Katsumi Tamaki (勝美玉木 - タマキ カツミ) 10th dan Soke, was born on September 12, 1943, in Urasoe, Okinawa. His early life was shaped by the disruption and loss that followed the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, during which Urasoe was destroyed and much of the local population was displaced. Like many Okinawan families of the time, he experienced hardship in the immediate post-war years before eventually resettling.
Tamaki grew up during a period when karate in Okinawa was moving from a largely private practice into more visible and organised forms. His early exposure to karate reflected both this changing environment and family influence, within a culture where training was still often shaped by personal connection and circumstance rather than fixed public systems.
In 1962, at the age of nineteen, Tamaki moved to Osaka in search of wider experience and more formal instruction. There he trained under Kenji Yamamoto of Goju-ryu, gaining experience within the structured mainland Japanese dojo system and refining his technical understanding.
In 1974, with the approval of his teachers, Tamaki founded the Tamaki Dojo in Osaka. His approach to teaching reflected a synthesis of Okinawan tradition and mainland Japanese training methods, with an emphasis on discipline, technical clarity, and personal responsibility.
Following the passing of his father, Kensei Tamaki, Tamaki sought to preserve and give formal identity to the principles shaped through his own decades of training and experience. In 1979, he named his system Shinjin-ryu (心仁流), giving structure and identity to an approach rooted in Okinawan tradition and shaped by lived practice.
The name Shinjin-ryu was given in memory of his father. For this reason, Katsumi Tamaki’s role is central to the history of the art, not only as a teacher and practitioner, but as the person who named and preserved the tradition.
In 1981, while employed by the Hitachi company, Tamaki relocated to the United Kingdom. Settling in Bracknell, Berkshire, he established a dojo and continued to teach, organise seminars, and demonstrate Okinawan karate to a new audience. His work in the UK contributed to the wider understanding of traditional karate outside Japan, while maintaining an emphasis on discipline, responsibility, and serious practice.
Katsumi Tamaki’s role within karate is best understood as that of a transitional figure, bridging private Okinawan roots, formal Japanese dojo training, and international transmission. As the founder and namer of Shinjin-ryu, his work laid the foundation for the system’s continuity and preservation.
