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Osamu Noguchi

野口修

Japanese boxing promoter (1934–2016) who founded the Japan Kickboxing Association in 1966 and, according to sources, coined the word kickboxing.

Quick Facts

Date of Birth1/24/1934
Date of Death3/31/2016
Country of OriginJapanJapan

Biography

Osamu Noguchi was a Japanese boxing promoter credited with creating Japanese kickboxing and the very word kickboxing. He was born on 24 January 1934 in the Bunkyo district of Tokyo. Japanese Wikipedia says that he died on 31 March 2016 at the age of 83 and that the report of his death was published on 9 May 2016.

He was the son of the promoter Susumu Noguchi and the brother of the boxer Kyo Noguchi. In 1938 the family moved to Shanghai, and after the war it returned to Japan, where Osamu graduated from Meiji University. After the death of his father in 1961 he took over the Noguchi Gym boxing club.

In 1964 he organised matches in Bangkok between three karateka from the dojo of Masutatsu Oyama and three Thai boxers, in which, according to an article in Gendai Business, the karateka won. In 1966 he founded the Japan Kickboxing Association, and the first official evening took place on 11 April 1966 in Osaka. He made Tadashi Sawamura the star of the new sport, and from September 1968 the television station TBS broadcast kickboxing regularly.

In October 1972 he opened a kickboxing gym in Bangkok, which closed after a week following protests. In 1976 he founded the World Kickboxing Association. His biography by Hosoda won the Kodansha Honda Seiya Award for Non-Fiction.

Early life

Osamu Noguchi was born on 24 January 1934 in the Bunkyo district of Tokyo. His father Susumu Noguchi ran a boxing club and an entertainment promotion company, and his brother Kyo Noguchi was a boxer. In 1938 his father moved the family to Shanghai, and Osamu grew up there. After the war the family returned to Japan, and Osamu completed secondary school and Meiji University.

Training and teachers

We have not found any martial arts training for Noguchi in the sources. After university he took over the management of the boxing club of his father and worked as a referee, promoter and official of the East Japan boxing federation. After the death of his father in 1961 he became the second owner of Noguchi Gym. We infer that he created kickboxing as a promoter, not as a fighter.

Contribution and innovations

In 1964 he organised three-against-three matches in Bangkok between Thai boxers and karateka from the dojo of Masutatsu Oyama, and the karateka won. According to an article in Gendai Business, it was a fight that changed the history of Japanese combat sports and also opened the way for the later K-1. In 1966 he founded the Japan Kickboxing Association, and on 11 April 1966 the first official evening took place in Osaka, featuring Tadashi Sawamura. According to the magazine Number, Noguchi is the author of the word kickboxing.

From 30 September 1968 the television station TBS broadcast kickboxing regularly. In 1970 he signed a singer who later became famous as Hiroshi Itsuki and founded the entertainment division Noguchi Promotion. In October 1972 he opened a kickboxing gym on Ratchadamri Road in Bangkok, and after protests he was, according to Japanese Wikipedia, expelled and the gym closed after a week. In 1976 he founded the World Kickboxing Association.

Legends and documented facts

Japanese sources give Bangkok as the location of the 1964 matches, but we have not found a specific stadium in them. English Wikipedia places the origin of kickboxing in 1964, while Japanese sources and the website Sofrep give 1966 as the beginning of the official sport with rules and referees.

Sources write differently about his arrest: English Wikipedia speaks of influencing the results of matches, Japanese of a violation of the foreign exchange law in financing a world title fight. We have not found the year of the arrest. The date of death differs between 31 March and 9 May 2016, when the report of his death was published.

Legacy

Tadashi Sawamura, whom Noguchi discovered, became the first star of kickboxing, and the anime Kick no Oni, broadcast on TBS in 1970 and 1971 and featuring Noguchi as a character, was based on him. A 2013 study by Hokkaido University describes the incident around his gym in Bangkok as one of the triggers of the boycott of Japanese goods in Thailand. His biography by Hosoda, published by Shinchosha in 2020, won the 43rd Kodansha Honda Seiya Award for Non-Fiction.

Associated Martial Arts

KickboxingFounder→

A striking sport joining boxing hands with kicks. It appeared in the 1960s and 1970s in Japan and the United States at once, from a wish to give karate full contact.

Organisations