Teaching Staff
Jita Kyoei dojo Head Instructor
Bill Parker is the “Dojo-cho” (head instructor) for all Martial Arts taught in Jita Kyoei Dojo. Parker-sensei has over 50 years of experience in several martial arts and has been practicing Kodokan judo for many years and began Aikibudo in 1992. He has spent decades teaching and coaching Judo and many of his students have won state titles. His teachers include Vince Tamura, Paul Uyemura, Russell Waddell, and Chuck Clark and Aaron Clark. He is a 6th Dan (degree) black belt in Kodokan Judo and in Jiyushinryu Aikibudo. He holds a 4th Dan black belt in Heikeryu Jiujitsu. Mr. Parker has been a public school teacher for 25 years and he brings that unique teaching perspective to our Dojo as a seasoned educator.
Additional Instructors:
Aikibudo
Marc Randolph-Sensei, 4th Dan, Jiyushinryu Aikibudo
Renald Charron-Sensei, 4th Dan, Jiyushinryu Aikibudo
Kodokan Judo
Part Time Instructor: Paul Uyemura-Sensei, 5th Dan, Kodokan Judo
Assistent Instructor: Theodore Schwalm, 3rd Dan, Kodokan Judo & Jiyushinryu Aikibudo
Jiyushinkai Aikibudo
Chuck Clark was born in 1947 and began Budo training at the age of six and has continued his practice through the present. Clark-Sensei has studied in the U.S., France, Japan, Canada, and Republic of South Vietnam, and is Jiyushinkai 8th dan, Shihan. He has also practiced Kodokan Judo, Karate-do, Japanese Jujutsu, Shinto Muso Ryu Jodo and T'ai chi ch'uan. Clark-Sensei has trained under a number of top-level teachers, and has been most strongly influenced by F. Fujita, J. Bayless, R.L. Willingham, E. Cates, F. Hatashita, K. Geis, T. Miyake, P. Relnick, and T. Nishioka.
He founded his own organization, the Jiyushinkai, in 1984. A U.S.M.C. veteran of Vietnam and former hospital manager and consultant. Mr. Clark is now a writer and professional Budo teacher at the Jiyushinkan near Monroe, WA. He has a son, Aaron, two grand-daughters, and two dogs, Susie Q and Sherry Baby (named after the songs).
Kodokan Judo
All of our Judo instructors trained directly under Vincent Tamura, Sensei.
Vincent Tamura (deceased) was born in Fife, Washington, as one of eleven children. It was there in a Japanese-American community, at the age of five, that he first became interested in Judo. After residing approximately twelve years in the Pacific Northwest, he moved to Chicago where he studied advanced Judo and self-defense under the tutelage of his brother, Masato Tamura-Sensei who encouraged him to enter major Judo tournaments. At the age of 15, he was already teaching Judo and before he graduated from high school, he had attained the rank of Sandan or 3rd Degree Black Belt, a feat almost unheard of in the Judo community.
Vince won the U.S. National Championships in 1954, 1956 and in 1959. From 1951 to 1959 he never placed lower than 3rd in any AAU Judo competition. Tamura-Sensei represented the United States of America at the World Judo Championships in Tokyo, Japan in 1956 and was a quarter finalists. In 1964, again in Tokyo, he served as a referee and judge at the first officially recognized Judo competition of the Olympics.
Following his graduation from high school, he entered the army and served with the Combat Engineers of the 1st Cavalry Division, during the Korean War, during which he taught self-defense and saw front-line duty as a rifleman. He was transferred to Japan for six months before rotation back to the States, when his division was relieved. During those six months he was able to visit and study at the Kodokan, the headquarters of Judo, in Tokyo.
After his discharge from the army, he returned to Chicago and attended Business College and worked with his brother teaching Judo at the Jiu Jitsu Institute. He moved to Dallas in 1960, and opened the Tamura Judo Institute. Literally hundreds of Texans have studied Judo and self-defense at his school, and Tamura-trained Judoka have earned many championships and awards in state, regional and national Judo & Jiujitsu competitions.
With his brother, Masato Tamura-sensei (8th Dan Kodokan Judo and one of Americas most revered Judo teachers), Vincent helped devise many of the self-defense techniques now used by the United States Military and numerous law enforcement agencies. Together they founded the Heike Ryu Jiu-Jitsu system. Most recently in 2004, Tamura-Sensei was honored by the Judo & Ju-Jitsu community through his promotion to 9th degree Black Belt in Heike Ryu Jiu-Jitsu and also in Kodokan Judo, through the USJA and the USJJF, making him one of the highest ranked Ju-Jitsuka and Judoka in the United States.