Nobuyoshi Tamura (田村 信喜 Tamura Nobuyoshi, 2 March 1933, Osaka[1] – 9 July 2010)[2] was a prominent aikidoka and a direct student of Morihei Ueshiba. Son of a kendo teacher, Tamura entered the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in 1953[3] as an uchi-deshi (live-in student) of aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba. He was one of Ueshiba's favorite pupils and since 1964 has greatly contributed to the development of aikido in Europe and France in particular. He was the National Technical Director (DTN) of the FFAB (French Federation of Aikido and Budō). He held the rank of 8th dan and the title of Shihan. Throughout his teaching career he trained many others instructors in various countries around the world but foremost Western Europe.[2] In 1999, he received the medal of "Chevalier de l'ordre National du Mérite" from the French government. Tamura has published several books on aikido (in French). His dojo (Shumeikan Dojo) is located in the village of Bras (Var, France). His former students include Toshiro Suga and Pierre Chassang.
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Tamura-shihan married Rumiko, a student in Morihei Ueshiba's dojo. Tamura Sensei has three sons, one of them, Yoshimichi, having a successful career in the movie industry as an animator. He was the lead animator for the character Helga in the Disney motion picture Atlantis: The Lost Empire.[4]
Sent by Morihei Ueshiba, Tamura-shihan arrived in France in the port of Marseille in 1964 as the final destination of his honeymoon cruise (he paid part of his trip by performing aikido exhibitions on the ship). In France, he succeeded Tadashi Abe as the Aikikai representative there and decided to stay in this country teaching aikido, despite the fact that he could barely speak French at that time. Other aikido teachers in France then included Minoru Mochizuki, Masamichi Noro and Mutsuro Nakazono.
The French Aikido Federation was split into two in the 1980s purely because of political reasons. Those who decided to stay loyal to Tamura were for an independent aikido federation created the Fédération Française d'Aïkido et de Budo from scratch, while those who preferred to remain under the Judo federation (Fédération française de Judo et Disciplines Associées), later became independent as the Fédération française d'aïkido, aïkibudo et affinitaires under the technical leadership of Christian Tissier. The two once rival federations are now regrouped under the UFA (Union Française d'Aïkido).
In his early years in Japan, Tamura was acquainted with macrobiotic founder George Osawa. In France, he became friend with zen master Taisen Deshimaru who arrived in this country in 1965 and whom Osawa considered as his successor.
Tamura was an honorary citizen of the town of Lesneven, France, where he gave week long yearly summer seminars with fellow aikido sensei Yoshimitsu Yamada. The other two important aikido trainings he gave every year during the summer were Saint-Mandrier and La Colle-sur-Loup.
Tamura died of cancer on the night of 9 July 2010.