Harry Cook

Harry Cook
Born	Henry Wilson Cook 1949 (age 67–68) South Shields, Tyne and Wear, UK
Residence	Haltwhistle, Northumberland, UK
Style	Shotokan Karate, Goju-ryu Karate
Teacher(s)	Keinosuke Enoeda, Morio Higaonna
Rank	7th dan karate

Henry Wilson Cook (born 1949), widely known as Harry Cook, is a British martial artist, teacher, and author. He has written several martial art books, most notably Shotokan Karate: A precise history (2001). Cook began training in karate in 1966, and was the Chief Instructor of the Seijinkai Karatedo Association, a school he founded to teach his own style of karate. He holds the rank of 7th dan in karate. In June 2012 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple sexual offences over a period of 26 years including indecent assault, sexual assault, and making indecent and possessing pornographic images of children.

Cook was born in 1949 in South Shields, England. He began training in the martial arts in 1966, learning karate from two schoolmates. They belonged to a Wado-ryu school, which he joined in September 1966. Subsequently, the Wado-ryu instructors moved from the area, and Cook joined Ken Smith's Shotokan-ryu dojo (training hall) in Sunderland. In the late 1960s, Cook was one of the first British karate students to train under Keinosuke Enoeda. Having completed secondary school, he held the rank of 4th kyu in karate.

Cook studied surveying for a year, but then moved on to studying Chinese language at Durham University. At university, he came into contact with Rose Li, one of the lecturers, who taught Cook t'ai chi ch'uan. In 1970, Cook established the Durham University Karate Club, which became affiliated to the Karate Union of Great Britain. He was tested for 1st kyu by Andy Sherry. In 1973, Cook received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese studies from Durham University; a year later, he earned a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from the same institution.

Cook embarked on a career as a schoolteacher, but this was to be short-lived—only around two years. He successfully applied for a job in Japan. Cook had originally planned to travel to China, but, as he recalled in a 1988 interview, "at that time it was difficult to enter, so I opted for Japan as it was more Westernized and more modern." Arriving in Japan in the mid-1970s, Cook started work as a teacher of the English language. He had intended to visit the Japan Karate Association, but Terry O'Neill recommended visiting Morio Higaonna's Goju-ryu karate dojo, which Cook did. While he trained under Hirokazu Kanazawa occasionally, and also studied sword and stick fighting arts, most of his training was under Higaonna. In interviews conducted years later, Cook would speak very positively of Higaonna.

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