Sensei Yutaka Yaguchi holds a 9th degree black belt in Shotokan karate and is the Chief Instructor and Chairman of the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) Mountain States Region and Technical Director for the ISKF. He was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1932 and began karate training in 1952 under Masatoshi Nakayama, the late chief instructor of the JKA, Motokuni Sugiura, the present chief instructor of the JKA, and Teruyuki Okazaki, chief instructor of the ISKF, and received his shodan and nidan from Master Funakoshi himself. He later tested under Nakayama Sensei for his third through eighth dans. As one of the first graduates of the JKA Instructors Training Program in 1959, he has played an important role in the growth of JKA karate and the internationalization of Shotokan karate. Yaguchi Sensei first arrived in the United States on June 5, 1965 and continues to reside in the US to the present day. In 1974 Yaguchi Sensei founded ISKF of Colorado the regional headquarters for the Mountain States Region.
