Japanese martial arts master

Kouzo Kaku was born in Osaka in 1958. Among his ancestors, who were high-ranking samurai and the founders of the famous T?gun-ry? school of Japanese swords.

During the Edo period(1603-1868), the great majority of daimyo(feudal lords)accepted and in many cases fostered the T?gun-ry? tradition. It is interesting to note that among 47 r?nin(masterless samurai)who took part in the famous raid on daimyo Kira's residence（as told in Ch?shingura story ,there were four samurais from T?gun-ry? school, including the leader Kuranosuke Ouchi.

Kaku, whose official name is Kouichi Kawasaki, is the seventeenth descendant of the T?gun-ry? school (the founder being Kawasaki Kaginosuke Tokimori).
The fifth generation,Kawasaki Jir?day? Munekatsu,built and developed a flourishing training hall for this particular martial art. Kaku's family had been samurai until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, but after like many other samurai families, made fundamental career change. Some became bureaucrats or businessmen, but many of them served as naval officers. When Japan was an ally of Great Britain, Kaku's great-grand father took part in the Russo-Japanese War(1904-05) as a naval officer in which Japan had a victory. Among his family members are Admiral Toyoda Soemu, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, and Rear Admiral Kaku Tomeo, Captain of the aircraft carrier battleship, Hiryu ,in the World War II.

20 years old, in Mt. Kouya

Not surprisingly, Kaku grew up in a permeated environment with the samurai culture and began learning T?gun-ry? at the age of five−the mysteries of the technique being handed down from father to son through the generations. He is also a practitioner of other budo (traditional martial arts) skills, such as Taisha-ry?-kenjutsu, Shind?mus?-ry? j?jutsu,Imaeda-ry? bajutsu,Ritsugan-ry?-b?jutsu and Hokuha-sh?rin- rakanken.

At the University of Nara where he specialized in the study of Japanese history, Kaku also made special studies of Aikido, and subsequently traveled to teach Aikido at Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal, and at another time in Hawaii. Today, being a direct student of Ueshiba Kissh?maru(the second d?shu),Kaku continues to practice under the guidance of Ueshiba Moriteru,(the third and present d?shu)and master Aikido Master, Takaoka Sadao.

With his background, he takes an active interest in traditional martial arts as an author and a commentator.

Copy of Licence master of Taisha-ryu kenjutsu which shows that Kaku is the true successor.