Yutaka Yaguchi (born November 14, 1932) is the Chief Instructor and Chairman of the
International Shotokan Karate Federation
The International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) is one of the largest Shotokan karate organizations in North and South America. In 1977, in an effort to spread the study of Shotokan throughout the world, high-ranking members from the Japan ...
(ISKF) Mountain States Region. He was born in
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
, Japan, in 1932 and began
karate
(; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...
training in 1952. He later tested under masters
Gichin Funakoshi
was a japanese martial artist who is regarded as the founder of Shotakan karate, perhaps the most widely known style of karate, and is known as a "father of modern karate". Following the teachings of Anko Itosu and Anko Asato,Funakoshi, Gichi ...
for his 1st ''
dan
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoi ...
'' black belt and
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 ...
for his 2nd through 8th ''dan'' black belts. As one of the first graduates of 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 ma ...
(JKA) Instructors' Training Program in 1959, he has played an important role in the growth of JKA karate and the internationalization of
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" throu ...
karate. Yaguchi first arrived in the United States on June 5, 1965, and continues to reside in the US to the present day. In 1974, Yaguchi founded the ISKF of Colorado, the regional headquarters for the Mountain States Region.
Early life
Yaguchi was born on November 14, 1932, in Kure, a suburb of
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
, Japan, on November 14, 1932 into a farming family. The youngest of five children, he had a carefree youth but was aware of the clouds of war. World War II impacted his life, at the end of the war, when he was assigned a job at a
shipyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
. On the morning of August 6, 1945, while he was waiting to enter the factory building at the shipyard, he saw the flash of the
atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
ing of Hiroshima.
After the war, Yutaka Yaguchi was able to resume his education, and was even able to go to university, unlike many of his former school mates. He went to Nihon University in Tokyo, and this is where he first started
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" throu ...
karate. He also joined the JKA at that time. Training was very intense and heavily oriented to conditioning. Mr. Yaguchi graduated with a degree in Marine Biology, but was averse to sailing. After graduation, he found a job with a construction company.
One day in 1957,
Sensei
Sensei, Seonsaeng, Tiên sinh or Xiansheng, corresponding to Chinese characters , is an East Asian honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese; it is literally translated as "person born before another" or "one who comes ...
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 ...
asked Mr. Yaguchi to quit his job and join the JKA Instructor Training program full-time. Yaguchi quit his job the very next day and enrolled. When he graduated from the program in 1959, he was the fourth graduate behind
Hirokazu Kanazawa
was a Japanese master of Shotokan karate.Goodman, F. (2004): ''The practical encyclopedia of martial arts'' (p. 50). London: Lorenz Books. ()Smit, S. (2008): ''Karate'' (2nd ed.) (p. 21). London: New Holland. () ,
Takayuki Mikami
is a Japanese master of Shotokan karate based in the United States of America. He holds the rank of 9th ''dan'' black belt in the art, awarded under the Japan Karate Association. In 1958, Mikami tied for first place in the All Japan Karate Cham ...
, and Eiji Takaura.
Competitive karate career
Early tournaments
Although
Gichin Funakoshi
was a japanese martial artist who is regarded as the founder of Shotakan karate, perhaps the most widely known style of karate, and is known as a "father of modern karate". Following the teachings of Anko Itosu and Anko Asato,Funakoshi, Gichi ...
, the founder of
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" throu ...
karate, was adamantly opposed to tournaments,
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 ...
was convinced that the future of karate depended on using tournaments to popularize karate to a worldwide audience. At the first JKA All-Japan Karate Championships in 1957, Yutaka Yaguchi achieved the unfortunate distinction of being the first contestant to foul out. Over the next half dozen years or so, he faced many of the greatest karate competitors, many who have subsequently been recognized as true masters of the art:
Hirokazu Kanazawa
was a Japanese master of Shotokan karate.Goodman, F. (2004): ''The practical encyclopedia of martial arts'' (p. 50). London: Lorenz Books. ()Smit, S. (2008): ''Karate'' (2nd ed.) (p. 21). London: New Holland. () ,
Hiroshi Shirai
is a Japanese master of Shotokan karate. He is the founder of the Istituto Shotokan Italia, a subdivision of FIKTA (the Italian Traditional Karate Association) and of the SCI (Shotokan Cultural Institute, formerly WSI - World Shotokan Institute) ...
