For those who don’t know, Sarah Mayer was the first non-Japanese woman to earn the rank of Shodan (first degree black belt) in judo, which she did in 1935 after less than a year of training. She is a very interesting and important figure in martial arts history, but most martial artists (judoka included) don’t know anything about her. I first learned about her in 2008, when I moved to Arizona and started doing in-depth research on karate and judo, and have known that she supposedly wrote letters about her travels and training, but I had never seen those letters–until now! As it turns out, they are available on the Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences website, and apparently have been for quite a long time! For an interesting look into history, check them out:
A couple of days ago, whilst browsing Youtube, I came across a documentary about how martial arts were introduced to Great Britain. They talked a bit out Mayer and even quoted a few lines of her letters.
According to the doc’ she trained Judo in England (for how long I don’t know) before arriving in Japan in 1934 and earned her BB in ’36.