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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: scott125 on Sunday 21 September 14 19:54 BST (UK)
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Hi all,
I a trying to find out as much as I can for some back history research, about Mr Kiyo Kamada b16/7/1888 in Aomori, Japan d 22/7/1949 New Zealand. Mr Kamada was a Jiu Jitsu expert and was a 'tent wrestler' in Australia between 1908-1912 and here in New Zealand between 1912 and 1925. Mr Kamada travelled to America in June 1906 to help teach at Police stations in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles for 19 months. I am very interested if there were any photos taken of the travelling groups, any reports of the group, who was the head instructor that invited the young Mr Kamada to travel with them to America (would there be visa papers?) and or Australia, and if any body has any idea of other leads I may follow. I know this is a hard one (well it is from my side of the fence)
Many Regards Scott :)
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http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/10680882?searchTerm=Kiyo Kamada&searchLimits=
Lots of results here, just looking for Kiyo.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=Kiyo
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Kameda appears to have toured with Ryngoro Shima, when he first came to New Zealand. In this article on Papers Past,
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19360807.2.12&srpos=155&e=-------100--101-byDA-on--0Kameda--
Shima is "former instructor to the New South Wales police force".
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www.archway.archives.govt.nz
- Archway has some documentation (just search on Kameda) regarding his naturalisation/immigration status (was possibly interned during WWII).
While they are marked as potentially closed, it appears you can gain access simply by providing proof that the person was born more than 100 years ago. These records may have some detailed info about his movements (things like if/when he had travelled back to Japan).
I think that "Kiyo" is probably a shortening - possibly of Kiyoshi or Kiyotaro or something similar. Kameda/Kamada would both be possible (in modern-day Aomori, Kamada is the only one of these on the top 100 surnames list).
There is this index to passengers leaving Japan:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1803988
However, there seem to be very few records in it for the 1900 to 1910 period (not clear if this is because indexing is not done or because originals for that period don't survive)
I can certainly find references on http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov to "jiu jitsu" being learnt by the police and at the naval academy but little listing the names of any of those teaching.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/45111093?searchTerm=Kameda
- this in 1910 mentions his wife being ill - do you know about her details?
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/45111633?searchTerm=Kameda
- this from the same period suggests that he was in London before Australia, no mention of the US
(has picture)
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A little mention of him here
http://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/11/4/3599474/the-martial-chronicles-jiu-jitsu-conquers-australia
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http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110003988280
- this article (check the PDF) has quite a bit more about his later years around the time of WWII. He applied for naturalisation but was turned down; he was also interned during the war.
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;D
Hi all, this is all really good stuff, has given me a lot of leads to kick on with, but please keep it coming if you come across anything.
Kind regards to you all, Scott