Nobuyoshi Tamura
Nobuyoshi Tamura (2 March 1933 – 9 July 2010) was an 8 Dan Aikido Aikikai Shihan. He was advised by the Seigo Yamaguchi to become an uchi-deshi in Hombu which he did on August 5, 1952, in the times of a founder, Morihei Ueshiba. Nobuyoshi ended up as one of his favorite pupils and ukes.
1955 was a year to receive a Shodan for Tamura Sensei. He was appointed as an instructor in the Hombu Dojo and been teaching in the U.S. Navy Special Service Center in Yokohama. In 1961 Nobuyoshi accompanied O-Sensei and Koichi Tohei in Hawai. Sensei met his wife Rumiko also in the Dojo.
In 1964 Nobuyoshi and Rumiko went to Europe for the honeymoon. Sensei also had a mission from the Hombu, to study Aikido functioning in France. He was met by Masamichi Noro and Mutsuro Nakazono in Marseille. Sensei decided to move to France for the living and with the little steps, he came to point of participating in the foundation of National Aikido Union. NAU was composed of two federations: the French Federation of Aikido and Budo where Tamura held a position of a Technical Director and a federation created by Christian Tissier.
Nobuyoshi Tamura was a regular guest in the European and near-European countries. He gave lots of the Aikido seminars, created camps outside of France and trained the instructors worldwide. Among his students, you may find people like Nebi Vural and Ivan Novikov, and many many others.
Tamura Sensei also integrated Jikyo Jutsu as the Aikido warm-up, established a Shumeikan Dojo in the Bras village which is still there. The official inauguration of Dojo was made in the Shinto tradition with the presence of Masando Sasaki as a Shinto priest.
Tamura Sensei is an author of several Aikido books in French. Books were translated into many languages after. Enjoy his interview on the Aikido Sangenkai Blog and follow a page made by his fans on Facebook. And a beautiful thread on the aikiweb.com.