Wado organisations timeline

a timeline of the major Japanese and international Wado organisations 1934-2000

april 1,1934
‘Dai Nippon Karate Shinko Club’,an original body of
Wadokai,was founded by Hironori Otsuka in Tokyo.

1938
Otsuka registers his style of karate with the Dai-Nippon-Butoku-Kai under the name of Wadoryu.

1952
Wadoryu headquarters established in the Meiji University karate club.

1964
Establishment of the ‘All Japan Karatedo Federation’ (JKF) as a general organisation for all karate styles. The wado faction joined as a major group.

june 5,1967
The wado organisation changes name to Wadokai

1980
As the result of a conflict between Hironori Otsuka and Wadokai, Otsuka steps down as head of Wadokai. Eiichi Eriguchi takes over his place within Wadokai.

1981
Hironori Otsuka founds Wadoryu Renmei. After only a few months Hironori Otsuka retires as head of Wadoryu renmei. His son Jiro Otsuka takes his place..

januari 29,1982
Hironori Otsuka passes away.

1989
Tatsuo Suzuki, since the initial split not tightly affiliated to neither Wadoryu Renmei nor Wadokai, founds his own organisation: Wado Kokusai.



How about the names?

The full name of Wadokai in English is ‘Japan Karatedo Federation, Wadokai’. In Japanese it is ‘Zen Nihon Karatedo Renmei, Wadokai’. ‘Japan Karatedo Federation’ is often abbreviated as JKF.

The full name of Wado Kokusai is ‘Wado Kokusai Karatedo Renmei’ Also known as Wado International Karatedo Federation, abbreviated as WIKF.

In 1983 Jiro Otsuka ‘inherits’ the tilte of Grand-Master of Wadoryu and changes his name to Hironori Otsuka. He is now often referred to as Hironori Otsuka II

The name of the style was originally registered as ‘Shinshu Wadoryu Karate-Jujutsu in 1938. But Otsuka was adviced that both ‘Shinshu’ and ‘Wa’ could refer to Japan. So shortly after registration it was decided to simplify the name of the style to ‘Wadoryu’.

renmei: group or federation
wadokai: wado association, wado ‘meeting’ as in a group or meeting of minds
kokusai: international
ryu: ‘style’, ‘method’ or ‘school’
Strictly speaking Hironori Otsuka founded and developed ‘Wadoryu’. The people who trained with him became the wado group or ‘Wadokai’. So the style that is trained within ‘Wadokai’ is ‘Wadoryu’.



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