Taky Kimura

Taky Kimura (born March 12, 1924) is a Japanese American martial artist who is best known as being one of Bruce Lee's top students and closest friends - and a certified instructor in Jun Fan Gung Fu, personally certified by Bruce Lee himself. Kimura was also the best man at Bruce Lee's wedding, and one of eight pallbearers during Bruce Lee's funeral, the others including Dan Inosanto, Steve McQueen, Chuck Norris, James Coburn, George Lazenby, Ray Chin and Robert Lee, Bruce's brother.

Growing up, Kimura and his family were interned in a War relocation center (or internment camp) during World War II, first at Tule Lake and later at Minidoka, due to their Japanese American heritage. Kimura was actually taken to the camp one day before his high school graduation.

Emerging from the internment camp after World War II, Kimura found himself to be downtrodden, broken down and lacking motivation. Because he was unable to graduate from high school due to being taken to the internment camp, and because his family had no money to pay for his college education, his family began to operate a supermarket store in Seattle, Washington.

In his mid-thirties, during the year 1959, Kimura met a young, rising 18-year-old martial arts genius named Bruce Lee. Kimura joined Bruce's early kung-fu club where Lee taught Jun Fan Gung Fu, literally translating to Bruce Lee's Kung Fu and his version of Wing Chun, Kimura became Bruce Lee's student, assistant and at that time, his "best friend." Together, they practiced, sparred, trained, and then founded Bruce Lee's first kung fu club (the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute) in the basement of the Kimura family supermarket, where he became Lee's first Assistant Instructor. Because of Kimura's strong friendship with Bruce Lee and due to his dedicated study of Jun Fan Gung Fu, and the philosophy behind martial arts in general, Kimura was able to turn his life around.

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