was a Japanese martial artist, born as in 1897 on Kume island in the

Ryūkyū The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands ( Ōsumi, Tokara and Amami) and Okinawa Prefecture ( Daitō, Miyako, Y ...

archipelago.

Early life

He was the second son in a family of three boys and one girl. He was placed for

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...

as a child (not an uncommon practice in old Japan). In his early life he took on his mother's maiden name of Maezato. Taira worked in the

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

mines in Minamijima. He suffered a badly broken leg when he was trapped in a mine shaft collapse, which caused permanent damage to his leg.

Karate

In 1922, after traveling to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

to find work, he was introduced to

Gichin Funakoshi was the founder of Shotokan karate. He is known as a "father of modern karate". Following the teachings of Anko Itosu and Anko Asato,Funakoshi, Gichin (1981). ''Karate-Do: My Way of Life'', Kodansha International Ltd. . he was one of the Okin ...

, a fellow Okinawan and

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

instructor. In 1929, Taira began his studies of Ryūkyū ''kobudō'' under Moden Yabiku. In 1932 after studying ''kobudō'' for three years and karate for 10 years, he received permission from his masters to open his own ''dōjō''. Taira began to teach karate and ''kobudō'' in the springs resort town of Ikaho, Gunma Prefecture. In 1934, Taira became a student (deshi) of Kenwa Mabuni. In 1940 Taira opened a ''kobudō'' ''dōjō'' in

Naha is the Cities of Japan, capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 people per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). ...

, Okinawa. He also opened dojo in Kantō and

Kansai The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...

, two major districts of central Japan.

Taira's legacy

In the post-war era, even in Okinawa, the number of kobudo students was much lower than the number of karate students. To revitalize Okinawan ''kobudō'' study, in 1955 he established the Ryūkyū Kobudō Hozon Shinkokai as a continuation of Moden Yabiku's Ryukyu Kobujutsu Society. In 1960, Taira was granted a '' shihan'' in the Nihon Kobudō Kenkyujo, and in 1963, he was made vice-president of the International Karate Kobudō Federation. On July 1, 1964, he was promoted to '' hanshi'' by the Japan Kobudō Federation. He was the first president of the Ryukyu Kobudō Preservation and Promotion Society(July 1970). After his death in September 1970, Taira was succeeded in Ryūkyū Kobudō Hozon Shinkokai in Okinawa by Eisuke Akamine and in mainland Japan by Inoue Motokatsu. Taira created the nunchaku kata taught in Ryukyu kobudō ''Maezato no Nunchaku''. Taira is credited with composing Maezato no Tekko, a kata using metal horse stirrups. The name Maezato relates to his birth name. He continued his studies in kobudo cataloging over 40 traditional weapons kata from around Okinawa.

References

External links

kobudo.com Taira Shinken HanshiBiography of Taira Shinken by Mario McKenna
1897 births 1970 deaths Japanese adoptees Okinawan male karateka Okinawan kobudoka People from Kumejima, Okinawa {{Japan-karate-bio-stub