Biography
Tamura Nobuyoshi was born in Osaka on 2 March 1933. He was the eldest of six children. His father taught kendo and his mother was a schoolteacher.[1][2][3] His father died of tuberculosis when Tamura was a teenager.[5][14] After that, Tamura spent time in Tokyo, including about a year in the macrobiotic dormitory of Sakurazawa Yukikazu (George Ohsawa), before he went back to finish school.[7][16]
Direct student of the Founder
Tamura as a direct student of O-Sensei
Tamura was an uchideshi, a live-in disciple, of O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba. He was admitted to the Founder’s dojo on 5 August 1952 and lived there from c. 1952–1954 uncertain.[4][6][5] He taught at the Hombu, at other Tokyo dojos and at a US Navy centre in Yokohama.[4] He often went with O-Sensei on his travels within Japan,[5] and in 1961 he accompanied him and Tohei Koichi to Hawaii (some sources say 1962 uncertain).[4][16] He was known as one of O-Sensei’s favourite uke (the partner who receives the technique and takes the fall) for demonstrations: the 1961 Honolulu programme names him among the Founder’s “favorites”, and Yamada Yoshimitsu wrote that the quality of Tamura’s aikido came mostly from being O-Sensei’s uke.[4][14]
“We happened to enter the dojo simply because we could stay for free. You could not say that our initial motivation for being there was to become uchideshi.”
In 1964 he married Rumiko, a violinist who practised at the Hombu. In the autumn of that year they sailed from Yokohama, and they landed at Marseille on 13 November 1964.[1][16] From then on he was the Aikikai’s delegate for Europe.[14][6] He helped give French aikido its structure: first the UNA (1971) and the state teaching diploma, then the FFLAB in 1982, which became the FFAB.[1][8][17] From 1978 to 2009 he led the international summer course at Lesneven every year,[1] and he taught regularly across Europe and beyond.[2][6]
In the early 1990s he founded the Shumeikan dojo and the École Nationale d’Aïkido at Bras (Var).[20][16][18] He died at home in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume on 9 July 2010, aged 77.[1][14]
Key timeline
Dates marked uncertain appear differently in different sources. Every version is shown.
- Born in Osaka.[1][2][3]
- His father dies, on 10 July. Tamura said he was 16 at the time, which gives 1949; his sister’s account gives 1948.[5][14]
- Admitted to Ueshiba’s dojo, according to the 1961 Honolulu programme.[4]
- Becomes a resident uchideshi. Sources give 1952–53, 1953, or “1953 or 1954”; Tamura himself later said “I think 1954”.[6][2][5][16]
- Shodan.[4][1]
- 5th dan: 25 Oct 1959 in the 1961 programme; 15 Jan 1960 on one club page.[4][1][21]
- Goes with O-Sensei and Tohei Koichi to Hawaii (27 Feb – 11 Apr 1961, according to the contemporary programme). One later biography gives 1962.[4][16]
- 6th dan.[62][21]
- Marries Rumiko in Tokyo.[1][16]
- Arrives in Marseille and becomes the Aikikai delegate for Europe.[1][16][14]
- Demonstration in Madrid; becomes technical adviser to aikido in the Spanish judo federation.[23]
- Technical director of the Union Nationale d’Aïkido within the French judo federation.[1][8]
- 8th dan Aikikai.[1]
- First international summer course at Lesneven, Brittany.[1]
- Founding of the FFLAB (later the FFAB); founding of AETAIKI in Spain.[17][1][22]
- Ministerial recognition of the FFAB.[17]
- Publishes Aïkido : Étiquette et transmission.[1]
- Shumeikan dojo founded at Les Allées, Bras, together with the École Nationale d’Aïkido. Officially inaugurated 2–4 Sept 1995.[20][16][18]
- Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite (France).[2][1]
- Dies at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.[1][14][3]
- Posthumous Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, presented to Rumiko Tamura.[1][15]
The full story is being researched for a forthcoming biography. If you knew Tamura Shihan, please share your memories.