Henri Plée Hanshi

The Father of European Karate Henri Plée Hanshi left us on August 19, 2014.

Henri Plée Hanshi was one of the rare Westerners to hold the rank of 10th dan karate masters. 

Born in Arras, France on 24 May 1923, he started his martial career with French Savate, Ju Jutsu, and Fencing. His studies were interrupted by World War II in 1940.

After the war, he learned Judo in Paris under Mikonosuke Kawaishi. He was the 96th French black belt and is now ranked 5th dan at Judo.

In 1946, he returned to French Savate, also known as French kickboxing, and trained and sparred with some of the best French fighters such as Rigal, Pierre Plasait, Cayron, and Pierre Baruzy. Despite quality of this training he was still feeling the need to go stronger and deeper, and was looking for something else.

In 1953, he discovered aikido, karate and kobudo with Minoru Mochizuki. This was the start of his karate career.

Minoru Mochizuki Hanshi

In 1955 he founded his dojo where he taught the four pillars of Japanese Martial Arts : Karate, Judo, Aikido, and Kendo. Henri Plée Hanshi instructed many black belts who, at a later stage, became the foundation of the European karate institutions, and are today some of the highest ranking karate masters in Europe. 

From 200 karate practitioners in 1961, Henry Plée's efforts have led today to more than 200,000 practitioners in France. The French government considers him as one of the greatest international experts in Martial Arts, and knighted him with the French Ordre national du Mérite in 2008.

Ranks

Karate

• 10th dan, Hanshi Karate in Japan, by Tsuneyoshi Ogura in 1987
• 8th dan, in France by the Fédération Française de Karaté - FFKAMA in 1975.
• 5th dan, Renshi Karate in Japan, by Chojiro Tani.
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd dan, karate in France, by Minoru Mochizuki.

Judo

• 5th dan, Judo.

Aikido

• 3rd dan, Aikido, by Masamichi Noro.
• 2nd dan, Aikikai Hombu Aikido, by Tadashi Abe.
• 1st dan, Yoseikan Aikido, by Minoru Mochizuki.

Kendo

• 1st dan, Kendo, by Minoru Mochizuki.

Bōjutsu

• 1st dan, Bo-Jutsu, by Minoru Mochizuki.
 

Henri Plée Hanshi 1923 - 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mutual Progress

Let's help each other progress toward improving Mankind.

No matter the schools - ryu and methods, practitioners together form a great family.

In the past, Martial Arts were used on battle fields for warfare and to train samurai warriors.

Nowadays, Martial Arts are still used to train samurai, but only those who fight for peace. 

The goal of Martial arts is now to cultivate peace.

Hiroo Mochizuki - Soke, Yoseikan Budo

Hiroo Mochizuki lives in Aix en Provence, France. He is the son of Minoru Mochizuki, founder of Yoseikan Budo, who had trained directly under Jigoro Kano, Gichin Funakoshi and Morihei Ueshiba, the founders of modern Judo, Karate and Aikido. 

After World War II, the emphasis in the teaching of Martial Arts switched from practical warfare applications to one of moral improvement of the student. This had always been the goal of Jigoro Kano when he designed Judo based on traditional Ju Jitsu tradition, but had been lost when the military clique had militarized Japan after World War I.

Martial Arts are a wonderful way to train better people. It is important however, to not lose sight of the fact that they should always be a martial discipline, and stay realistic. Unfortunately, it is not always the case... If you are serious about your practice, you should always question what you are doing, try to make sure it works by asking practitioners better than you to attack you, and see what happens...

The original quote in French :

Aidons-nous à progresser mutuellement pour améliorer l’humanité. 
Quelles que soient les écoles et les méthodes, les pratiquants forment ensemble une grande famille.
Auparavant, les arts martiaux servaient sur les champs de bataille à faire la guerre et à former des Samouraïs.
Aujourd'hui les arts martiaux forment toujours des Samouraïs, mais ceux représentant la Paix. Les arts martiaux servent à cultiver la paix.