Isamu Tamotsu
Japanese karate master who founded the Shorinji-ryu Renshinkan style in Kagoshima in 1955, combining several combat disciplines within it.
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Isamu Tamotsu was a Japanese karate master and founder of the Shorinji-ryu Renshinkan style. He was born in 1919 in the Amami area of Kagoshima Prefecture and died in 2000 at the age of 80.
In his youth he was introduced to karate by fishermen near his childhood home in Okinawa. At the age of 17 he visited master Tadao Nakaharu, who taught him Kodokan jujutsu in Taiwan. He trained in southern Chinese martial arts under a master named Chin, and studied Okinawan karate under Zenryo Shimabukura, a student of Chutoku Kyan.
In 1955 he founded the Shorinji-ryu Renshinkan style in Kagoshima, combining several combat disciplines within its methodology. In 1964 he opened the school's main headquarters, Kenshi-ga-oka, in Hioki in Kagoshima Prefecture.
After his death, his son Iwao Tamotsu became the head of the school with the rank of 10th dan.