Isamu Sonoda

Isamu Sonoda was born on 4 November 1946 in Mitsuhashi, Yamato District, Fukuoka Prefecture, a town that is now part of Yanagawa. He was the youngest of five children.

As a boy he was a baseball player who dreamed of playing for the Lions, Fukuoka's professional baseball team of the era. In junior high school his brother Yoshio, one year older, took him to a judo dojo. The Yomiuri Shimbun wrote that he began reluctantly but had outstanding athletic ability and a stubborn hatred of losing, and his talent soon showed.

Sonoda attended Mitsuhashi Junior High School, Fukuoka Denpa High School (now Fukuoka Institute of Technology Johto High School) and the Fukuoka Institute of Technology, competing alongside his brother at every stage. Their high school team won the Kinwashiki national high school judo tournament in 1963 and was runner-up in 1964.

At university he won the All-Japan student championships in 1967 and 1968, took gold at the 1967 Summer Universiade in Tokyo, and became world champion in 1969 while still a student.

At the 1969 World Championships in Mexico City Sonoda won the middleweight (80 kg) title, beating Katsuya Hirao in the final according to German Wikipedia, while Yoshio won the lightweight (63 kg) title. He also won the All-Japan weight-category selection title in 1969, 1970, 1972 and 1976.

After graduation he joined Maruzen Oil (now part of Cosmo Oil), where he could train only in the evenings, and in 1972 he joined the Fukuoka Prefectural Police. In 1973 he won the Paris international tournament and took silver at the World Championships in Lausanne, losing the final to Shozo Fujii.

Fujii had won three consecutive world titles, but Sonoda beat him in the 1976 national selection to earn the Olympic place. On 28 July 1976 in Montreal he won five bouts in one day, defeating Paul Buganey, Jong In-chol, Park Yeong-cheol and Fred Marhenke before beating Valery Dvoinikov of the Soviet Union by yuko in a ten-minute final. He was 29.

He moved up to 86 kg after Montreal, won the 1977 selection title in that class, and retired after winning the 1978 Jigoro Kano Cup in Tokyo, alongside his police colleague Kazuhiro Ninomiya. He then served as chief instructor (shuseki shihan) of the Fukuoka Prefectural Police and coached at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology and its Johto high school, later becoming general manager of both judo programmes.

Sonoda's closest judo bond was with his brother Yoshio, a lightweight world champion who also coached Ryoko Tamura with him at high school. Yoshio died before Isamu.

Kazuhiro Ninomiya, born the same year, joined the same police force, competed at the same Worlds and Olympics and retired at the same time. The two were rivals and friends for decades. Ninomiya later took on administrative roles in Kyushu judo, and once teased Sonoda, "Isamu-chan, you're lucky, you have so many pupils." Ninomiya died in May 2026 aged 79.

Sonoda was married to Mariko Sonoda, who was chief mourner at his funeral. Nishi Nippon Sports writer Motoi Tejima remembered that his competitive streak carried off the mat too, including at mahjong.

Sonoda's guiding principle was teaching on the tatami (畳の上での指導). For as long as his body allowed he came to the dojo and acted as the training partner himself, in uchikomi drills, throwing practice and randori, so he could judge each pupil's condition and progress.

He summed up his method to the Yomiuri: "The basis of coaching is being thrown, thoroughly." Even past 70 he still put on his judogi to train at his old school, and admitted that not being able to push himself any more made him frustrated.

He stressed attacking judo. Nishi Nippon Sports linked this to Ryoko Tani's relentless style, and noted that he rebuilt Kie Kusakabe's mostly groundwork-based judo around his own signature o-soto-gari.

Sonoda was one of three Japanese judo gold medalists at Montreal 1976, with Kazuhiro Ninomiya and Haruki Uemura, and with his brother he formed the rare pair of siblings who were world champions at the same Championships.

As a coach he shaped Ryoko Tani, who won Olympic medals at five straight Games (silver 1992 and 1996, gold 2000 and 2004, bronze 2008), and Kie Kusakabe, bronze medalist in Sydney and later women's coach at Fukuoka University. Tani said that training against a gold medalist let her feel "the world." Kusakabe said he changed her judo life.

A youth tournament in his name, the Sonoda Isamu Cup, had been held 29 times in Fukuoka Prefecture by 2008, according to Japanese Wikipedia.

Olympic gold medal, men's middleweight (80 kg), Montreal 1976. World Championships gold, 80 kg, Mexico City 1969; silver, Lausanne 1973. Summer Universiade gold, Tokyo 1967. All-Japan student champion 1967 and 1968. Paris international tournament winner 1973; Jigoro Kano Cup winner 1978. Nishi Nippon Sports Award for fiscal 1969 and 1976. Kodokan judo 9th dan.

Kyodo News distributed a file photograph of Sonoda attacking in the 1976 Montreal final, and Nishi Nippon Sports archived images of his gold-medal parade with Kazuhiro Ninomiya. Archival footage of his own Olympic bouts is not widely available online.

His death was reported by NHK, Kyodo, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Nikkei, Nikkan Sports, the Nishinippon Shimbun and TNC TV Nishinippon in Japan, and by Yonhap in South Korea, which noted his Montreal win over Park Yeong-cheol.

Sonoda died of pneumonia at about 8:20 p.m. on Thursday 16 July 2026 at a hospital in Fukuoka City, aged 79. Nishi Nippon Sports reported the news that night, and NHK reported it the next day citing the All Japan Judo Federation and others.

The wake was held at 7 p.m. on 19 July and the funeral at 1 p.m. on 20 July 2026 at Kashii Tenrei Kaikan, Chihaya, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka. His wife Mariko was chief mourner. His resting place has not been made public.