Okinawan Karate Masters: In Memoriam
Karate’s birthplace produced the teachers whose styles, Isshin-ryu and Matsubayashi-ryu among them, reached America largely through servicemen stationed on the island. These are the Okinawan masters and the Americans who carried their teaching home.
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The profiles
Tatsuo Shimabuku
1908 – 1975
Okinawan karate master who founded Isshin-ryu karate in 1956 and taught many U.S. Marines.
Walter “Toby” Cooling
1944 – 2022
Founder of the Order of Isshin-Ryu in 1971, promoted in Okinawa by Isshin-Ryu founder Tatsuo Shimabuku, who told him to return to America and teach.
Gary Alexander
1938 – 2025
Isshinryu pioneer known as The Hammer, a bare-knuckle era competitor who ran a New Jersey dojo and promoted East Coast tournaments for decades.
Every profile in this section follows the In Memoriam research standard: deaths confirmed before anything is written, every claim sourced, conflicts between sources printed, and promotional claims labelled as such.