The son of a kendo teacher, Tamura entered the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in 1953[3] as an uchi-deshi (live-in student) of aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba.

His former students include Jorge Rojo Gutierrez, Toshiro Suga, Pierre Chassang and Alain Peyrache.

Sent by Morihei Ueshiba, Tamura arrived in France in the port of Marseille in 1964 as the final destination of his honeymoon cruise (he paid part of his trip by performing aikido exhibitions on the ship).

In France, he succeeded Tadashi Abe as the Aikikai representative there and decided to stay in this country teaching aikido, despite the fact that he could barely speak French at that time.

Tamura was an honorary citizen of the town of Lesneven, France, where he gave week long yearly summer seminars with fellow aikido sensei Yoshimitsu Yamada.