ROY
YONEMORI-sensei
We would like you to meet
Roy Yonemori-sensei, the Senior Instructor of Hilo Seishikan Aikido. You may have seen him 
around before, because he has long been involved in
teaching – both aikido and school!
Yonemori-sensei had been a schoolteacher for more than 30 years before
he retired, and he has been teaching aikido for more than 30 years now. In fact, he says he taught a number of
parents involved in our club in school.
He taught every grade level from fourth grade on up through high school
seniors, and a couple of summer session aikido classes at the local
university. Yonemori-sensei was also the
first instructor designated as Chief Instructor of Hilo Seishikan Aikido.
The strange part is that
he grew up not even thinking about becoming a teacher of any kind. As a youth, he dreamed of becoming a
newspaper writer. He was born and grew
up here in Hilo, attending Waiakea-Kai School and Hilo High. He attended what was then U of H, Hilo
Branch, and graduated from the UH-Manoa.
Yonemori-sensei and his wife, Kay, are parents to a son and two
daughters, and grandparents to four grandchildren.
Yonemori-sensei trained in
aikido here in Hilo since 1968.
Actually, he first tried aikido as a college youth about 10 years prior
to that, but only did it for about half a year.
He also learned some judo as a youngster but says he never took it
serious enough and regrets that he didn’t try harder. He has had the opportunity to train with many
instructors, including Tohei-sensei, Maruyama-sensei, and Imaizumi-sensei, but
feels that the sensei that he learned the most from was Richard Okano-sensei,
his first sensei here in Hilo who brought him along to black belt status. Yonemori-sensei also feels that he learned to
enjoy and appreciate aikido from Okano-sensei.
Yonemori-sensei is a
well-regarded aikido instructor, who in turn has trained many of the aikido
instructors here in Hilo. He has been
honored by our Big Island community for his many years of dedication to aikido
and our community in general. In
November 2007, the Japanese Community Association of
Hawaii presented Yonemori-sensei with its Cultural Treasure Award. Then on July 27, 2008, Yonemori-sensei was inducted
into the Big Island Sports Hall of Fame (along with his son Gregg – the first
father and son to be inducted into the Hall!).
Yonemori-sensei truly
feels that we have a top-notch aikido club.
He feels this is due to the fact of our membership, and our truly
outstanding staff of instructors. “Our
instructors are all enthusiastic, compassionate, hard-working, and talented,”
he says. “We also have a fine
membership of students and family,” Yonemori-sensei adds. Now, all we need to do is to train hard and
we will see the fruits of our coming together at Hilo Seishikan Aikido! Thank you, Sensei!
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HILO
SEISHIKAN AIKIDO
O-Shima
Ryu
Hilo,
Hawai`i
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