Yasuhiro Konishi

Quick Facts

Date of Birth1893

Date of Death1983

Country of OriginJapan

Biography

Yasuhiro Konishi, whose given name was Ryosuke, was born in 1893 in Takamatsu in Kagawa prefecture and died in 1983 in Tokyo. He is the founder of the style Shindo Jinen-ryu, which combines karate with elements of jujutsu and kendo and which he formally founded in 1933.

Already at school he studied Takenouchi-ryu under Takenouchi Midori, Muso-ryu jujutsu under Matsui Sanzo, and Jikishin Kage-ryu swordsmanship under Inoue Masahiro. In 1913 he enrolled at Keio University, where he trained kendo under Shingai Tadaatsu and studied Shinto Munen-ryu swordsmanship at the Yushinkan dojo. He met Gichin Funakoshi in June 1925 and began studying kata under him. His other teachers included Choki Motobu, Kenwa Mabuni, Chojun Miyagi and the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. Together with Hironori Otsuka, the founder of Wado-ryu, he helped develop the practice of kumite.

According to some sources he opened the Ryobu-kan dojo in 1923, according to others in 1924. Around 1935 he created, together with Kenwa Mabuni, the kata Seiryu, also known as Aoyagi, at the request of a commanding general of the Japanese Imperial Army as self-defence for women working for the Japanese National Railways. He himself is the author of the kata Tai sabaki and of the forms Shodan, Nidan and Sandan. Between 1952 and 1974 he published eight instructional books on karate and kendo.

After 1945 he took part in the revival of kendo and karate after the ban on martial arts declared by General MacArthur. In 1959 he became the first vice-chairman of the predecessor of the All Japan Karate Federation. His students included Kiyoshi Yamazaki, Sho Kosugi, Shoji Nishio, Motokatsu Inoue and the boxer Piston Horiguchi, who studied kendo alongside karate under him.

Teachers, students and family

Associated Martial Arts

Kata and forms

Organisations

• RYOBRyobu-kanFounder · 1923