Sensei Ohta 6th Dan

Sensei Yoshinobu Ohta was born in Chiba, Japan, on 3rd November 1959.

Upon joining high school at the age of 15, he and a friend enlisted into the school Karate club and began training with Sensei Shinomiya 7th Dan. Two years later at the age of 17 he received his black belt. Sensei Ohta also won his local area championship and consequently went on to compete in the all Japan high school championships. It was also compulsory within the school curriculum at this time to study either Judo or Kendo. During this time Sensei chose to practise Judo twice a week for two years.

After finishing high school Sensei went onto university. The Takushoku University had a tremendous reputation as one of Japan’s strongest Karate clubs and it wasn’t long before Ishikawa Sensei encouraged him to join and continue training. Many of the JKA’s top senseis including Masters Nakayama and Enoeda had previously graduated from Takushoku. After leaving university he decided to continue with Karate at the JKA Sensei Tsuyama. The Chief Instructor of the Takushou Unversity Karate Club encouraged him to take the morning classes at the dojo and then to finally join the highly prestigious JKA instrustors classes.

Sensei Ohta soon found himself training alongside such respected names as senseis Shoji, Asai, Abe, Tanaka, Osaka, Kagawa and Yahara. It was also common practice at this time for Sensei Nakayama to teach and assist during classes.

In 1982 Sensei Ohta was sellected by Sensei Enoeda to come to England and become his assistant. In the following twenty years, Sensei Ohta built up a reputation as a very popular and techically brilliant senior instructor in his own right. So much so, that again Sensei Enoeda requested his assistance in the making of his 'Beginner to Black belt' books and video/DVD and all the 'Advanced Kata' videos/DVDs in 1996.

In 2003, following the death of his mentor Sensei Enoeda, Sensei Ohta was appointed as the chief instructor of JKA England. Just prior to this appointment, Sensei Ohta had taken and passed the examination for 6th Dan in front of JKA’s most senior technical committee in Tokyo, Japan. Sensei Ohta’s primary objective is to respect the wishes of Sensei Enoeda and that is to continue spreading authentic JKA Karate throughout the world. He has also worked hard in unifying Karate in this country by affiliating JKA England to the English Karate Federation.

In April 2010 Sensei Ohta passed the examination for 7th Dan, again in front of JKA's most senior technical committee at the JKA HQ Honbu Dojo in Tokyo, Japan. A brilliant achievement by any standard !