In 1952 the 24-year-old Yves Klein left Paris for Japan, to pursue his first love; not art but judo. Klein spent a year and a half in Tokyo, studying mainly at the Kodokan under the ninth-dan judo master Oda. After becoming one of the first Europeans to receive a coveted fourth-dan black belt, Klein returned to France and opened the Judo Acad mie de Paris. In 1954 the prestigious publisher Grasset published his book Les Fondements du Judo , illustrated...