Ernest John Harrison was an English journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

, author and judo

Judo

is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...

ka. Harrison was born in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, on 22 August 1873. He wrote many books about the practice of judo. He died in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, on 23 April 1961.

As a young man, Harrison was a journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 who worked for newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

s in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. He enjoyed wrestling

Folk wrestling

A folk wrestling style is a traditional wrestling discipline which may or may not be codified as a modern sport. Most human cultures have developed their own sort of grappling style unique from other styles practiced...

. In 1897, while working for Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 newspaper called Japan Herald, he began training in Tenjin shinyo-ryu

Tenjin Shinyo-ryu

, literally meaning "Divine True Willow School", can be classified as a traditional school of jujutsu. It was founded by Iso Mataemon Minamoto no Masatari in the 1830s...

 jujutsu

Jujutsu

Jujutsu , also known as jujitsu, ju-jitsu, or Japanese jiu-jitsu, is a Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon, or only a short weapon....

. After moving to Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, he began training in Kodokan

Kodokan

, or the Kodokan Institute, is the headquarters of the worldwide judo community. Literally, kō means "to lecture" or "to spread information," dō means "the way," and kan is "a public building or hall," together translating roughly as "a place for the study or promotion of the way." The Kodokan was...

 judo. In 1911, he was the first foreign-born person to achieve shodan

Dan rank

The ranking system is a Japanese mark of level, which is used in modern fine arts and martial arts. Originally invented in a Go school in the Edo period, this system was applied to martial arts by Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo and later introduced to other East Asia countries.In the modern...

 (black belt ranking) in Kodokan judo. In 1912, his Fighting Arts of Japan was among the first English-language books to describe the Japanese martial arts from the perspective of a foreign-born practitioner of those arts.

In 1916, Harrison was commissioned a lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 in the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

. He served until 1919. Countries he served in included China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

, and Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

. In 1921, Harrison left Lithuania to London and started to work as official press attaché and ELTA

ELTA

ELTA is a Lithuanian news agency based in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.ELTA was founded in 1920 in Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania, by Juozas Eretas, the first director of the agency, a literature professor, publicist, and public figure of Swiss descent who sought to make the ELTA...

 correspondent in the Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n legation

Legation

A legation was the term used in diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an Ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary....

 to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Most of his professional writings from 1921 to 1940 focused on Lithuanian topics. After work, he often participated in the activities of a London judo club called the Budokwai

Budokwai

is the oldest Japanese martial arts club in Europe. It was founded in 1918 by Gunji Koizumi and initially offered tuition in jujutsu, kendo, and other Japanese arts. It was the first Judo club in Europe with membership open to the general public.-History:...

. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Harrison was a censor

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

 in Russian, Lithuanian, and Polish languages for the British Post Office. After World War II, he wrote and translated judo books. Harrison was married twice. His first wife was Cicely Ross, an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n woman he had met in Japan and sister of reputable judoka Dr Arthur John (Jack) Ross. He and his second wife, Rene, had one daughter, Aldona.

Books

• Peace or War East of Baikal? (1910). Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh
  Kelly & Walsh
  Kelly & Walsh was a notable Shanghai-based publisher of English language books, founded in 1876, which currently exists as a small chain of shops in Hong Kong specializing in art books....
  
  .
• The Fighting Spirit of Japan and Other Studies. (1912). New York: C. Scribner's Sons; London: T. Fisher Unwin; Yokohama (1913): Kelly & Walsh
  Kelly & Walsh
  Kelly & Walsh was a notable Shanghai-based publisher of English language books, founded in 1876, which currently exists as a small chain of shops in Hong Kong specializing in art books....
  
  .
• Lithuania Past and Present. (1922). London: T. Fisher Unwin.
• The Red Camarilla. A Stirring Romance of Present-day Russia". (1923). London: G. Allen & Unwin.
• Rasprava: Plot and counterplot in Soviet Russia (1924). London: Geoffrey J. Bles.
• Lithuania: A Review. (1926). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
• Lithuania, 1928. (1928). London: Hazell, Watson & Viney.
• Theory & Practice of Judo, etc. (reprinted from Nichi-ei Shinshi). Reading, no publisher listed.
• Art of Ju-Jitsu. (1932). London: W. Foulsham.
• Wrestling: Catch-as-catch-can, Cumberland & Westmorland, & All-in Styles. (1934). London: Foulsham's Sports Library.
• Lithuania's Fight for Freedom. With Bronius Kazys Balutis (1944). London: "The Federation of the Lithuanian Societies in Great Britain".
• Judo, etc. (1950). London: W. G. Foyle.
• The Manual of Judo, etc. (1952). London: W. Foulsham.
• Judo for Beginners... Illustrated. (1953) London: W. Foulsham.
• Judo on the Ground: The Oda (9th Dan) Method, "Katamewaza". (1954). London: W. Foulsham.
• The Fighting Spirit of Japan. (1955). London: W. Foulsham.
• Judo for Women... Illustrated. (1957). London: W. Foulsham.
• Junior Judo. (1957). London: W. Foulsham.
• Physical Training for Men. (1957). London: W. Foulsham.
• Physical Training for Women. (1957). London: W. Foulsham.
• The Manual of Karate. (1959). London: W. Foulsham. (Rev. ed., 1974)
• Judo, the Art of Jujutsu, etc. (1960). London: W. Foulsham.
• Judo for Young Girls. (1961). London: W. Foulsham.

Translations

• Vilenkin, Grigory. (1908). The Political and Economic Organization of Modern Japan. Tokyo: Kondo Shoten.
• Kawaishi, Mikonosuke. (1955). My Method of Judo. London: W. Foulsham.
• Aida, Hikoichi. (1956). Kodokan Judo. London: W. Foulsham.
• Garbauskas, A. (1958). Know Thyself. A Theory of the Spirit and a System of Man's Psychical Powers. Nottingham: The Author.
• Šapoka, Adolfas. (issued in 1962). Vilnius in the life of Lithuania. Edited by C.R. Jurgėla and S. Sužiedėlis. Toronto: Lithuanian Association of the Vilnius Region in Toronto.
• Lukša-Daumantas, Juozas (issued in 1975 and 1988) Fighters for freedom. Lithuanian partisans versus the U.S.S.R. (1944-1947). Toronto: Manyland Books.