Hironori Otsuka
大塚博紀
Founder of Wado-ryu, student of Nakayama in jujutsu and of Funakoshi in karate, who received the 10th dan in 1972.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Hironori Otsuka was born on 1 June 1892 in the city of Shimodate in Ibaraki Prefecture and died on 29 January 1982. He is the founder of the Wado-ryu style.
From the age of five he studied jujutsu under his great-uncle Chojiro Ebashi, and from the age of 13 he was a student of Tatsusaburo Nakayama in Shindo Yoshin-ryu jujutsu. According to Wikipedia, he received from him on 1 June 1921 the menkyo kaiden, a certificate of mastery. In 1922 he began training in karate under Gichin Funakoshi, and he also studied with Choki Motobu and Kenwa Mabuni and studied kobudo. In the early nineteen-thirties he parted ways with Funakoshi over disagreements in teaching.
In 1927 he opened a practice focused on injuries from martial arts. On 1 April 1934 he founded the Dai Nippon Karate Shinko Club in the Kanda district of Tokyo, from which Wado-ryu arose. In 1938 he received the title of renshi from the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai and the style was registered as Shinshu Wado-ryu, in March 1939 he registered the name Wado-ryu, and on 5 May 1940 the style was presented at the Butoku festival in Kyoto. According to Wikipedia he wrote the books Karate-do, volume 1 on katas (1967) and volume 2 on kumite (1970), and another source gives the book Wado-ryu Karate from 1970.
According to Wikipedia, Emperor Hirohito awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun, 5th Class, on 29 April 1966, while other sources give the Order of the Sacred Treasure. On 9 October 1972 he received from IMAF Japan the title Shodai Karate-do Meijin Judan (10th dan), according to Wikipedia as the first karateka. In 1983 his son Jiro Otsuka became the second grandmaster of Wado-ryu and took the name Hironori Otsuka II.
Early life
Hironori Otsuka was born on 1 June 1892 in Shimodate in Ibaraki Prefecture as one of four children of the physician Tokujiro Otsuka. From the age of five jujutsu was taught to him by his great-uncle Chojiro Ebashi, a samurai, and at thirteen he became a student of Tatsusaburo Nakayama in Shindo Yoshin-ryu jujutsu. Sources differ on the name of the teacher and on the date the training began.
In 1911, according to Wikipedia, he entered Waseda University to study business and practiced jujutsu at the same time. After the death of his father he interrupted his studies and worked as a bank clerk at the Kawasaki Bank, and sources disagree on whether from 1913 or 1917.
Training and teachers
He received the menkyo kaiden in Shindo Yoshin-ryu from Nakayama on 1 June 1921 according to Wikipedia, while the WIKF website gives 1920. In 1922, after a demonstration by Funakoshi in Tokyo, he began to train in karate, and according to the Shintani Wado Kai federation he received a black belt from him in 1924. At the turn of the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties he was his assistant and also studied with Choki Motobu and Kenwa Mabuni.
In 1927 he left the bank and opened a practice for treating injuries from martial arts, and in 1929 he began teaching karate at Tokyo University. Around 1930 he parted ways with Funakoshi because of differences in teaching and the influence of Motobu.
Contribution and innovations
From 1930 to 1934 he compiled a series of kihon kumite, originally 36 exercises in pairs. On 1 April 1934 he founded the Dai Nippon Karate Shinko Club in the Kanda district of Tokyo, from which Wado-ryu arose. In 1938 he received the title of renshi from the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai and the style was registered as Shinshu Wado-ryu karate-jujutsu. In March 1939 the registration of styles became mandatory and Otsuka registered the name Wado-ryu, on 5 May 1940 the style was presented at the 44th Butoku festival and the name became established.
On 19 May 1954 the Zen Nippon Karatedo Renmei was formed in Tokyo, and in May 1955 the first national Wado-ryu championship was held. After joining the Japan Karate Federation the organization was renamed Wadokai on 5 June 1967. In 1970 the book Wado-ryu Karate by Otsuka was published with about 375 photographs of katas and basic techniques.
Philosophy and principles
The name Wado-ryu means the way of harmony. According to the Finnish Wadokai, Otsuka strove for a state in which conflict and violence are not necessary, and evading the line of attack is meant to reduce the need to measure force against force. His jujutsu background from Shindo Yoshin-ryu shows in this. We have not found a documented quotation with a precise source, and sayings circulated on club websites give neither a book nor an interview.
Legends and documented facts
According to the WIKF website, Otsuka became the fourth grandmaster of Shindo Yoshin-ryu in 1921. Wikipedia calls this a mistake: only the menkyo kaiden is documented, and the third grandmaster Tatsuo Matsuoka outlived him by almost eight years. There is also a story that he wrote the name Shinshu Wado-ryu a few minutes before the performance in 1938, but the source itself calls it a legend.
Recognition of the style is often placed in 1934, when his club was formed, but contemporary registrations with the Butoku Kai are documented only in 1938 and 1939. The honor of 1966 is also unclear: Wikipedia gives the Order of the Rising Sun, 5th Class, the Canadian Shintani website the Order of the Sacred Treasure, and another website the year 1967. Without a Japanese official record we cannot decide this. Only Wikipedia states that he was the first karateka with the 10th dan.
Legacy
In 1963 or 1964 he sent Tatsuo Suzuki, Arakawa and Takashima on a demonstration tour of Europe and the USA, and in 1968 he appointed Masaru Shintani head of Wado karate in North America. On 9 October 1972 IMAF Japan awarded him the title Shodai Karate-do Meijin Judan. After a dispute with the leadership of Wadokai he founded the Wadoryu Karatedo Renmei on 1 April 1981 and soon afterwards retired. He died on 29 January 1982 at the age of 89.
Wado-ryu then split into several organizations: Wadokai, Renmei under his son Jiro, who took the name Hironori Otsuka II in 1983, the Wado International Karatedo Federation of Tatsuo Suzuki, and the North American Wado Kai of Masaru Shintani. After the death of Jiro in 2015, Kazutaka succeeded as Hironori Otsuka III. JKF Wadokai reports over 1 350 branches in Japan and over 250 groups abroad.
Teachers, students and family
Associated Martial Arts
Kata and forms
Ranks and titles
- 10th danMeijin · Wado-ryu · 1972
Achievements and honours
- State award1966