Tomio Otani (8 September 1939 - 6 June 1991) was a British master swordsman,[1] kendo master and the first national Coach to the British Kendo Council.
[2][3] He was one of the pioneers of kendo in Britain as the leading student of Kenshiro Abbe.
[5] He was a master of multiple other martial arts, including iaido, iaijutsu, aikido, kobudō and grew up learning judo and was also the founder of the Yodokan philosophy.
Tomio Otani defined Kyūshindō as "the accumulation of effort in a steady motion about the radius and center of gravity.
At the beginning of 1990, Tomio's health started to deteriorate and he was diagnosed with stomach cancer.