Yale Club dinner with Professor Christopher Szpilman on the History of Judo, February 16, 2009

The Yale Club of France kindly invite our members to a dinner on February 16, 2009. 
Prof. Szpilman (Yale PhD '93) is currently writing a biography of Kano Jigoro (1860-1938), the inventor of judo and the ideas he represented. Prof. Szpilman contents that the success of Judo, which was "invented" in the last two decades of the 19th c.,  was not "marketed" simply as a sport, but as an effective vehicle for modernization of Japan. Kano also argued that judo, as a traditional and authentic but (paradoxically) quintessentially modern Japanese martial art, would help the Japanese preserve their Japanese identity against the wave of sweeping Westernization.  
Professor Szpilman is an expert on modern Japanese history and is a Professor of Modern History at the Kyushu Sangyo Faculty of International Studies in Japan. He has published numerous books and articles
Wladyslaw Szpilman, Professor Christopher Szpilman's father, is the author of "The Pianist", a best seller listed in 1999. Roman Polanski's film "The Pianist," which was based on Wladyslaw Szpilman's book, won The Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 and three Oscars.