Founder and Chief Instructor of the SKA. He started martial arts at 5 by pursuing sumo. By the time he was thirteen he had also had many years practising kendo and judo. He was a direct pupil of Gichin Funakoshi from 1948-1953 while studying at Waseda University, Tokyo, and it was funakoshi who awarded him his godan (5th degree black belt, the maximum level at that time). Ohshima came to the United States in 1955 and became the first to bring karate to that country as well as the only person to officially receive permission from Funakoshi to use the shotokan name outside Japan.

Books by or about T. Ohshima