Seishiro Okazaki was born on January 28, 1890 in the town of Date in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan. His father was Hanyeimon Okazaki and his mother was Fuka Suenaga. In1906, Seishiro moved from Japan to the big island of Hawaii and settled in Hilo. In 1909, he was examined by a doctor who diagnosed Seishiro with incurable tuberculosis.
In relating this story to Sig Kufferath, Okazaki said, "With courage
borne out of desperation, I went to Master Yoshimatsu Tanaka." At that
time (1910), Tanaka was teaching Jujutsu at his dojo in Hilo and in
Okazaki's words, "started to practice Jujutsu in earnest and in defiance
of death."
Whether or not it was due to his frantic devotion to Jujutsu, Okazaki's tuberculosis healed and developed a strong, iron-like body. He believed that
he owed his life to Jujutsu and devoted the rest of it to the teaching and
promotion of the art.
While in Hilo, Okazaki mastered various Jujutsu techniques being taught at
the Yoshin- Ryu, Iwaga-Ryu and Kosogabe-Ryu schools. He then combined these
systems with Karate techniques from the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) and the knife
techniques of the Phillipines to form the Danzan-Ryu school of Jujutsu. Danzan
are the kanji (Chinese characters) that denote the Hawaiian islands, thus
Danzan-Ryu is the Hawaiian school of Jujutsu. According to Kufferath, one of
Okazaki's most influential instructors, Wo Chung, called Hawaii "Danzan",
so Okazaki dedicated part of the system to Chung's memory. Chung taught
Okazaki Mushi-Jutsu, which is the art of boxing withintent to kill, as Okazaki
translated it. In 1917, he also studied the Hawaiian secret killing art of Lua
under the tutelage of David Kainhee, a native Hawaiian. This training took
place in the district of Puna on the island of Hawaii. He also studied western
boxing and wrestling, and he learned dirk throwing from a Spaniard. Okazaki
incorporated all of these arts into his system.
In addition to the martial systems, Okazaki studied all the resuscitation
arts of Kappo and Seifukujutsu, the Japanese art of physical adjustment and
restoration. He was a firm believer that one of the virtues of Jujutsu was
its techniques of restoration from disabling blows.
In September of 1922, a heavyweight American boxing champion named K.O.
Morris visited the islands and began to challenge Judo and other martial arts.
His claim was that his boxing was superior to any Japanese fighting art. When
the challenge was answered in the Hilo arena by several Japanese martial
artists, they were defeated by Morris, causing them to lose face. According to
Kufferath, Okazaki then challenged Morris to a match. Okazaki reportedly
suffered a broken nose in the first round. He then retaliated with a reverse
arm lock which broke Morris' arm and caused him to faint from the pain. Okazaki
later said, "I enhanced the reputation of Japanese Jujutsu by defeating
him with much splendor." Okazaki received a gold watch from the Japanese
community for restoring its honor.
In September 1924, Okazaki left Hilo and returned temporarily to Japan. This trip lasted five months, three of which he was actually in Japan and the other two months, he was in transit across the Pacific. During his stay in Japan, he traveled
extensively (here seen at Nachi Falls in the southern district of Wakayama prefecture), visiting more than 50 dojos scattered between Morioka City in the north and Kagoshima in the south. He mastered some 675 techniques of Jujutsu, all the while improving his own Danzan-Ryu. This photograph is Okazaki with a Kiai Jutsu master named Hiroshima. During this time, he visited the Kodokan and received a black belt in Judo from Prof. Jigoro Kano. He returned from Japan in February of 1925 and started to teach his Jujutsu on the island
of Maui.
In 1929, Okazaki moved to Honolulu on the island of Oahu. It was here
that he opened the Okazaki "Sefukujutsu In", or Okazaki Adjustment
and Restoration Clinic which would eventually be called the Nikko Restoration
Sanitorium. At the same time, he opened his Kodenkan Dojo to teach his
Danzan-Ryu Jujutsu while still testing and improving his system. People came
in droves to the Sanitorium with so-called incurable nerve disorders, including
President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Incidentally, President Roosevelt offered
Okazaki a job at the White House as his private therapist. Okazaki, not wanting
to leave the islands, declined the offer.
