Women and the Japanese Martial Arts in the Early Twentieth Century

Dr Amanda Callan-Spenn

‘It is quite impossible to adequately conceal oneself in a bucket’: Women and the Japanese Martial Arts in the Early Twentieth Century

This talk looks at some of the incredible stories of women travelling around the world and practising judo in the first half of the twentieth century; from bathing with the men of the police force in Japan, to losing one’s husband off a beach in Santa Cruz – body never found!

Dr Amanda Callan-Spenn is a biographer and historian working mainly in the areas of theatre and martial arts. She is particularly interested in archival research and her recently completed PhD thesis was a biographical study of Sarah Mayer, the first western female judo black belt in Japan.