“ Black Belt’s 1990 Instructor Of The Year” Please share with your friends
Takayuki Mikami 1933 –
“ Black Belt’s 1990 Instructor Of The Year”
Takayuki Mikami is a Japanese master of Shotokankarate based in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A. He holds the rank of 9th danblack belt in Shotokan karate.
Mikami was born in the Niigata Prefecture, Japan. At the age of 19, he began training in Shotokan karate under Kimio Itoe, and was promoted to lst dan in 1953. He was appointed team captain of the Hosei University Karate Club, and in 1956 he enrolled in the Japanese Karate Association’s newly formed instructor training course under Masatoshi Nakayama. His classmates were Eiji Takaura and Hirokazu Kanazawa.
In 1958, Mikami tied for first place in the All Japan Karate Championships against former classmate Kanazawa. The following year, he became the All Japan champion in kumite (sparring) as well as kata (patterns). In 1961, Mikami won first place in kata again. He was also the first person to graduate from the Japan Karate Association's (JKA) instructor training program instituted by Gichin Funakoshi and Masatoshi Nakayama.
After graduation, Mikami began to travel widely teaching karate. In 1957, the JKA sent him to the Phillipines to instruct at the Far Eastern University, Manila for nine months. By 1967 Mikami had reached the rank of 5th dan. In 1963, he was sent to the United States.Initially, he taught at a dojo in Kansas for 14 months,but then decided to start a new dojo in Louisiana: the Louisiana Karate Association (LKA). In 1965, Mikami made the LKA the headquarters for the All South Karate Federation,which functioned under the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF), a division of JKA. He has remained there as a teacher and regional director ever since. By 1984, he was promoted to the rank of 8th dan by the JKA.
In 1990, Mikami was named Instructor
of the Year by Black Belt magazine. One of his favourite techniques is the step-in punch,
and sweep back kick. In 2005, he was
elected President of the Japanese Karate Masters Association of North America.
In 2007, after the ISKF split from JKA, Mikami decided to remain in association
with the JKA.That same year, he was appointed to the JKA International
Board of Directors. In March 2008, he was named as one of two Senior Technical
Advisors to the JKA World Federation Headquarters, Tokyo, by the JKA Board of
Directors. Mikami founded the JKA
American Federation (JKA/AF) in order to better serve his members and to
connect more closely and directly with the JKA World Federation.
In 2011, Mikami was promoted to 9th dan by JKA headquarters in Tokyo. He is the highest ranked JKA master in the USA, and also holds the highest technical qualifications. He is JKA Senior technical advisor.