I last wrote about the founder, Funakoshi Gichin, who brought Te from Okinawan to Japan in 1922 and redeemed it into a form of budo. Among his senior students, the one who would emerge as the most dynamic, far-thinking and influential among them was Nakayama Masatoshi. Nakayama was born into a family whose men had a tradition of becoming physicians. He stayed close to the traditions of both his karate sensei and his father, becoming the Chief Instructor of the Japan Karate Assn for thirty years as well as a professor and the head of the Physiology Department at Takushoku University. He took over the reins of the JKA after the death of the founder in 1957, a position he held until his own passing in 1987.

During his long tenure, he applied his scientific knowledge of the human body and kinetics to the art, helping shape it into the rational and highly developed system it is today. His book, “Dynamic Karate”, written in 1966 is a classic and viewed by many as the premier single book on the subject. Just as importantly, he was a man of exceptional vision and organizational skills who strategized its spread across the world. He helped create and run the JKA, once the largest and single most important influential karate organization on the planet. It was he who made the decisions that sent the JKA’s best and most talented young senseis to America, Europe, Africa, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and our own island shores over 40 years ago.

Nakayama was also the one who introduced the idea of sports competition into karate in the 1950’s. This was partly in recognition of an ongoing trend of informal matches between young hot-blooded karateka wanting to test their skills, partly due to his own background in competitive kendo and judo, and likely as a marketing tool to popularize and help spread the young art. This was believed to be contrary to the beliefs of the founder (the first tournament wasn’t held till after Funakoshi’s death) and caused an early schizm in the Shotokan community, resulting in the creation of Shotokan’s close cousin, Shotokai. Nonetheless, sports karate and tournaments caught on and have become an integral part of most secular Shotokan dojos and organizations. It has also resulted in the formation and integration of a whole syllabus of jyu-kumite kihon, timing drills, tournaments rules, match etiquette, etc.

From a lineage standpoint, he stands three levels away from me (four away from you), kind of like a great-grandfather. He taught the senseis, who taught the senseis, who taught me what I know. I only got to meet and train with him only once, a couple of years before he passed away. It was an honor for me and a group of about 50 black belts. I was doubly honored (and very embarrassed) when he singled me out to demonstrate several techniques from Kanku-Dai, his favorite kata. He was trying to get me to execute the one legged upper-cut and drop to the ground sequence, in what I thought was an impossible angle and shift speed…perhaps he was having fun, japanese-style, as he was chuckling the whole time he was trying to help me attain the right angle and drop.

With his passing in 1987, the position of JKA Chief Instructor went to Asai Tetsuhiko, the very same Asai Sensei who, over 20 years earlier, had begun his teaching career as a young JKA champion, on the foreign shores of Hawaii. Asai, like his predecessor, Kanazawa Sensei was a student of Nakayama, who was deployed to Hawaii to share the art with young people of the islands such as Kenneth Funakoshi and Ed Fujiwara. I’ll share a short bio of Senseis Funakoshi and Fujiwara next time.