Ōtsuka Hironori

Ōtsuka Hironori ( Japanese 大 塚 博 紀 ; born June 1, 1892 in Shimodate , Japan ; † January 29, 1982 ), founder of the karate style of Wadō-Ryū . He is the first karateka to be awarded the Meijin rank .

Short biography

Ōtsuka Hironori was the eldest son of the pediatrician and internist Ōtsuka Tokujirō. His real name was Kō and as a six-year-old he is said to have started training jūjutsu under a great-uncle. He attended middle school and began to train Shindō Yōshin-ryū ( 神道 揚 心 流 ) with Matsuoka Tatsuo and Nakayama Tatsusaburō at the age of 13 . After school he attended the Waseda University Commercial Faculty in Tokyo and then worked at the Kawasaki Bank as a banker.

In 1922 Otsuka Hironori began his karate training with Funakoshi Gichin . At the same time, he continued to practice Yōshin-ryū and at the age of 29 received the Menkyo Kaiden Shihan diploma from Nakayama. From 1936 he took over the leading teaching position a. a. at the Karate Club of the University of Tokyo . At this time he developed his style Wadō-Ryū and had this register on April 1, 1939 with the Dainippon Butokukai .

Ōtsuka Hironori was awarded the rank of Meijin by the IMAF - Kokusai Budoin in 1972 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heiko Bittmann: Karatedō - The Path of the Empty Hand - Masters of the four great styles and their teaching . Verlag Heiko Bittmann, Ludwigsburg and Kanazawa 1999, ISBN 3-00-004098-6 , p. 115 .
2. ^ Josef Schäfer: KARATE DO, Tradition & Innovation , Verlag Pukrop, 2002, ISBN 3-00-009946-8 , page 194
3. ↑ Master Hironori Ohtsuka in the magazine Budo Karate , No. 3/2000, Verlag Satori, page 37
4. ↑ Teruo Kono : The way to the black belt . Kono Verlag, Norderstedt 1995, 5th edition, ISBN 3-9804461-0-7 , page 12

Web links

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Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Ōtsuka is the family name, Hironori the first name.