This week in history (24 September – 30 September)

27 September

On 27 September 1946 Yoshimi Inoue, a student of Teruo Hayashi, was born in the small coastal village of Tottori, Japan. For many, Yoshimi Inoue’s name will be associated with the many great kata champions he coached, that included Mie Nakayama, Atsuko Wakai, Ryoko Abe, Rika Usami and Antonio Diaz. However, Inoue was more than a great coach. He was a martial artist first and foremost. What made him a unique and successful coach was that he saw competition as being just one part of Karate. He still stressed the martial aspects of Karate in his day to day training.

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On 27 September 1986 the 29th JKA All-Japan Championships took place in Tokyo, Japan. The two-day tournament was marked by forty-six year old Masahiko Tanaka coming out of retirement to compete in the Men’s Kumite event. A senior instructor at the JKA Hombu, he made it to the quarter-finals. The event was won by Yasunori Ogura. Minoru Kawawada, an assistant instructor at Masatoshi Nakayama‘s Hoitsugan dojo, won the kata title with the kata Sochin. Second place went to Takenori Imura, with Yoshinobu Ohta, who at the time was the assistent instructor to Keinosuke Enoeda in the UK, finishing third. Yoko Nakamura won her third Women’s Kata title. She is the winner of nine kata titles.

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On 27 September 1985 the 28th JKA All-Japan Championships took place at the Budokan in Tokyo. Masao Kagawa became Grand Champion, winning both the individual kata and individual kumite events. He won the kumite title, defeating , Yasunori Ogura in the final. In the kata event he defeated Tomoyuki Aihara. The previous year he had been runner-up in both events. Yoko Nakamura won the second of her nine kata titles. Yuko Hasama won the kumite title.

28 September

On 28 September 1897 Shinkin Gima was born in Shuri, Okinawa. On Okinawa he studied under both Yasutsune Itosu and Kentsu Yabu before attending university in Tokyo.

In 1922 he met and began training with Gichin Funakoshi. He was Funakoshi’s first black belt and would eventually reach the rank of 10th Dan.

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On 28 September 1985 the Shoto World Cup took place at the Budokan in Tokyo. Japanese competitors won every medal on offer. Minoru Kawada became Grand Champion after winning both the individual kata and kumite titles.