Having started karate at age 15, by the time he was 24 Kenji Tokitsu had decided to specialise in martial arts and so arrived in Paris in 1971 to study under Master Taiji Kase and serve as his assistant. Since then, Tokitsu has been practicing and studying the martial arts, seeking the meaning that this practice may have for contemporary society. Below are the main steps that led Kenji Tokitsu to create a style of unarmed combat and an International Martial Arts Academy that bears his name, Tokitsu Ryu.
1962 – Began karate, signing up in a dojo of the Shito Ryu School in Yamaguchi, his home town.
1966 – Enrolled at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and became a member of its Shotokan School. The Hitotsubashi dojo is historically renowned for its role in the evolution of karate. At that time, its oldest Master was Gima Shinkin (Makoto), Funakoshi's assistant during the first public karate event in Kodokan, the most important Japanese dojo for judo practice.
1971 – Graduated in sociology, with a thesis on the writer Yukio Mishima, and moved to Paris as a student and assistant of Master Taiji Kase. Kenji Tokitsu, with 3rd dan in karate and a passion for social sciences and sociology, enrolled at university in Paris and obtained the recognition of his Japanese diploma.
1974 – After several years of research and 12 years of karate he began to express his first criticisms of the Shotokan School. He returned to Japan and began to do research on the karate practiced by Funakoshi, founder of the Shotokan School. He met his students, Masters Shozan Kubota and Takagi Fusajiro, and classified the differences between their way of practicing and what was taught to students throughout the world.
1977 – Returned to Japan, where he began to practice Taichi chuan with Master Yo Meiji (Yang school) and Master Matsuda Ruyuchi (Chenschool). He particularly pursued the study and practice of Chen style taichi.
1979 – Published in France "The Way of Karate" in France. Practiced and studied the Shorin Ryu style of Okinawa. Began to study and practice qi gong.
1980 – Abandoned the Shotokan school to focus entirely on martial arts study and research. He began to practice Synthesis taichi.
1982 – Obtained a PhD in sociology from the University Descartes – Paris V with a thesis on the role and transformation of traditional culture in contemporary Japanese society.
1983 – Created the Shaolin mon-Karate do School in Paris. He began to work on an original method of unarmed combat.
1984 – Conducted research for the French Youth and Sports Ministry entitled “Japanese Martial Arts: karate – structure, techniques, traditional and contemporary transmission methods”.
1988 – Publication in France of "Method of Unarmed Martial Arts”, in which Tokitsu formalizes his method for the first time.
1989 – Returned to Japan to improve his knowledge of Iai jutsu and kenjutsu with Master Tetsuzan Kuroda.
1991 – Publication in France of "The Art of Combat, Interviews with Kenji Tokitsu".
1993 – Obtained a second research PhD in Oriental Languages and Civilizations at Paris VII University with a thesis on Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese sword master of the 17th century.
1996 – Began a close collaboration with Professor Toshihiko Yayama, immunologist, head of the surgery and oriental medicine wards of the Kenritsu Byoin Kosekan Hospital of the Saga province in Japan.Qi gong became one of the disciplines taught at the school.
1999 – The school became Shaolin mon-Jisei budo. Tokistu continued to study and teach a personal synthesis of various martial arts, proposing a method that brings physical well-being and offers students a process of self-improvement.
2000 - Yayama and Tokitsu devised a series of exercises, Jisei-kiko, that not only bring well-being but also help to increase the force of blows and combat techniques.
2001 – Tokitsu, invited by the Budokan, returned to Japan for a series of training sessions.