Tsutomu Ohshima

Tsutomu Oshima 1930 –

“Keeper of The Flame”

Tsutomu Ohshimais a prominent Japanese master of Shotokankarate who founded the Shotokan Karate of America (SKA) organization.He is the Shihan (Chief Instructor) of the SKA, and to this day holds the rank of 5th dan in karate, which was awarded to him by Gichin Funakoshi.

By the age of five, he had already begun learning martial arts. He studied sumo from the ages of 5–15, kendo from 8–15, and judo from 9–13.

Ohshima began studying karate in 1948, while a student at Waseda University. There, he trained under Shotokan's founder, Gichin Funakoshi, and later became captain of the university's karate club, in 1952. That same year, Funakoshi personally awarded Ohshima the rank of 3rd dan black belt.Ohshima's seniors at the club also influenced his development in karate, they included Shigeru Egami, Toshio Kamata-Watanabe, Hiroshi Noguchi, Tadao Okuyama, and Matsuo Shibuya. It was also during this period that he befriended Mitsusuke Harada, who would go on to become a pioneer of karate in Brazil and the United Kingdom. Ohshima was a member of the Japan Karate Association in its earliest days.1957, he founded the first university karate club in the USA at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). That same year, Funakoshi promoted Ohshima to 5th dan—the highest rank awarded by Funakoshi. In 1959, he founded the Southern California Karate Association (SCKA). It was around this time that Ohshima invited Hidetaka Nishiyama to take charge of his karate students in the US, as he was planning to return to Japan following completion of his US university studies. The arrangement did not work out satisfactorily, and was to be a source of bitterness between the two masters.

He continues to lead the SKA, with headquarters in Santa Barbara, California.