The Proclamation of Hachiro Okazaki

In March 1980 Hachiro Okazaki, the son of our Founder, came to the AJJF National Convention and shared his aloha and ohana with his larger DZR/AJJF family! He demonstrated his masterful massage arts and told many stories about his family and his father. He told us over and over how very happy he was to see so many eager students practicing his father's beloved DZR system, and that he was sure his father was smiling from heaven to see his system flourishing. This was a marvelous and remarkable occasion for us all, where new friendships were forged.

Following this event an important document was created, in which Hachiro proclaimed that the AJJF was the steward and standard-bearer of the DZR system that his father had created. After this document was made public, there was some confusion as to its intent and the AJJF's purpose in having it made. In order to understand this, the whole story must be told.

Back in the 70's Prof Gene Edwards and fellow avid fishermen Bob Krull and Rich Borba nurtured a friendship with Hachiro. During their fishing trips, discussions would come up about Hachiro's father, Danzan Ryu, Seifukujitsu, and so forth. Over time it became apparent that Hachiro felt a bit sad that he had not completed his own training in DZR while his father was alive. While he certainly had learned and mastered the healing arts, he felt that his understanding of how these arts fit in with the advanced jujitsu arts contained in his father's system was somehow incomplete. During these discussions it was suggested that possibly Prof Bud Estes might be willing to teach Hachiro the advanced aspects of DZR and how the jujitsu arts are interconnected with the healing arts.

Bud Estes readily agreed to share his knowledge with Hachiro, and we know that the exchange between them was a great success and that the two men became quite close in the process. Those of us who were aware of this exchange knew that these teaching occasions were of such import and value that we all felt goose skin just thinking about it. In our

We presume that it was from these interactions between Hachiro and Prof Estes that the idea of a "Proclamation" came into being. It should be pointed out that Hachiro hatched this idea in concert with Senior Professor Lamar Fisher, as Prof Estes had already passed away. For Hachiro, it was the fulfillment of a long held wish for his father's dream to be preserved and realized. In the creation of this document, Hachiro and Prof Fisher had decided that the Senior Professor of the AJJF would thereafter be known as "Soke" — or "owner" of the system. Unfortunately, the use of this word in the document is where the confusion and misunderstanding began many years ago.

The current Board of Professors of the AJJF views Hachiro's Proclamation as an important part of our history, and as a testament of our commitment to the Founder's dream to preserve and propagate his martial art and healing art system in all states of the Union. We feel honored that his son felt moved to make such a Proclamation, and we have taken the responsibility it publicly declares very seriously. However, we acknowledge how the use of the word "Soke" in the document could easily be misconstrued and cause hard feelings among all the other DZR organizations and Shihan doing their part to preserve and propagate the system. We do not "own" the system, and our Senior Professor is not the only Inheritor of it. We freely share this great responsibility with the other DZR Senior Professors and their organizations.

There is a version of this Proclamation that shows the impressions of two "chops" (a chop is a signature stamp in Japanese kanji used by the author of a document to show its authenticity). One of these chops is Professor Lamar Fisher's personal name stamp. The other one designates him as "the third Soke of Danzan Ryu." These two stamps were probably added to the document since Prof Fisher was our Senior Professor at that time, and the head of the AJJF — but no one knows for sure. The current AJJF Board of Professors does not want to make or imply an endorsement of these chopped versions of the Proclamation, and considers these documents to be inaccurate — and all such documents should be replaced with the original unchopped version.

It must be stated again that Hachiro's Proclamation came at a time in which strong friendships were being nurtured. It was a time of coming together in the spirit of kokua, and especially ohana. It was never intended to be anything more than a public statement of our undying friendship with the Okazaki family that had occurred in special times and circumstances. This Proclamation now stands as a testament to our organization's mission to preserve and promote Master Henry S. Okazaki's Danzan Ryu martial art and healing art system internationally.