Born in Yamagushi, Japan, Kenji Tokitsu is one of the best skilled practitioners and theoreticians of contemporary budo.
He began practicing martial arts at the age of 10 with karate-do, sumo and kendo. Then, at the time of his studies at the Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, he studied the JKA shotokan school of karate. Upon obtaining his university diploma in 1971, he immigrated to Paris, France where he was the pupil and assistant of Master Taiji Kase. Since 1974, he has performed a critical study of the shotokan style of karate and returns on a regular basis to Japan where he carries out research on the form of karate originally practiced by Master Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of shotokan. He works with, among others, two students who studied directly under Master Funakoshi: Shozan Kubota and Takagi Fujisaro.
His research then pushed him to the roots of Okinawan karate-do, principally through the study and practice of the shorin-ryu style. He definitively abandoned the shotokan style and then pushed his research towards the Chinese martial arts. In Japan, he began the practice of the Yang school of taijiquan with Master Yo Meiji (Yang Mingshi) and the Chen school with Master Ruyushi Matsuda. He also began the practice of kiko with Master Kozo Nishino who also initiated him to the practice of Master Kenichi Sawai’s taikiken.
In 1983 in Paris, he founded a martial arts school for bare handed shaolin-mon based on the deep roots of budo practice. It is a synthesis of the various methods that he studies with a particular attention to health and well-being. In looking further into the advantages of the study of the Chen school of taijiquan and the authentic synthesis form created by Master Wang Shu Jin, he studied, among others, the Chen school under Master Wang Xian and Chen Zhenglei and, the Authentic Synthesis under Master Wang Fulai. He found, also, the practice of yiquan (dachengquan), which he notably studied under Master Yu Yongnian and his student Master Guo Guizhi, a specialist in the martial aspect of this art. At this time, he is also expanding his knowledge of ken-jutsu and iai-jutsu under Master Tetsuzan kuroda. In 1996, the shaolin-mon school became the shaolin-mon/jisei-budo school.
In the mid-1990’s, he began studying kiko with Dr. Toshihiko Yayama, the immunologist responsible for surgery and oriental medicine at the Kenritsu Byoin Kosekan hospital in Saga, Japan. The cooperative effort begun between these two masters, continues today. His school developed more and more in Japan under the name jiseido. Today, Master Kenji Tokitsu’s school continues under the name jiseido tokitsu-ryu, which is practiced in a number of countries.
In 2016 WUKO awarded the rank of 10th dan in karate-do to Master Kenji Tokitsu.
