, actually, 1941, because after '41, a lot of the persons were saying, well, they don't, they don't want the judo taught, Japanese sport taught. So we decided to disband.

TI: And this was right after the war started?

RY: After the war started.

TI: Okay, so we'll, we'll get to that.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.