,
Keinosuke Enoeda
was a Japanese master of Shotokan karate.[Tetsuhiko Asai
was a prominent Japanese master of Shotokan karate of the Japan Karate Association (JKA), founder and Chief Instructor of the International Japan Martial Arts Karate Asai-ryu (IJKA), and founder of the Japan Karate Shoto Federation (JKS; formerl ...](_blank)
,
Takayuki Mikami
is a Japanese master of Shotokan karate based in the United States of America. He holds the rank of 9th ''dan'' black belt in the art, awarded under the Japan Karate Association. In 1958, Mikami tied for first place in the All Japan Karate Cham ...
, etc.
United States
Sensei Nakayama sent Yutaka Yaguchi to America in 1965, and he began teaching in Sensei
's
dojo
A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...
in Los Angeles. Soon after, he was invited to teach in Denver, CO, by Joe Castillo, and he relocated there for about a year, but finances were extremely tight. He returned to California and continued to teach at Sensei Nishiyama's dojo through the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Colorado
In 1972, the year Sensei Yaguchi permanently relocated back to Denver, he was the coach for the US team at the 1972 Shotocup World Tournament in France. This was a very controversial tournament that ended up with the US team walking out of the tournament under objections to unfair refereeing. In addition, Joe Castillo (the karate instructor who had originally invited Sensei Yaguchi to Denver in 1966) died. It was a time of upheaval in the new dojo, with many divided loyalties. After things began to settle down, the dojo began to grow.
ISKF
Formation
Tension among the Japanese instructors in the AAKF, the American organization recognized by the JKA, lead to a heated meeting at the Olympic Motel in Los Angeles in 1977, which resulted in the split of the organization into two.
retained control of the AAKF. The only Japanese instructor at the meeting who stayed with Nishiyama was Sensei Masataka Mori. The other five instructors formed a new organization called the
ISKF
The International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) is one of the largest Shotokan karate organizations in North and South America. In 1977, in an effort to spread the study of Shotokan throughout the world, high-ranking members from the Japan ...
:
Teruyuki Okazaki
Teruyuki Okazaki (岡崎 照幸, June 22, 1931 – April 21, 2020), was a tenth degree black belt in Shotokan Karate, as well as the founder and chief instructor of the International Shotokan Karate Federation ( ISKF). Along with Gichin Funakos ...
,
Takayuki Mikami
is a Japanese master of Shotokan karate based in the United States of America. He holds the rank of 9th ''dan'' black belt in the art, awarded under the Japan Karate Association. In 1958, Mikami tied for first place in the All Japan Karate Cham ...
, Yutaka Yaguchi,
Shojiro Koyama, and
Shigeru Takashina
Shigeru Takashina (September 28, 1943 – September 3, 2013) was the founder and Chief Instructor of the South Atlantic Karate Association, an organization of the Japan Karate Association (JKA). In 1966 he graduated from Ryukoku University in Ky ...
.
[Mind and Body - Like Bullet p. 78] The first organizational meeting was held in Denver, Colorado in 1978.
Independence
In June 2007, Okazaki made the decision to split away from the JKA. In this decision, he was supported by Sensei Yaguchi; however, the other three Japanese masters that were part of the
ISKF
The International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) is one of the largest Shotokan karate organizations in North and South America. In 1977, in an effort to spread the study of Shotokan throughout the world, high-ranking members from the Japan ...
hierarchy decided to remain with the JKA:
Takayuki Mikami
is a Japanese master of Shotokan karate based in the United States of America. He holds the rank of 9th ''dan'' black belt in the art, awarded under the Japan Karate Association. In 1958, Mikami tied for first place in the All Japan Karate Cham ...
, Shojiro Koyama, and Shigeru Takashina. As Vice Chairman of the
ISKF
The International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) is one of the largest Shotokan karate organizations in North and South America. In 1977, in an effort to spread the study of Shotokan throughout the world, high-ranking members from the Japan ...
, and as Chairman of the ISKF technical committee, Sensei Yaguchi has played a central role in the future growth of the ISKF in the United States and around the world.
Media
Book
* Yutaka Yaguchi with Catherine Pinch. (May 2008) "Mind and Body - Like Bullet", GreenLight Communications, .
Magazine articles
* ''Masters Magazine'', Summer 2008 "Yutaka Yaguchi: A Cut Above" (Magazine cover story and photo plus video on included DVD) p. 24–29.
* ''
Shotokan Karate Magazine
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 ...
'', July 2005, #84, "Sensei Yutaka Yaguchi" (magazine cover story and photo).
References
External links
ISKF Main Web SiteISKF Mountain States Regional website.Yaguchi Karate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaguchi, Yutaka
Living people
1932 births
Shotokan practitioners
Japanese male karateka