1. Mitsusuke Harada, MBE was a prominent Japanese master of Shotokai karate who introduced this martial art to Brazil and was after based in the United Kingdom.
19 Facts About Mitsusuke Harada
1. 2.
Mitsusuke Harada founded the Karate-do Shotokai organisation in 1965 and was its president.
3.
Mitsusuke Harada was born on 16 November 1928 in Dairen, Manchuria, which was then part of the Empire of Japan; his father was a Japanese army officer.
4.
Mitsusuke Harada lived there until the age of 9 years, when his family returned to Tokyo.
5.
Mitsusuke Harada began training in karate in 1943 at the Shotokan karate dojo in Zoshigaya, Toshima Ward, Tokyo.
6.
Mitsusuke Harada later met Gigo Funakoshi there, only two years before the latter's death due to illness.
7.
On 29 April 1945, an Allied bombing raid on Tokyo destroyed the Shotokan dojo; Mitsusuke Harada wrote a letter to Gichin Funakoshi requesting to continue training if possible, and Funakoshi invited him to train at his eldest son's home, in Koishikawa.
8.
In 1948, Mitsusuke Harada began studying economics and commerce at Waseda University.
9.
In 1949, the Japan Karate Association was formed; Mitsusuke Harada was often escorting Funakoshi by taxi around this time.
10.
Mitsusuke Harada came into contact with Shigeru Egami and Tadao Okuyama, then ranked 3rd dan, at Waseda.
11.
Mitsusuke Harada trained under both men, and they had a significant influence on his karate style.
12.
Mitsusuke Harada completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1953 and went on to complete a master's degree in 1955.
13.
Mitsusuke Harada wrote to Funakoshi to request affiliation with the JKA, but the latter apparently wrote back advising him to start his own karate organisation.
14.
Mitsusuke Harada has kept the same rank to this day, and 5th dan is still the highest rank attainable in his organisation.
15.
At the time, karate students in Paris had heard of him and saved enough money to buy him an airline ticket to their city; Mitsusuke Harada resigned from the bank, intending to take a year to travel before returning to Brazil.
16.
On 23 November 1963, Mitsusuke Harada demonstrated karate as part of the National Judo Championships being held in London.
17.
Mitsusuke Harada returned to Japan for six months in 1967 and, while he apparently did not consider the journey fruitful overall, he did confirm a replacement to lead his dojo in Brazil: Arinobu Ishibata.
18.
Mitsusuke Harada has taught at other overseas clubs that were developed including: Canada, Estonia, Finland, Gibraltar, Israel, Morocco, Poland, Spain, and the USA.
19.
Mitsuske Mitsusuke Harada died on 26 February 2021 at his home in Cwmbran at the age of 92.