Mashai Nakamura
"Jiro" Mashai Nakamura (May 15, 1897 in Aizu, Fukushima Prefecture – 1984 in Greece) was a Japanese Army officer and a teacher of a variety of jujutsu.
Mashai Nakamura, known as Jiro, was the second of four sons of the samurai Masatomo Nakamura and Riyoko Mizuhara, and was born in Aizu, Fukushima Prefecture. At about the age of 10 or 12, he learned a very popular jujutsu system in Japan, the Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū (Divine True Willow School). Among the famous students who studied this system of jujutsu were Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo, and Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido.
In 1919, due to his knowledge and skill in martial arts, he lived a somewhat itinerant life, traveling the country giving seminars in martial arts to soldiers and military officers.
As a lover of Greek culture and courage, in 1938 he created his own style of jujutsu called Kyōryokuna ryu (強力な; English: "Mighty"), where he mixed the techniques of the Greek ancient martial art of pankration with those of Jujutsu.
He lost his family in the Second World War and some years later relocated to Athens, Greece. There, he taught jujutsu to martial arts enthusiasts.
Nakamura was against the use of colored belts, saying "the colors [had] been invented for economic reasons." He believed students should have patience and perseverance to learn, because "the knowledge is not in the belt but in the mind." He only awarded the black belt to three students: Petros Nikolaou, Dimitrios Deligiannis, and Vassilios Katselis. Katselis, his uchi-deshi, moved from Greece to Mexico in 1983.
A year later, one of the pioneers of Jujutsu in Europe, "Jiro" Mashai Nakamura, died at the age of 87, leaving an enormous emptiness in the family of the jujutsukas.
His wisdom and the great arsenal of fighting techniques, standing and on the ground, locks, and chokes, will be forever etched in the memory of all those who are continuing with this martial art.
References
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