Sensei Ninomiya (center) and members of Itosu-kai Hodogaya branch
Sensei Ninomiya (USA) had visited Yokohama area Japan for two weeks in the middle of July, and he trained at Itosu-kai International Headquarters and Hodogaya branch in Yokohama.
Japanese American, Sensei Ninomiya has been a member of Itosu-kai since 1973. It was 1987 when he visited Japan very first time. The first College Students World Karate Championship was held in Kyoto, and he came over as the representative of USA. After that, he did not go back to USA and stayed in Japan, and he had practiced with Late Soke Ryusho Sakagami and current Soke Sadaaki Sakagami at Itosu-kai International Headquarters for 13 years. While he was in Japan, he even became Kata champion in Kanagawa prefecture and he worked as the representative of team Kanagawa.
Since he had been in Japan and abosorbed knowledge and technique of Itosu-ryu Karatedo for such a long time, he is probably one of the most knowledgeable Itosu-ryu karate-ka outside of Japan. He is currently trying to pass down the orthodox Itosu-ryu techniques at his hometown in USA.
It is the first time in last 10 years for him to visit Japan, and he trained with Soke Sakagami at Itosu-kai International Headquarters, and he also practiced with Sensei Kiyoshi Kusuhara (the treasurer of IKIF ) at Hodogaya branch in Yokohama.
We hope he will come back to Japan more often and train together again.