Yasutsune Itosu

When people here the names Yasutsune Azato aka Ankoh Azato and Yasutsune Itosu Aka Ankoh Itosu, they associate the two names as one person. In fact, Itosu was the second teacher of Funakoshi.

Itosu was born in the city of Shuri in Okinawa, when he reached the age of 16 he was able to train with a great karate master known as Sokon “Bushi” Matsumura how was a very close friend.

Itosu was one of the first karate teachers to bring karate to public schools and have it adapted into the school curricula. It was during this time, that he developed kata to help with the process of teaching. He developed the five Heian kata and others such as Tekki Shodan, Nidan and Sandan, Kushanku (Kanku), Passai (Bassai), Chinto (Gankaku) and Jion amongst others.