is a Japanese

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

Shotokan is a style of karate, developed from various martial arts by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka) Funakoshi (1906–1945). Gichin Funakoshi was born in Okinawa and is widely credited with popularizing "karate do" throug ...

karate.JKA: Instructor profiles – Sensei Tanaka Masahiko, 8th Dan
Retrieved on 15 February 2014. He won the first of his two IAKF world championship Kumite titles in 1975, was part of the Japan team to win the team Kumite title in the third IAKF world championship and was twice JKA All-Japan kumite champion. He became the national coach of Denmark in 1975 and in 1978 returned to Japan where he currently manages the international affairs of the JKA.

Early life

Masahiko Tanaka was born in Tokyo on February 24, 1941. He studied agriculture and veterinary medicine at

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

. After graduating he chose karate as his way of life and continued studying at the

Japan Karate Association Japan Karate Association (日本空手協会; ''Nihon Karate Kyokai''; JKA; sometimes referred to simply as ''Kyokai'' 協会 in Japan) is one of the oldest global Shotokan karate organization in the world. Origins Gichin Funakoshi played a ...

(JKA) ''honbu dojo'' (headquarters training hall) in Tokyo under

Masatoshi Nakayama was an internationally famous Japanese master of Shotokan karate.DF_56_of_80">("S_...,_who_were_known_as_kenjutsu_instructors,_from_the_Nagano_Prefecture.html" ;"title="kenjutsu.html" ;"title="DF 56 of 80/nowiki>">DF 56 of 80">("S ..., who were k ...

, then the JKA's Chief Instructor.

Competition

Nakayama, former Chief instructor of the JKA wrote ‘There are very few competitors who can use both hands and feet with as much skill as Masahiko Tanaka’.Profile at www.theshotokanway.com
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Major Tournament Success

*3rd IAKF World Karate Championship (Bremen, 1980) - 1st Place Group Kumite *2nd IAKF World Karate Championship (Tokyo, 1977) - 1st Place Kumite *1st IAKF World Karate Championship (Los Angeles, 1975) - 1st Place Kumite *18th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1975) - 1st Place Kumite *17th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1974) - 1st Place Kumite *16th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1973) - 3rd Place Kumite

Publications

Tanaka, is author of the famous ‘Perfecting Kumite’ textbook and also featured in M. Nakayama's ‘Best Karate’ series.

References

1941 births Japanese male karateka Karate coaches Martial arts writers Shotokan practitioners Living people Sportspeople from Tokyo Nihon University alumni {{Japan-karate-bio-stub