Taky Kimura, (March 12, 1924-January 7, 2021) grew up in Clallam Bay, Washington.
Kimura and his family were interned in a War relocation center (or internment camp) during World War II, first at Tule Lake and later at Minidoka, due to their Japanese American heritage. Kimura was actually taken to the camp one day before his high school graduation.
Emerging from the internment camp after World War II, Kimura found himself to be downtrodden, broken down and lacking motivation. Because he was unable to graduate from high school due to being taken to the internment camp, and because his family had no money to pay for his college education, his family began to operate a supermarket store in Seattle, Washington.
In his mid-thirties, during the year 1959, Kimura met a young, rising 18-year-old martial arts genius named Bruce Lee. Even before Lee opened his first Jun Fan Gung Fu institute in 1960, Kimura was a part of his first students in the USA, among them Jesse Glover, James DeMile, Ed Hart, Skipp Ellsworth and LeRoy Garcia. Kimura then joined Bruce's early kung-fu club where Lee taught Jun Fan Gung Fu, literally translating to Bruce Lee's Kung Fu and his version of Wing Chun, Kimura became Lee's student, assistant and at that time, his "best friend." Together, they practiced, sparred, trained, and then founded Lee's first kung fu club (the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute) renting a small basement room with a half door entry from 8th Street in Seattle's Chinatown, where he became Lee's first Assistant Instructor.
Kimura held a 7th rank in Jun Fan Gung Fu. After Kimura was certified, he was allowed to teach small classes under the mantra of "keep the numbers low, but the quality high".
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