The 30-year-old from Edinburgh blasted his way through the preliminaries before beating the best of the Japanese in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and the Olympic silver medallist in the final.
 
In the last eight, against the Japanese number one – Masahiko Tomouchi – Burton controlled his dangerous opponent and went through after scoring Yuko with a Sumi-gaeshi.
 
The in-form Katsushi Matsumoto was waiting for Burton in the semi-finals.

The contest was a tactical battle and went right down to the wire, with both fighters on two shidos.

With two seconds to go Burton threw himself forward, latching onto Matsumoto with Osoto make-komi and burying him for Ippon.
 
Against South Korea's Jae-bum Kim, one of the best performers on the world circuit this year and the world number two, Burton surpassed all expectation. The fight was an absolute classic, with penalties and scores swaying one way then the other.
 
With just over a minute to go, Burton was losing by a Waza-ari and Yuko to his solitary Yuko.

This is when the Briton took the fight by the scruff of the neck.

Burton tied up Kim's arm and threw with his Tokui-waza – Harai make-komi – scoring Waza-ari and levelling the contest.

He chased the Korean into Newaza, and in a remarkable groundwork sequence that went into Osaekomi on three separate occasions, Burton eventually pinned Kim for Ippon. 
 
Burton said: "This tournament was one of my targets for the season.

"After the World Championships, this is the biggest tournament, so it was easy to train hard.
 
"I was against the best technical fighters from Japan and Korea.

"I fought hard all the time."
 
In the -60kg, -57kg and +78kg categories Ashley McKenzie, Sarah Clark and Karina Bryant all took fifth places.
 
Burton's gold medal, along with the three fifth places, put Britain third on the overall medal table after Japan and South Korea.