The Legacy of ‘Taky’ Kimura and Jun Fan Gung Fu
When Bruce first arrived in Seattle, he began to develop a reputation for teaching gung fu. Soon Bruce had many people wanting to study under him. One of those people was a thirty-six-year-old Japanese-American named Taky Kimura. Kimura had spent five years in a United States internment camp during World War II and suffered difficulty in getting a decent job afterward under the shadow of post-war anti-Japanese sentiment. Demoralized, Kimura was seeking something to give him back his self-confidence. He found that in the young Bruce Lee™, with whom he became best friends.
Sigung Taky Kimura
Of all the people associated with Bruce Lee, Taky Kimura was considered his greatest friend, and Bruce Lee referred to Kimura as his most senior-most student. Since 1964, until his passing in 2021, Taky Kimura had been the instructor of the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute of Seattle and the caretaker of Bruce Lee’s grave. He was considered a shining example of the positive impact that Bruce Lee’s philosophy has had on people.
“Bruce came along and helped me out. He used to say, ‘Jesus Christ Kimura! Look at the clothes you’re wearing! You look like an old man!’ And I would say, ‘I’m clean, aren’t I?’ But you know, he told me to wear different clothes and all this kind of stuff, and it was all a part of making me realize that I am a human being, no better or worse than anyone else. He told me that repeatedly to me, and (by teaching you the fundamentals of physicalness within yourself) obviously, you start feeling better about yourself, when you know that you can do something. I think that that is one of the great things. Unfortunately, we all have to go through this process to understand what our capabilities are. But if you don’t progress any further than that, then you’re not going to get anywhere.”
Jun Fan Gung Fu
The Jun Fan Gung Fu club of Seattle™ was conceived by Bruce Lee™ and started in the year 1960 and was active through 1967. Shortly after 1967, the school was re-activated as a private club and remained under the guidance of Taky Kimura until his passing. After his passing, Andy Kimura took on the mantle of the Jun Fan Gung Fu Club, today known as the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute.
While today the teachings of Bruce Lee have evolved into various branches of Jeet Kune Do, which have gone on to incorporate a wide variety of new concepts, the Seattle Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute retains the same lessons and teachings that Bruce taught to Taky so many years ago -with little or no variation other than that which can be described and explained.
