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Sebastian B.
Sebastian B.'s picture
Okuyama Tadao

Who knows something about this man?

http://www.kusunoki.de/meister/okuyama_tadao.html

I´m sorry, but the text is in german so I try to give you a short overview about it :

Okuyama Tadao was one of the most outstanding Karatekas after the war. Although he was a JKA-instructor for some time, his movements were totaly different to those of the other Karatekas. For example his Gedan Barai was a very compact technique, which started right above the hip. After his activities in the JKA he lived in the mountains for a few years to study Karate. He observed the natural movements of the animals to improve his Martial Art. He was also a good friend of Shigeru Egami (the founder of shotokai ryu), who said, that Okuyama Tadao´s Karate would be even better than Funakoshi Yoshitaka´s. Okuyama Tadao also proved his techniques by trying to kill prisoners with one single hit (Ikken hisatsu). The fact, that he wasn´t able to kill his target let him think about the techniques he learned and he started to experiment. He improved his techniques so much, that he was able to defeat his kumite-partners before they could even raise their hands (Even if they managed to get into Chudan Kamae, he still send them down with his first technique) Okuyama Tadao´s charakter is often described as very eccentric. For example sometimes he sat a whole night in front of a candle and if someone asked him if he would observe the flame, he would answer, that he would just look.

I hope you was able to understand the main part.

So, does anybody has heard something about this man? I´ve heard that he would be still alive. What do you think about him? I´ve read about him in some articles and many of the informations given in the article are proved by peoples, who trained with him, but even if one half of the text is false he still must be a very strong Karateka with a pragmatic look at his techniques.  

ky0han
ky0han's picture

Hi Sebastian,

as a fellow German Landsmann I highly recommend you the books of Henning Wittwer aka Gibukai. You can order his books at http://www.gibukai.de. Henning is a student of orthodox Shotokan under Harada Mitsusuke and a Karate historian (in case you don't know him).

Okuyama is a person in the context of the historical Shotokan. As far as I know he lived from 1918-2006. When you really want to know more about Okuyama you should drop Henning an e-mail and ask him directly.

He is always happy to answer all my questions so I would try him.

I hope you find some answers.

Regards Holger

Mr P
Mr P's picture

Sebastian B. wrote:

 

Okuyama Tadao also proved his techniques by trying to kill prisoners with one single hit (Ikken hisatsu). 

I would question the morality of any person who would try to kill a prisoner with one single hit... Why would a person do this? A prisoner has been captured or surrendered, they are no longer a threat.

ky0han
ky0han's picture

Hi,

Sebastian B. wrote:
Okuyama Tadao also proved his techniques by trying to kill prisoners with one single hit (Ikken hisatsu).

That is not in the german text.

Okuyama was the teacher of a group of counter-intelligence soldiers. Egami was also a member of this group. This group tested the effectivity of their techniques on POWs and figured that hikken issatsu is myth. So whether Okuyama participated in those activities or not can't be proved.

Nonetheless mistreating POWs is a war crime and those used to happen everywhere, in any war at any place.

Regards Holger

Sebastian B.
Sebastian B.'s picture

As I allready said, I´m not sure, if only the half of the text is true, so please don´t take every word as a fact. By the way, thanks for your answer. I´m really impressed how deep some people are in the topic.