History of Professor Henry S. Okazaki

The history of Danzan Ryu martial and healing arts began with Master Seishiro Okazaki. He was born in Kakeda, Date County, in Fukushima Prefecture of Japan. He immigrated to Hawaii in the 39th year of the Meiji period (1906 A.D.) . When he was nineteen years old, he became ill while living in Hilo and was diagnosed by a doctor to have been suffering from incurable tuberculosis. With the courage born out of desperation, he then knocked on the door of Mr. Yoshimatsu Tanaka who was then teaching Jujitsu at his Shinyukai Dojo in Hilo, and started to practice Jujitsu in earnest and in defiance of death. His frantic efforts and devotion to Judo not only miraculously healed his tuberculosis, but also enabled him to develop a strong, iron-like body.

Okazaki then realized that he owed his life completely to Judo, and decided to devote the rest of his life to the teaching and promotion of Judo. While he was in Hilo, he mastered various techniques of Jujitsu that were being taught at Yoshinryu, Iwagaryu, and Kosogaburyu schools. He then combined these techniques with the skills he had attained training in Karate, Kung Fu, Hawaiian “Lua” and Filipino Kali, and created his own Danzan-Ryu system of Judo and Jujitsu.

In September, 1922, when Morrison, then champion of American boxing, came to Hawaii, Master Okazaki challenged him to a match and enhanced the reputation of Danzan Ryu Judo by defeating him with “much splendor.” The well-publicized victory brought fame and respect to the new Danzan Ryu style of combat.

In 1924, he returned to Japan, traveled extensively while visiting more than fifty Jujitsu dojo that were scattered between Morioka City in the north and Kagoshima in the south, studying the Okugi (secret teachings), and mastered six hundred seventy-five techniques of Jujitsu. Upon his return from Japan with an official 3rd dan rank in Kodokan Judo in his credentials, he then started teaching on the island of Maui for a short period. In 1929, he moved to Honolulu where he bought the Nikko (Rays of the sun) residence from Mr. Chester Alphonse Doyle at South Hotel Street, converted it into the Okazaki Seifukujitsu In, (Okazaki Adjustment and Restoration Clinic) , while at the same time founded Kodenkan Dojo where he taught Judo and Jujitsu to all people until his death in 1953.

Read ’Master Okazaki's esoteric principles of Judo.