Mitsusuke Harada

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Mitsusuke Harada

 

Mitsusuke Harada was born on the 16th November 1928 in Dairen, south Manchuria where his parents had previously moved due to his father, Yutaka, working for the South Manchurian Railway. 

As a result of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, prior to the end of the Second World War, the Harada family returned to Tokyo, Japan, where he requested that his father find a dojo on his behalf due to his interest in martial arts after being exposed to Taiji Chuan whilst living in Manchurian.  His father returned with the address of the famous Shotokan dojo that had been the first purpose built Karate dojo in Japan, constructed in 1936, as a result of the great efforts of Master Gichin Funakoshi.

In 1943 at the age of 14, he took his first Karate lesson at the Shotokan dojo with Master Motonobu Hironishi 4th Dan.  Harada found the lessons very, difficult, but as he had paid for a months tuition he decided to see it through.

In that month he was taught by Masters Hironishi, Hayashi and Uemura.  One or two evenings a week Yoshitaka Funakoshi (3rd son of Master Gichin Funakoshi) would teach.  Even Gichin Funakoshi would teach on occasions.

When the Shotokan dojo was destroyed during the American bombing raids in 1945, Harada wrote to Gichin Funakoshi, requesting he be taken on as a private student at his home.  Funakoshi agreed.  Harada trained under him until 1948 when he entered Waseda University.

In the early fifties as a young man, he came under the influence of Masters Shigeru Egami and Tadao Okuyama who greatly influenced his Karate development.  Harada trained one to one with Master Egami for 3 hours daily, 7 days a week, this continued for nearly 2 years which was also a great period of experimentation and development for the innovative Master Egami.

After graduating with a Masters degree in Commerce in 1955, Harada worked for a Tokyo bank and in 1956 went to Soa Paolom Brazil, to work at the Bank of South America.  Whilst in Brazil, he set up the Karate-do Shotokan Brazlieo, the first organisation of its kind in South America.  After several years in Brazil, Harada travelled to Europe in 1963.

Initially in France, Master Harada instructed some courses at the request of others but came to Britain later in 1963 at the invitation of Kenshiro Abbe an extremely highly respected Judo and Aikido Master.  After appearing in a Martial Arts exhibition at the Albert Hall in November of that year, Master Harada was in demand to teach Karate in Britain.

Master Harada made Britain his home and became the first Japanese instructor to teach in the U.K. In 1965 he formed the Karate-do Shoto Kai.


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