Tamotsu Miyahira

Tamotsu Miyahira (宮平 保, Miyahira Tamotsu, born March 25, 1964) is a Japanese practitioner of Chinese martial arts. He is the Head Teacher of the Tian Xing Jian Chinese Martial Arts Association, and has been teaching Chinese martial arts in Okinawa, the birthplace of karate, since 1990. He has taught Chinese martial arts to teachers of a variety of different martial arts (including karate, iai, and full contact karate) from all over Japan as well as overseas.

Biography

Tamotsu Miyahira born on March 25, 1964 in Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. He began learning Shorin-ryu traditional Okinawan karate at the age of 10. At high school he also started full contact karate and weight training.

After this, he studied martial arts for five years at Wuhan Sports University in Hubei province, China. Here he studied traditional Chinese martial arts under Wen Jing Ming and Liu Yu Hua. Whilst studying in China, Miyahira had many opportunities to practice techniques with masters of many different styles from all over China including Mei Hua, Hsing I, Hei Fu, Wen Zhou Nan Chuan, Ton Bei and Ba Ji.

In 1989, Miyahira graduated from Wuhan Sports University. In that year, he also married Song Li, a former member of the Szechuan martial arts team and winner of the National Martial Art sparring division in 1984, 1986, and 1987. In 1990, Miyahira was chosen to give a speech at the Beijing Asian Games Scientific Congress in front of participants from 24 different countries. His presentation was entitled "The deep rooted relationship between Chinese and Japanese martial arts."

He returned to Okinawa in 1990 and settled in Urasoe. There he opened the Tian Xing Jian Chinese Martial Arts Association and was featured in several local Okinawan newspapers and TVprogram.

In 1990, he performed as a special guest at the Sino-Japanese Goodwill Martial Arts Demonstration.

In 1991, he gave a demonstration at the International Karate Championships hosted by Morio Higaonna’s International Goju-ryu Karate Association. The same year, Miyahira was asked to teach Chinese martial arts at a research group started by Kou Uehara of the Okinawan Goju-ryu Jikishinkan. This was attended by karate teachers and top class practitioners from a variety of different styles from Okinawa and other parts of Japan.

In 1998, he gave a special demonstration at the International Karate Championships.

In 1999, the first Tien Xing Jien Chinese Martial Art Association Goodwill Trip to China took place and students trained with grand master Lin Mogen (5th Generation Yang style Tai Chi Master), Chen Yi Wei, master of Liu He Chuan and Hsing I Liu He Chuan, master Sui Kang Long’s school. The second Goodwill trip took place in the following year and students trained in Hsing I Liu He Chuan and Liu He Chuan at the Fei Long Jin Wu school. This was featured in local newspapers.

In October 2000, Tian Xing Jian Chinese Kung-fu & Tai-chi Japan celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a demonstration for charity in Okinawa.

In 2001, Miyahira was invited to give a special demonstration of Chinese martial arts by the Japanese Battojutsu(抜刀術) Association. In 2003, Miyahira also gave self-defence classes to police officers at Okinawa police station.

DVD

• 『天行健中国武術館DVDSeries Vol.1太極拳篇(Japanese edition)』 (December 2007)
• 『天行健中国武術館教則DVDSeries Vol.2武術篇(Japanese edition)』 (December 2009)