The history of Wado Ryu (pronounced: wa-doe-roo) is often widely researched and discussed by karate practitioners around the world and as with all historical events we try to put together the pieces of information we have. The birth of Wado Ryu has its roots set by the work of Hironori Ohtsuka who was born in June 1st, 1892. Hironori Ohtsuka was the second of four children and when he was only 6 years old he was introduced to Ju Jitsu and started to study the Shindo Yoshin Ryu form taught by his father Dr. Tokujuro Ohtsuka. His keen interest for martial arts was reported fueled by his mother’s uncle, Chojiro Ebashi, who was a samurai warrior and kept the young Otsuka spellbound with his true tales of exciting samurai adventures [1].
In 1911 Hironori Ohtsuka started at the Waseda University which was one of the best Universities in Japan at the time. During his time there he studied Business Administration. Whilst at University he “studied different styles of Jujitsu, concentrating on their positive aspects” [2] and during this time he learnt a lot about the human body, specifically points for attacking and also how the healing process. Unfortunately in 1913 his father died and during this troubling time Hironori Ohtsuka had to leave the University before completing his studies. He started work in the Kawasaki Bank in Shimodate and he was never able to complete his course and graduated.
Otsuka in action
The 1st June 1920 was a important milestone in Hironori Ohtsuka’s life as he was awarded the highest degree of Shindo Yoshin Ryu Ju Jitsu which meant that he succeeded his master as the 4th Grand Master.
Over the many years that Hironori Ohtsuka had studied martial arts, specifically Ju Jitsu he has been experienced to a wide range of techniques and applications however his main style of martial arts was still Shindo Yoshin Ryu Ju Jitsu. This all changed in 1922 when he was introduced to Gichin Funakoshi (reported as the father of Karate), a Karate instructor from Okinawa at a sports festival in Tokoyo. During the event they both had many encounters and it is reported that both martial-artists gained a respect for each other which resulted in Gichin Funakoshi agreeing to teach Hironori Ohtsuka everything he knew about Karate. This was the next major step in Wado Ryu’s history. At the age of 30 his commitment to martial arts had resulted in him having the honour of becoming an assistant instructor at Funakoshi Sensei’s dojo and also the Chief Instructor of Shindo Yoshin Ryu Jujitsu.
As a result of the many years of training, Hironori Ohtsuka had started to consider different approaches to Karate and concluded that Karate could be more fluid and dynamic. This decision was also guided by other martial arts he had studied recently including Judo, Aikido and Kendo. An example of how these martial arts impacted on modern day Wado Ryu can be seen through the development of Kumite which are reported to have is origin from Kendo.
1934 was a key point for Wado Ryu and for Hironori Ohtsuka himself. Firstly on the 28th February Ohtsuka 2nd (his son) was born and also Wado Ryu was finally recognised as a unique style.
Otsuka with students
Four years later in 1938 Hironori Ohtsuka was awarded the rank of Renshi-go which translates as ‘Polished Person’ or Expert [3]. A year later the Japan Martial Arts Federation asked the different styles of Karate to officially register their style with Hironori Ohtsuka registering his as Wado Ryu (translated as “the school of the way of peace”).
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References
- Academy of Classical Karate - http://www.planodojo.com/index.cfm?page=6 [↩]
- Ohtsuka Sensei – http://www.wado-ryu.org/wadoryu/ohtsuka.asp [↩]
- Shitoryu Cyber Academy - http://shitokai.com/shogo.phphttp://shitokai.com/shogo.php [↩]
