Yutaka Yaguchi

Yutaka Yaguchi
Y. Yaguchi, March 2008
Born	(1932-11-14) November 14, 1932 (age 84) Hiroshima, Japan
Residence	Denver, Colorado, USA
Style	Shotokan Karate
Teacher(s)	Gichin Funakoshi, Masatoshi Nakayama
Rank	9th dan karate
Website	http://www.iskfmountainstates.com/

Yutaka Yaguchi (born November 14, 1932) is the Chief Instructor and Chairman of the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) Mountain States Region. He was born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1932 and began karate training in 1952. He later tested under masters Gichin Funakoshi for his 1st dan black belt and Masatoshi Nakayama for his 2nd through 8th dan black belts. As one of the first graduates of the Japan Karate Association (JKA) Instructors' Training Program in 1959, he has played an important role in the growth of JKA karate and the internationalization of Shotokan karate. Yaguchi first arrived in the United States on June 5, 1965, and continues to reside in the US to the present day. In 1974, Yaguchi founded the ISKF of Colorado, the regional headquarters for the Mountain States Region.

Yaguchi was born on November 14, 1932, in Kure, a suburb of Hiroshima, Japan, on November 14, 1932 into a farming family. The youngest of five children, he had a carefree youth but was aware of the clouds of war. World War II impacted his life, at the end of the war, when he was assigned a job at a shipyard. On the morning of August 6, 1945, while he was waiting to enter the factory building at the shipyard, he saw the flash of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

After the war, Yutaka Yaguchi was able to resume his education, and was even able to go to university, unlike many of his former school mates. He went to Nihon University in Tokyo, and this is where he first started Shotokan karate. He also joined the JKA at that time. Training was very intense and heavily oriented to conditioning. Mr. Yaguchi graduated with a degree in Marine Biology, but was averse to sailing. After graduation, he found a job with a construction company.

One day in 1957, Sensei Masatoshi Nakayama asked Mr. Yaguchi to quit his job and join the JKA Instructor Training program full time. Yaguchi quit his job the very next day and enrolled. When he graduated from the program in 1959, he was the fourth graduate behind Hirokazu Kanazawa, Takayuki Mikami, and Eiji Takaura.