Kazumi Tabata QUOTES

Kazumi Tabata
Bio

Kazumi Tabata was an 8th degree Grand Master in Shotokankarate. Born in Japan in 1943, Master Tabata started karate at age 13 and received the rank of nidan in Shorinji as a freshman in high school. Master Tabata went to Waseda University and started studying Shotokan style karate under Master Isao Obata, one of Master Gichin Funakoshi's first students and first chairman of the Japan Karate Association. He founded the North American Karate-Do Federation (NAKF) and the New England Collegiate Karate Conference (NECKC), and lived in Massachusetts in the United States where he taught regularly until his death in 2020.

Master Tabata was the captain of the karate club at Waseda University, and, after moving to the United States at the behest of his sensei to spread Shotokan Karate, he was the captain of the US Karate Team for two decades, representing the US in many international tournaments. In addition, he was the technical director for the US National Olympic Committee.

The North American Karate-do Federation is a collection of Shotokan karate schools, mostly in New England and centered in Greater Boston. The organization was founded in 1968 by Master Tabata at the urging of his teacher Master Isao Obata. Its sister organisation is the NECKC, and together they host a bi-annual tournament.

Nine Principles Never have a wicked heart. Train not by thought, but by practice. Learn a wide variety of arts and skills, and do not fix on only one. Know not only your own techniques but also those of many others. Find out rationally what is an advantage and what is a disadvantage. Foster an intuitive ability to judge all things. Feel an essence that you cannot see on the surface. Pay attention to the very smallest of phenomena. (Everything takes its own course, and sometimes we get unexpected results.) Do nothing in vain, for the energy and time we have is limited.