Rioiti Uchida Is Chosen to Represent the Continent in the IJF Kata Commission

Brazil shows again its judo strength off the mat. Rioiti Uchida, one of the country’s biggest names in Kata, was chosen to represent the Americas in the Kata Committee of the International Judo Federation. He was appointed by both the Brazilian Judo Confederation and the Pan American one because of his contribution to the Brazilian judo; the other two nominated athletes were part of the Canadian Federation and of the Mexican Federation. The PJC appointed him to the International Federation. On Tuesday, Uchida traveled to Japan, host country of the World Kata Championships, where he meets other continents’ members. The competition will be held at Kyoto Budo Center from Thursday, 17/10, to Aug. 20.

\" Judo is changing every year, but keeps its philosophical basis and its technique one through Kata. Kata is the original judo conceived by Jigoro Kano, \"said Uchida.

Rioiti Uchida , 6th Dan , was born in Tapiraí , São Paulo , in 1952 and has been practicing judo since 1971 , when he joined the academy Chiaki Ishii . Uchida’s love for Kata started in the early 1980s when he took the first course of this game. The first contact had occurred much earlier when Ishii taught him the nage no kata before his exam for black belt.

“After taking the first Kata course, I wanted to learn the seven of them, but there was little information about it in Brazil. We have today something that did not exist a few years ago. Sensei Massao Shinohara and Mario Matsuda taught us much more than we needed for a World Kata Championships. The results show it, “he said.

The awards in this sport are relevant. Apart from Luis Alberto Santos, another great exponent of the sport, he was world champion three times (Canada 2005 , France 2006 and Brazil  2007), Pan American champion four times (Puerto Rico 2005/Argentina 2006/Argentina 2008/ El Salvador 2010) and Brazilian one on five occasions ( Praia Grande 2005/Bauru 2006/São Paulo 2008 / São Paulo 2009/ São Bernardo do Campo 2010).