Wadōkai

Wado-kai certificate with the effigy of sensei Tatsuo Suzuki signed by Naoki Ishikawa.

Wado kai (和道会, Wadō kai) is the organization within the Japan Karate Federation (JKF) which practices the Wadō-ryū style of karate.^[1][2] Wado kai has numerous associated organizations and member clubs on different continents of the world.^[3]

History

Timeline

• 1938: Hironori Ohtsuka registered his mixed style of karate-jujutsu with the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, originally under the name of Shinshu Wadoryu Karate-Jujutsu. Not much later this was shortened to Wado-ryu (和道流).^[4]
• 1952: A Wadoryu Honbu (headquarters) was established in the Meiji University dojo in Tokyo, Japan.
• 1958: The Shintani Wado Kai Karate Federation^[5] of North America officially joined Otsuka's federation.
• 1964: The Japan Karatedo Federation (JKF) was established as a general organization for all karate styles. Wado joins this organization as a major group.
• 5 June 1967: The Wado organization changed the name to Wadokai.
• 15 November 1979: Hironori Otsuka promoted Masaru Shintani to 8th dan, and presented him with a 9th dan certificate at the same time and appointed Shintani Sensei the Supreme Instructor of Wado Karate in North America.
• 1980: As a result of a conflict between Hironori Ohtsuka and the Wadokai organization, Ohtsuka stepped down as head of Wadokai. Eiichi Eriguchi succeeded him within Wadokai at that time and again became Chairman during the 1990s.
• 1 April 1981: Hironori Ohtsuka founded Wadoryu Karatedo Renmei. After only a few months Hironori Ohtsuka retired as head of this organization. His son Jiro Ohtsuka took his place. Renmei means 'group' or 'federation.'
• 29 January 1982: Hironori Ohtsuka died at the age of 89 years .
• 1983: Jiro Ohtsuka became Grandmaster of Wado Ryu and changed his name to Hironori Ohtsuka, in honor of his father. He is now often referred to as Hironori Ohtsuka II.
• 1991: Tatsuo Suzuki founded his own organization, the third major Wado organization: Wado Kokusai. Kokusai means 'international.'^[6]

Partition

Wadokai remained relatively intact as an organisation until around 1980, when a split occurred. The split occurred because the Wadokai board of directors and Hironori Ohtsuka (the founder of the style) had a difference in opinion about monetary expenditures and accessibility to the funds of the organization. Ohtsuka felt it was within his rights to have full use of the Federation funds and one day made a withdrawal that drew the ire of the board of directors. This matter was settled out of court and the terms of the settlement allowed him to keep the money but he had to resign from Wadokai and he also lost all rights to the name and logo of the organization. After he resigned Ohtsuka started a new organization called Wado Ryu Renmei.

Wadokai outside Japan

Royal school Yama Arashi in Belgium

Associated and member organizations and clubs outside Japan include the following:

• Shintani Wado-Kai Karate Federation
• Danish Wado-Kai Karate-Do
• Wado-Kai England
• England Wado-Kai Karate-Do Renmei
• Scottish Karate-Do Federation
• Wado Kai Belgium
• Wado Kai Luxembourg
• Sociedad Española Wado Kai
• British Wadokai Karate
• British Wadokai (Southwest)
• Wadoryu Karatedo Kenkyukai
• Swedish Karate-do Wadokai
• Wadokai Sohonbu Germany
• Wadokai Association of Ireland
• US Wadokai Karatedo Federation
• Wado Guseikai
• NZ WadoKai Hamilton^[7]
• All Britain Wadokai^[8]
• International Wado Federation India^[9]

Organization's name

According to Ishizuka Akira, a veteran figure in the Japanese karate world, the term Wado Kai was in general use as early as the 1940s, but it was only in 1967 that the name was adopted formally. Prior to this the group was known as the Zen Nihon Karate-do Renmei. With the formation of the Federation of All Japan Karatedo Organization (FAJKO, later changed to JKF) in the mid 60's, it was no longer correct to use this name so Wadokai came into formal use.

The term Wadokai can be broken into three parts: Wa, do and kai. Wa can be read to mean 'harmony'. It can also be read to mean "original Japan", as in Wafu (Japanese style), Washoku (Japanese food). it is therefore also a clever pun that could be taken to mean both "harmony" and "intrinsically Japanese". Do is a Japanese term for 'way' (as in karate-do). So Wado means 'the way of (Japanese) harmony'. Kai simply means 'association'.

Different Wado names

The full name of the Japanese Wadokai federation in English is Japan Karatedo Federation Wadokai. In Japanese it is Zen Nihon Karatedo Renmei Wadokai.

Nowadays the full name of Wadoryu is Wadoryu Karatedo Renmei.

The full name of Wado Kokusai is Wado Kokusai Karatedo Renmei, also known as Wado International Karatedo Federation abbreviated as WIKF.

Strictly speaking Hironori Ohtsuka founded and developed Wado Ryu. The people who trained with him became the Wado group or Wadokai. So today, the style that is trained within Wadokai is Wado Ryu. The Wadoryu Renmei people (Jiro Ohtsuka's group) sometimes referred their style as Wadoryu Jujutsu Kenpo^[10] to assert their emphasis in the Jujutsu roots of Wado.

References

External links

• Japan Karatedo Federation Wado-Kai - home page