isshinryuronin
Senior Master
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I posted this (in part) on the recent thread "KARATE VS BEAR" but thought that some might like a chance to acknowledge their own MA instructors. Pictured here is Bob Ozman, my teacher and mentor for my first 20 years in the art. On the right is him with isshinryu founder, Shimabuku Tatsuo Soke. On the left is Bob practicing with one of his co-stars for the movie, The Island of Dr. Moreau, starring Burt Lancaster, where his character (half human, half bull) battles a tiger to the death. His friend, master Demura Fumio, also had a part.
But he is much better known as one of the early karate pioneers in Southern California. He received his lower black belts from Clarence Ewing in Indiana where he was the state wrestling champion prior to his karate training. He was a fearsome fighter but also gentle, humble without ego or pretension, and well respected by the other early karate greats in the West. He taught all of us teens (he had no kids of his own), and later young men, more than just karate. I was his second black belt.
Share your instructors' stories, even if you wish to leave them unnamed.
Edit: Not sure what happened to the other 2 photos, but they do appear in the thread Karate vs Bears so take a look there.
I posted this (in part) on the recent thread "KARATE VS BEAR" but thought that some might like a chance to acknowledge their own MA instructors. Pictured here is Bob Ozman, my teacher and mentor for my first 20 years in the art. On the right is him with isshinryu founder, Shimabuku Tatsuo Soke. On the left is Bob practicing with one of his co-stars for the movie, The Island of Dr. Moreau, starring Burt Lancaster, where his character (half human, half bull) battles a tiger to the death. His friend, master Demura Fumio, also had a part.
But he is much better known as one of the early karate pioneers in Southern California. He received his lower black belts from Clarence Ewing in Indiana where he was the state wrestling champion prior to his karate training. He was a fearsome fighter but also gentle, humble without ego or pretension, and well respected by the other early karate greats in the West. He taught all of us teens (he had no kids of his own), and later young men, more than just karate. I was his second black belt.
Share your instructors' stories, even if you wish to leave them unnamed.
Edit: Not sure what happened to the other 2 photos, but they do appear in the thread Karate vs Bears so take a look there.
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