Kori Hisataka
Okinawan karateka, student of Chotoku Kyan and founder of the Shorinji-ryu Kenkokan style (1945), who introduced protective equipment for safer kumite.
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JapanBiography
Kori Hisataka, also called Masayoshi, was born on April 22, 1907, in Shuri in Naha, Okinawa, under the name Seiki Kudaka. He is the founder of the Shorinji-ryu Kenkokan karate style.
He learned Okinawa-te from his father Seisei Kudaka, his uncle and his grandfather, and weapons work in the family system Shishi-ryu. He trained karate under Chotoku Kyan, with whom, together with Ryosei Kuwae, he demonstrated karate in Taiwan in August 1930, including at the Taipei Butokuden, and took part in duels there. He studied kobudo under Sanda Kanagusuku, and during his military service he earned a 4th dan in judo at the Kodokan under Sanpo Toku within a year. He also practiced kendo and competed in police competitions. During the Second World War he was a stationmaster in Manchuria, where he learned baguazhang (Hakkyoku kempo).
He founded the Shorinji-ryu Kenkokan style in 1945 in Oshima park in the village of Hamada, Kumamoto prefecture. His dojo was located in Shimo-Kitazawa, in Tokyo's Setagaya ward, before he moved it to Waseda in Shinjuku in 1955. He championed the principle of "protecting the targets, not the weapons" and introduced protective gear covering the body's vulnerable points for safer kumite. He introduced the heel strike, whole-body technique execution, the vertical fist (tate ken) and the practice of yakusoku kumite. His students included his son Masayuki Hisataka, Shunji Watanabe, Shigeru Ishino and Tamon Kashimoto.
During his lifetime he used the title Shinan; after his death his students granted him the title Kaisho. He died on August 14, 1988, in Tokyo at the age of 81. His son Masayuki Hisataka continued his legacy with the Supersafe Anzen Bogu gear for Koshiki karate.