Ross Rumbell Award Recipient: 2009

Yoshiaki “Akira” Sato was one of 8 children who immigrated to Canada with the intention of learning
English and staying for up to two years. He promised his future wife that we would return, but he never
did. Instead, he convinced her to immigrate to Canada where he went on to have profound impact on
the nation’s karate community. First introduced to the sport in his teens after losing both of his parents
at 15 years old. He trained in the sport while continuing his post-secondary education to become a
social studies teacher. He used the local parks as venue. Several students noticed this and approached
him for instruction leading to the initial outdoor club where he had 35 students. Within months a dojo
location had been organized at the Sunset Community Centre in East Vancouver. A prominent
instructor, coach and official, Master Sato’s was the first Head Coach for Karate BC where he guided
hundreds of students to championship events. Master Sato was the first Canadian to achieve a WKF
(WUKO) judge license in 1982. He was also a Pan American Karate Federation referee. He holds a 9th
Dan Certificate from Karate Canada and continues to teach Karate to young and old. He was recognized
as a pioneer of Karate at the Tokyo Budo-kan, in conjunction with the Tokyo Olympics.