[1] As a child, he had a great interest in the martial arts, and left it to his brother, Satoru, to prepare to lead the family business eventually.
[1] A friend gave him a copy of Gichin Funakoshi's first book on karate, and this sparked Obata's interest in the art.
[2] The Great Kantō earthquake struck later that year, destroying most of Tokyo, including Keio University's karate dojo (training hall).
[1] Kyuichi Obata was too busy with his business to have studied the martial arts himself, but was pleased at his son's commitment to karate; one of the family's ancestors had been Obata Nobusada, a famous samurai, general and governor under the daimyō (feudal lord) Takeda Shingen in the 16th century.
[1] Toyoko Obata was a deeply religious Christian and saw the martial arts as contradictory to her beliefs, but never inhibited her son's training.
[1] When Japan entered the war, Obata's brother Satoru joined the Imperial Japanese Army as an officer.
[1] He died in the bitter fighting for Iwo Jima, and this meant that Obata had to return to Japan to look after his mother and sister.
[1] On May 27, 1949, Obata, Masatoshi Nakayama, Shigeru Egami, and other colleagues established the Japan Karate Association (JKA) under Funakoshi.
[1][2][4][9] Along with Nakayama, Hidetaka Nishiyama, and others, he began teaching personnel from the US Strategic Air Command (SAC) who were based in Japan.
[10] In his final years, Obata lived with his wife in the outskirts of Tokyo, spending his days teaching karate or tending to his garden.