Osoku Wakasu Dojo
Ascend into wisdom at the dojo of the slow boil
History in Hilo
People look at Seishiro H. Okazaki as a serious, formidable legend who carefully constructed Danzan Ryu Jujitsu and his Seifukujitsu treatments. Consistently breaking the mold by teaching foreigners and publishing some of the earliest known Women's Self Defense books, providing healing treatments to local students all the way up to FDR.
However, while he was in Hilo he was a young man overcoming "consumption" (probably tuberculosis) and was training under Master Yoshimatsu Tanaka amidst the Plantation Era. This page is meant to be a collection of documents and facts surrounding his life here. If stories and legends are to be passed along they will be marked as such, not to challenge the validity of the event but simply to point out there was no physical documentation backing the event. If you're researching his life and stories there are several Professors I can point you to, and if you find something on here, efforts will be made to side the document sources. If you have documents you'd like to see featured on this page, please email me.
Okazaki Documentation
Okazaki's 1917 draft card provides a wealth of local information. Nawahi Lane still exists as a tiny little street today amidst the Farmers Market. Hoffschlaegers was a wholesale liquor shop which was continuing to run amidst the Prohibition Era because Hawaii was only a Territory.
Tsunamis
We can't talk about Hilo without addressing tsunamis. The Sanborn Fire maps (digital from Library of Congress) show layer after layer of drastic change and rebuilding. What we call "bayfront" used to have another street, there was an entire series of buildings where our soccer fields are. Suisan used to be surrounded by other fisheries and businesses, and the sugar train went all the way out to Coconut Island to load the product onto the boats. Okazaki lived through one such tsunami in 1923. He might recognize a good portion of the town but the landscape has undergone drastic changes.
Newspaper Articles -Microfilm
Karl "K.O."Morris vs. Okazaki was here in Hilo, we have a library full of microfilm of newspapers of the era, from Hoffschlaeger ads, to local papers completely in Japanese Kanji. (If anyone ever wants to spend some of your trip at the library to dig up some more history -just ask!!!)
Greater Hilo Culture
Individuals are changed by the culture they live in. Here are documents from around town during his era to give you a better feel for what life was like for our founder.
Danzan Ryu Journey
Okazaki may have been formulating Danzan Ryu Jujitsu during his stay here, but it had to make a journey to come back. Heading to Oahu to 801 S. Hotel St. to Prof. Ray Law, to Prof. William Randle before his student Prof. Thabiti Sabahive decided to to go college at University of Hawai'i at Hilo to bring it back to it's roots.
Hilo's Osoku Wakasu Lineage
-Founder Okazaki (Japan, multiple islands)
-Professor Ray Law (Honolulu, CA, founded AJJF)
-Prof. Randle (CA- West Side)
-Thabiti Sabahive (CA, HI now Sun Soo in NC)
- 4th Dan Travis Prose - Schoolhead
Osoku Wakasu
Prof. Thabiti Sabahive came in as a shodan and made a club while attending University of Hawai'i at Hilo. After graduation it made a couple of leadership transitions and settled with Sensei Travis Prose who has continued offering classes for over a decade and has now expanded into an after school program and has produced blackbelts ready to start their own DZR programs.
