Shingo Ohgami 1941 - 2019

It is with great sorrow in our hearts that Samurai Dojo Karate Club and Swedish Karatedo Wadokai regret to inform you that our Sensei Shingo Ohgami, after some time of illness, has passed away.

Shingo was born 1941 in Japan. He began with karate in 1961 during his studies at Todai University in Tokyo. The chief instructor at the university karate club was Sensei Hironiro Ohtsuka (1892-1982), the founder of Wado-Ryu Karate-Do.

After completing his studies, in 1969, Shingo moved to Gothenburg to work as a guest researcher within cellulose chemistry at Chalmers Technical University for a one year scholarship. During this time Shingo felt an ever stronger attraction to karate and decided to end his academic career to spend the rest of his life focused solely on karate. The same year he founded Samurai Dojo Karate Club where he remained chef instructor throughout his active career.

Shingo was also the initiator and founder of the Swedish Karatedo Wadokai (SKW) and part of creating the Fedeation of Wadokai Europe (FEW) which has had a significant positive impact for the development of karate in Sweden as well as in Europe.

Graded to 8th Dan in 2009, Shingo was one of the highest ranked within Wadokai. He leaves a big hole to fill with his extensive knowledge, expertise and experience as well as his great charisma and never-ending engagement and passion for karate and living a life according to Budo.

Shingo has also showed great interest towards the history of karate and other martial arts which lead to his own research work that has been published in several publications and articles throughout the years.

Shingo always talked about the importance of training for the long term. Training is for life, not for grading or competition.

A great man has passed away yet his memory and legacy will live on forever.