Athletics
Karate
Program Grows Under Yoshida’s Tutelage A s discussed in an earlier edition of The Winged M, in the spring of 1975, MAC’s Shotokan karate instructor, Robert Graves, left the MAC karate program. In May of 1975, after considering a number of top applicants, MAC hired Junki Chung (now Yoshida). Yoshida had made a reputation as the top heavyweight “open” tournament fighter in the Northwest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, winning his division multiple times at both the Northwest Championships and the Western States Championships. Yoshida’s primary goal was different from his predecessor. While Nishiyama, Graves’ instructor, focused himself on obtaining U.S. control of karate, Yoshida sought to develop traditional karate locally and to bring fame and recognition to the Pacific Northwest. The November 1975 Winged M included the first published photo of Yoshida with MAC students, and reported that both a beginners and advanced class already were in existence.
52 | The Wınged M |
july 2014
The cover of the April 1976 Winged M was devoted to Yoshida: a full-page photo of him doing a flying kick from a dramatic height. During 1977 and 1978, Yoshida added self defense classes to MAC’s traditional karate classes. The March 1978 Winged M contained several impressive photos of Yoshida: one had him cutting a potato on a MAC student’s bare abdomen with a samurai sword. By 1980, Yoshida had affiliated himself with Julius Thiry’s Shito-ryu Washington State Karate Association, itself affiliated with the Japan Karate-do Federation (JKF), the chief Japanese rival of the association that Graves had been affiliated with. The January Winged M discussed the first MAC tournament held under Yoshida’s authority, and contained a photo of Thiry refereeing a match. Sometime later, Yoshida, while remaining with the JKF, changed his immediate affiliation to Ryobu-kai Karate, the style of Shindo Jinen Ryu – “godly, natural style”– created by
Yasuhiro Konishi in Japan in 1933. Shindo Jinen Ryu is very similar to Shotokan, but incorporates elements of aikido and jujitsu. As part of his plan, Yoshida began to initiate MAC competition teams, and MAC students began training at his Beaverton dojo (school), as well as at MAC. The June 1980 Winged M had an article on a demonstration by Yoshida at a MAC father-son banquet, and contained photos of a blindfolded Yoshida cutting a cucumber on a reclining student’s bare abdomen, and another cutting a watermelon on a standing student’s bare torso. In 1981, Yoshida formed a second tournament team, a photo of which is in the July Winged M. The October 1981 Winged M announced the formation of a karate committee, the first since Graves’ resignation in 1975. The issue set forth their names, together with a photo. Later that year, Yoshida added both a women’s self defense class and a businessmen’s karate class.