“He Started Black Belt Magazine”

Mitoshi Ueyhara 194? –

“He Started Black Belt Magazine”

Mito Ueyhara is a Japanese American who moved to Los Angeles from Hawaii in 1960 to start teaching Aikido which he had attained a black belt in from Koichi Tohei. But instead of teaching Aikido he started Black Belt Magazine with three others and eventually he bought out the others and became one of the first multi millionaires from martial arts.

Black Belt is an Americanmagazine covering martial arts and combat sports. It is the magazine dedicated to martial arts in the United States. It was started in 1961.

Black Belt magazine which has been the stalward for the last 50 plus years of its existence. The magazine has always been known for its factual information that stayed in tune with the martial arts community.

At one time the editors were even receiving payments on the side from those wanting just to be on the cover it was that important in the martial arts world.

In recent years though it has met the same problems as other magazines and the internet has put a sharp decline in the magazine. It was sold a few times and now it is only published once every two months versus a monthly like it was for the last 50 years.

Bruce Lee contributed many articles to the publication during the 1960s. Uyehara was a key personage in arranging Lee's material for publication. He developed a terrific idea of publishing small paperback books on various martial arts making the knowledge of the masters available to the masses.

The magazines Hall of Fame is still the most respected Hall of Fame in the entire martial arts world.

The magazine set the stage for so many famous martial artists like Bruce Lee, Joe lewis, Bill Wallace, Steven Hayes, Hidetaka Nishiyama but none more important then Bruce Lee who Mito studied with briefly with in 1966.