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 Académie de Paris. In 1954 the prestigious publisher Grasset published his book Les Fondements du Judo, illustrated with hundreds of photographs of Klein and leading Japanese teachers demonstrating the six major “Katas” (the movements that form the basis of judo).