Tadashi Nakamura (martial artist)
| Tadashi Nakamura | |
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Tadashi Nakamura at Honbu, 2009
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| Born | February 22, 1942 |
| Style | Seidō juku Karate |
| Teacher(s) | Ōyama Masutatsu |
Tadashi Nakamura (中村 忠 Nakamura Tadashi?, born February 22, 1942) is the founder and Kaicho (chairman) of World Seidō Karate Organization.
Tadashi Nakamura was born on the February 22, 1942 in the town of Maoka on the island of Karafuto. Nakamura trained in various martial arts including Goju-Ryu, Kendo, and Kyokushin. In 1956 he started studying with Mas Oyama (founder of the Kyokushin style of karate) and he had reached the rank of shodan(1st degree black belt) on May 6, 1962.
When he was 19 years old (1961) he made his first tournament appearance , the All-Japan Student Open Karate Championship, where he was placed first. In 1962, he took part in a match against a Muay Thai of the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. The contest had been to determine which country had the 'best' martial art.
It was around this point in his life that Nakamura started passing his knowledge and experience onto others. Firstly at Camp Zama (a U.S. military base near Tokyo) from 1961 to 1965. He also coached the karate team for the Toho Medical University for three years. He also served as chief instructor at the Kyokushin Karate Honbu in Tokyo while earning his seventh dan.
On April 5, 1966, the head of Kyokushin Karate, Masutatsu Oyama, selected Nakamura to go to the U.S.A. and spread the spirit of karate. Aged 24 he moved to New York to begin teaching Kyokushin Karate. His first dojo was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Over the next ten years he served as the American head of Kyokushin Karate. In 1971 he established the North American Kyokushin Karate headquarters on 14th St in Manhattan. He trained many students: Thomas Wiggins, Claude Battle, Charles Martin, William Best, Michael Reeves and William Oliver and Warren Bailey were some of his students.
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