User:ShihanYokota/Kousaku Yokota

Kousaku Yokota (1947- ), 8th "dan" is the Chief Instructor to the Asai Shotokan Association International, which has dojo in membership world-wide. He is a graduate of the Japan Karate Association's (JKA) instructors course and a personal student of the late Jun Sugano 9th dan, former JKA Vice Chairman. During his time with the JKA, Yokota also acted as an assistant instructor under Teruyuki Okazaki 10th dan at the International Shotokan Karate Federation's (ISKF) honbu dojo in Philadelphia, USA.

Yokota, resigned from the JKA and joined Tetsuhiko Asai 10th Dan and the Japan Karate Shotorenmei (JKS) as a JKS instructor, becoming an ardent student of Asai and in his latter years, a confidant. He resigned from the JKS after Asai's passing and took up the position of Technical Director of the World Japan Karate Alliance/Association (WJKA)

He left the WJKA in 2013 to form the Asai Shotokan Association International (ASAI) both to honour his own teacher; Tetsuhiko Asai, as well as offering him a vehicle by which he could better promalgate Asai's teachings world-wide (Asai-Ryu).

Asai-Ryu builds on the teachings of Funakoshi/Nakayama-ryu Shotokan karate but has added into the system, techniques which combine the strong, long distance fighting method of traditional JKA Shotokan with that of the softer and more fluid short distance fighting style of White Crane Kung fu. Asai believed that adding these techniques into traditional Shotokan training, along with the adjunctive kata of what is now known as Asai-ryu, helped cover the elements he believed were missing within the JKA system.

Yokota began his study of the martial arts in 1960 at the age of 13 when he joined the Judo club at the Hyogo Prefecture Police station. After watching it being practiced, he switched his martial arts training to karate and in 1964 he joined the JKA dojo in Kobe, Japan. He has also studied other karate and adjunctive styles such as Goju-Ryu and Kyokushinkai and Ki. His Kobudo weapons experience includes Nunchaku and Sai, which he trains with regularly to augment his karate training.

As a karateka, Yokota believes strongly in the budo/bujutsu concept of the art and therefore does not like the competition aspect that some karate-ka prefer. He has however, participated in tournaments at the behest of his instructors of the day and was champion of Hyogo Prefecture Championship in 1981 and 1982, and represented Hyogo prefecture at the JKA All Japan Championships in Tokyo. During his tournament career he fought against other Shotokan notables such as Masahiko Tanaka, Masao Kagawa and Yoshiharu Osaka. In order to better test his own karate skills and training further, he also trained for, and participated in full contact Kyokoshinkai competitions, which he feels helped validate his belief in the budo/bujutsu aspects of the art and led him to follow the teachings of Tetsuhiko Asai.

Kousaku Yokota who holds a post graduate masters degree, is the author of; Shotokan Myths and Shotokan Mysteries and co-author and translator of the Asai Kata Kyohon books 1,2 and 3.