Tōru Arakawa(, Arakawa Tōru ; November 1932 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan; – 20 June 2015) was a karate master of the style Wadō-ryū. He was one of the few karateka ranked 9th Dan in Japan.
Biography
Tōru Arakawa began karate training at the Nihon University at the age of 18. At the beginning of the 1960s he traveled to Europe and America together with Tatsuo Suzuki and Hajime Takashima to make karate in the western countries popular.
Arakawa served as the manager of the JKF Wadōkai from 1962 to 1979. In 1982, he played a major role in the creation of the first Shatai [Kata] book, which standardized Kata 's style – encompassing style for JKF competitions. In addition, he trained numerous successful athletes in the 1980s, including Seiji Nishimura and Toshiaki Maeda.
Until his death in June 2015, Arakawa taught in his Dōjō Shibuya and at international seminars in Japan and overseas.