私の経歴（決意）

先ずは私の経歴から。10歳から空手を習い始め、来年で修行暦は半世紀。高校、大学と空手部に所属し空手漬けの毎日を送ってきました。大学を卒業し、一度地方の高校の教員になり、空手部の顧問をしながら現役の選手として空手を続けていましたが、あることがきっかけで教員を辞めて上京することになりました。

そのきっかけとは…

大学時代、空手部で私と同期だった友人金山亨鐘君が、日本空手協会に入協し、めきめきと力を付けていました。もちろん私もそれなりに稽古を続け、全国大会でも上位にくい込んではいました。当時日本空手協会が二分され、私は地方の会員として故浅井哲彦先生が首席師範を務める側（日本空手協会浅井派）に所属しました。私が師事している香川政夫師範に従ったのです。

平成4年に開催された全国大会に出場したとき、既に総本部指導員になっていた金山指導員と予選で戦うことになりました。私は心身共に充実し、誰にも負ける気がしませんでしたが、彼との試合開始30秒で秒殺されてしまったのです。私が攻めて行ったところを、見透かされたように足払いで倒されそこを突かれて一本負け。あ然としました。これが地方で稽古している人間と本部指導員の差なのかと。打ちひしがれ、あまりのショックに何も出来ずに帰りの途につきました。

しかし私の心には、ある炎がメラメラと燃え始めていました。

First of all, let me give you my background. I started learning karate at the age of 10 and will have practiced for half a century next year. I was a member of karate clubs in high school and college and spent my days immersed in karate. After graduating from college, I became a teacher at a local high school and continued karate as an active competitor while advising the karate club, but one thing led me to quit teaching and move to Tokyo.

That trigger was...

When I was in college, my friend Kosyo Kanayama, who was in the same karate club with me, joined the Japan Karate Association and was rapidly gaining strength. Of course, I also continued to train in my own way and was ranked high in national tournaments. At the time, the Japan Karate Association was divided into two groups, and I was a member of the Asai school of the Japan Karate Association, of which the late Tetsuhiko Asai Sensei was the chief instructor. I followed my teacher, Masao Kagawa Shihan.

When I participated in the national tournament held in 1992, I had to fight in the preliminary round against Instructor Kanayama, who had already become a Sohonbu instructor. I was full of energy and I didn't feel like I could lose to anyone, but within 30 seconds of my match with him, I was killed. As if he could see right through my aggression, he knocked me down with a foot strike and struck me, losing by Ippon. I was stunned. I wondered if this was the difference between a person training in a local area and a headquarter instructor. Devastated and too shocked to do anything, I headed home. However, a certain flame was beginning to flare up in my heart.