Masatoshi Nakayama
Martial artist (1913–1987)
中山正敏 · 나카야마 마사도시
- Born
- 13 April 1913, Yamaguchi Prefecture
- Died
- 15 April 1987, Tokyo
- Citizenship
- Japan, Empire of Japan
- Sport
- karate
- Occupation
- karateka
Masatoshi Nakayama (中山 正敏, Nakayama Masatoshi; April 13, 1913 – April 15, 1987)[a] was an internationally famous
Japanese master of Shotokan karate. He helped establish the Japan Karate Association (JKA) in 1949, and wrote many textbooks on karate, which served to popularize his martial art. For almost 40 years, until his death in 1987, Nakayama worked to spread Shotokan karate around the world. He was the first master in Shotokan history to attain the rank of 9th dan while alive, and was posthumously awarded the rank of 10th dan.
Teachers
Students
- Keigo Abe
- Hiroshi Shirai
- Keinosuke Enoeda
- Minoru Kawawada
- Takayuki Mikami
- Frank Woon-a-tai
- Ronnie Watt
- Masahiko Tanaka
- Koichiro Okuma
- Yuko Hirayama
- Kunio Kobayashi
- Satoshi Takahashi
- Takuya Taniyama
- Yasuo Hanzaki
- Seizo Izumiya
- Katsutoshi Shiina
- Yasunori Ogura
- Takenori Imura
- Toshihiro Mori
- Yoshiharu Osaka
- Masaaki Ueki
- Shigeru Takashina
- Hideo Yamamoto
- Tomio Imamura
- Yutaka Yaguchi
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q384558 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.