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What you saw was not what you got with Siegfried "Sig" Kufferath. A retired accountant for Dole Co., he was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 165 pounds. Lean and fit, he was not often taken for an octogenarian even though he was only two birthdays shy of his 90th.
"People thought he was in his 50s," said Tony Janovich, a longtime student. "He had forearms like a stevedore and radiated an inner energy. A 250-pounder didn't stand a chance against him."
Under a placid veneer was a master of jujitsu with a 10th-degree black belt and membership in many jujitsu halls of fame. An instructor in the fighting arts since 1942, Professor Kufferath devoted more than 60 years to teaching others the art of defending themselves from attack.
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He died Friday of liver cancer at his home in Santa Clara, a city where he had lived since 1961. He was 88.
Despite maintaining a ferocious ability to defend himself well into his 80s, he was truly a gentle man, according to Janovich, who spent 30 years learning from a man who in 1995 earned the honor of Living Arts Treasure for Total Life Commitment to Martial Arts.
"He had an amazing inner strength and self-discipline," said Janovich, who is now an instructor and holds an eighth-degree black belt in danzan-ryu jujitsu, a method that incorporates all aspects of the martial arts karate, judo, aikido and kenpo.
"He always remained a peaceful man," Janovich said. "He was always nice and cordial, not the one making all the noise, never the one shouting 'I'm this' and 'I'm that.' He kept to himself. That's a true master."
Born in Honolulu on Feb. 16, 1911, Professor Kufferath was the second-youngest of 11 children. His father, C. Th. Kufferath, was attached to the German consulate in Tokyo for 26 years and married a Japanese woman, ShinHori Kufferath. The couple's first seven children were born in Tokyo before the family moved to Hawaii, yet all the children were taught to speak both German and Japanese, as well as English, at home.
A track star at McKinley High School in Honolulu and then at the University of Hawaii, Professor Kufferath began a career as an auditor for the city and county of Honolulu. In 1937, he began to study jujitsu under Professor H.S. Okazaki. The course was six days a week, and Professor Kufferath later wrote about those days:
"One of the most interesting and special training methods Prof. Okazaki had
was his calming-and-steadying-the-nerves training. He had
two Japanese tubs, one hot and one cold. He had me soak in the 105-degree
hot tub for two minutes, then go into the 35-degree cold
tub for two minutes. It had a 120-pound block of ice floating in it.
"I changed off six times each session. He had me do this three times a week
for six months. Prof. Okazaki said this will develop nerves
of steel and you will have built a shield around you. Even if lightning
struck next to you, you would not flinch.
"It worked,"
Another of his teachings involved being sprayed with a fire hose.
In 1949 he was appointed chief instructor and, upon the death of Professor Okazaki in 1951, he was appointed the professor of the American Jujitsu Institute. He earned his black belt in kodokan judo in 1956.
In 1957, Professor Kufferath moved to San Jose, settling in Willow Glen. He joined Dole, where he worked as an accountant until he retired in 1976.
But his true love was teaching jujitsu, and he first taught at San Jose's Pacific Judo Academy. In 1960 he began teaching at the Los Altos Parks and Recreation Department and founded the Los Altos Akijitsu Dojo (School). A year later he moved to Santa Clara.
In later years Professor Kufferath became chief instructor at the Nikko Jujitsu School in Mountain View and taught self-defense classes for the Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department.
In 1973 he began working at the Kodenkan Jujitsu School, teaching courses in restoration therapy and special black belt instructor classes, and running seminars all over the nation. In 1988 he began teaching at the Pacific Coast association of kenpo jujitsu in Campbell, where he taught until his death.
"He was always able to see the good in things, patient and always training to better himself both physically and spiritually," Janovich wrote in a testimonial.
Copyright 1999, The San Jose Mercury News. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
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