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Biography
Kōtarō Yoshida (吉田 幸太郎, Yoshida Kōtarō, October 1883–1966) was a 19th- to 20th-century Japanese martial artist and member of the Amur River Society (also known as the Black Dragon Society), an ultra-nationalist organization of disenfranchised ex-samurai who promulgated "pan-Asiatic ascendancy" in line with the rise of Japanese imperialism. While by all accounts a prolific martial artist and teacher, there is little surviving documentation of Yoshida's life that has been translated into English. Because he was known to have lived an extremely ascetic lifestyle, and possibly as a result of his political activities and connections, most information on Yoshida today has been passed down through oral transmission by primary sources.
At a young age, Yoshida apprenticed himself to Takeda Sōkaku, head of the Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu school, which would soon become popular throughout Japan as part of the public revitalization of the martial arts. Yoshida would become Sōkaku's top student, and there is some disagreement as to whether mastery of the art was passed down to Yoshida himself or another Sokaku pupil. Yoshida's status as a top student of Sōkaku's is undisputed, and he is in fact credited with introducing Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, to Sōkaku.