Okazaki was one of the first teachers to break from tradition and teach
Japanese martial arts to non-Japanese. In fact, it is reported that in 1922,
Okazaki taught Judo to two students, Dr. Baldwin of Hilo and Chief Fatoio of
Samoa. For this he was severly reprimanded by his instructors. In Honolulu,
however, Okazaki was the master. Kufferath relates that Okazaki was ostracized
by other Japanese for doing this. Okazaki believed that eveyone should have
the opportunity to learn Jujutsu, regardless of their heritage.
His first class in Honolulu consisted of six students: his son Hachiro,
Kiyoshi Kawashima, Benjamin Marks, George Harbottle, William Simao and Y.S.
Kim. In 1932, Richard Rickerts, Curly Friedman, Charles Wagner, Harold McLean,
Bob Glover and Tantro Muggey enrolled in the Kodenkan. In 1936, they graduated
with instructor's diplomas. Okazaki also formed an organization originally
called the American Jujitsu Guild and later renamed to the American Jujitsu
Institute (AJI.
Okazaki felt that his was the most comprehensive form of Jujutsu because it took
what he believed were the optimum approaches to self-defense and combined them
into one school. He was also an avid promoter of sport Judo and Sumo in
Hawaii.
On December 7, 1941, forces from the Imperial Japanese Navy executed a
surprised attack on the U.S. military bases on Oahu, thus entering the United
States into war with Japan. What followed for island residents was martial law
where many Japanese were arrested and detained at the military base on Sand
Island. Many reports have indicated that Okazaki was detained as well. Recent
documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Freedom of
Information Act do not show that Okazaki was detained. Eyewitnesses such as
Steven J. Byzek, a black belt under Okazaki, says that Okazaki was taken in for
questioning by the authorities, but that he was not detained. Probably the
best account comes from the children of Okazaki. His youngest daughter Imi
recalls that she visited him on at least two occasions in a prison camp. This
was a clear recollection of her's since she had to make a long bus trip to get
to the location. Some accounts of this time do indicate that the Kodenkan was
closed for a time, but was later reopened.
Ironically, it was during the war that Okazaki helped to developed the U.S.
Army's field manual on hand-to-hand fighting (FM 21-150) and also taught many servicemen
the art of Jujutsu.
One of Okazaki's dreams was to have a Danzan-Ryu school in every state of
the union, which is today becoming a reality. Okazaki used the Kyu/Dan ranking
system for Danzan- ryu. (Kyu are the undergraduate ranks, while Dan are the
black belt degrees.) He also used the traditional certification, awarding the Mokuroku (instructor's scroll) to black belts who achieved instructor level.
These scrolls were from 8 to 10 feet in length, handwritten in Japanese and
contained much of Okazaki's philosophy, a history of Jujutsu and a catalog of
Danzan-Ryu techniques. Those who received the scrolls were considered official
Danzan-Ryu teachers and black belts were not allowed to teach or organize their
own classes until they received a scroll. Scrolls were usually awarded when the
student received their second-degree black belt in Danzan-Ryu. "We
practiced six days a week and Okazaki had a special Sunday class at his home
which was by invitation only", Kufferath recalls.
The other traditional certification was the Menkyo Kaiden or Kaidensho (certificate of mastery), which was a diploma, handwritten in Japanese. This
diploma certified that the named person was a master of Danzan-Ryu and had
learned the entire system. Kaidensho were given to students after they
received personal instruction from Okazaki on all of the secrets and Okugi,
or "inner mysteries" of Danzan-Ryu. Sig Kufferath and a number of
other Okazaki students attended a special Okugi class in February of 1948. The
curriculum included the advanced katas Kiai No Maki, Shinnin No Maki, Shinyo No
Maki and Shingen No Maki, as well as commando techniques, serious and fatal
blows and resuscitation. Some of the other attendees were Marion Anderson,
William Ah Moo, Wally and Bernice Jay, Steve Byzek, Richard and Esther
Takamoto, Carl Beaver, Jack Wheat and David Nuuhiwa. The graduation was held
on February 22, 1948 where each of the graduates received a Kaidensho and the
title of Shihan.
The other purpose of this class was to get all of the instructors together
to update their skills with the most recent Danzan-Ryu teachings. Okazaki had
planned to repeat this class every ten years, but this did not happen.
The Life of