A pair of local judo brothers are headed to next month’s Deaflympics in Tokyo.
RIVERSIDE.-Satoshi Nakama took a little taste of the soup, cocked his head to the right in thought and decided to add just a touch more miso paste.
On the back patio of his family’s hillside home in Riverside, Nakama had set up a pair of large standing stoves, to prepare ramen for some 50 guests who would be arriving shortly.
The gathering was both a celebration and a donation drive for the trip he’ll take with his wife and two sons next month, as the boys will compete in judo for the USA at the 2025 Deaf-lympics in Tokyo. More than 3,000 athletes representing nearly 80 countries with gather beginning Nov. 15, to compete in 21 sports. Judo will be staged at the famous Tokyo Budokan.
Satoshi said it was his older son, Ryoshi, who five years ago found information about the Deaflympics happening in Brazil. The family was immediately interested, but the concerns over the ongoing COVID pandemic kept them at home.
This time around, Ryoshi, 31, and his 29-year-old brother Hiroshi are full steam ahead in their training for the games in Tokyo. The two took part in a final domestic tune-up Oct. 4 at the Riverside Youth Judo Club, in a workshop led by Nina Cutro-Kelley, who won a gold medal for the USA at the Brazil games in 2022.
“It has been their dream, and their father’s dream to see them compete for the gold at the Deaflympics,” said the brothers’ mom, Sharon. “Our family, for many years, looked for other deaf judokas, but there weren’t any.”
Sharon noted that connecting with Rusty Narwocki, the president of USA Martial Arts of the Deaf, started her sons on the path to joining the U.S. team.
For Hiroshi, martial arts began as a much-needed outlet for his unbounded toddler energy.
“I was a bad boy always in trouble,” he said through interpretation by his sister, Susan. “I joined judo and my behavior got better, and I went on from there.”
Both brothers were born deaf, in contrast to their father, who lost his hearing later in childhood. Sharon explained that there is believed to be a hereditary link to deafness, but the actual triggers remain unclear.
For Ryoshi, his deafness came with an added challenge growing up, as he is on the autism spectrum. He said judo not only was a key to helping him focus, but his skills came in handy to discourage bullies.
“I made a lot of mistakes in practice, but I grew and got better, and eventually made black belt,” he recalled. “All the kids who know me know I have autism, but they’ve seen how I can do it, how I can achieve.”
Sharon, who grew up in Torrance, said she took a class in American Sign Language (ASL) for fun, as an elective at El Camino College. She continued her education at Cal State Northridge, and was involved with ASL, but was shy to use it.
After earning her master’s degree in teaching from USC, she was asked to help teach ASL in the L.A. Unified School District, a move that led to meeting Satoshi.
Originally from Okinawa, Satoshi attended Hollywood High School and went to Cal Arts. His grandfather, Ryoei Nakama, and his great-grandfather, Ryokin Nakama, are known in Hawaii for bringing Okinawan music to the islands.
After the boys were born, the Nakama family relocated to Riverside, where Sharon found there is a lot of support for deaf students and their families.
Ryoshi attended the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, while Hiroshi went to nearby Ramona High School, where Sharon worked.
CSDR has been in the news in recent years, with the inspiring success of their hearing-impaired football team.
They started judo at the Sawtelle Dojo in West L.A., making that hours-long drive. There simply wasn’t a viable judo club in Riverside, until connection was made between the community and Stan Morrison, an athletic director at UC Riverside. Sharon said he was instrumental in involving families to establish the Riverside Youth Judo Club, which has grown from its initial group of six kids to nearly 500 students.
Holding the degree of fifth-degree black belt, Satoshi has been intimately involved in his sons’ training from the outset. Asked if growing and training with Dad always watching was stressful, the brothers instantly responded with double noddling fists – the sign for “Yes, yes.”
“He would come while I was practicing techniques and he would make me do them over and over again,” Hiroshi recalled, saying their father was strict but sensible.
Ryoshi added, “He wasn’t always too hands-on; often he would just watch as I was picking up new things.”
Hiroshi said that the language barrier was a major obstacle for him and his brother at first, and he is grateful for the commitment their father showed in coaching them.
“It can be very difficult for deaf people to communicate, and we’re really lucky that my dad was able to teach us judo and all of the techniques growing up.
“It was really hard going to practices with senseis who could hear, but my dad was able to explain to us and visualize it, rather that depend on someone talking about it. We could watch the body language and movements and that helped us learn how to do the techniques, so it’s better to visualize that just talk about it.”
Hiroshi now lives in the Washington, D.C. area, where he teaches ASL at a high school and at Gallaudet University. Work has curtailed his judo activities somewhat, but he still has found time to establish a judo club in Virginia. He recently completed his master’s in ASL education at Gallaudet, where the third Nakama brother, Masa, also graduated.
“I really enjoy working with international students,” Hiroshi said. “Their ASL isn’t great at first, but they learn and I try to teach them about cross-cultural communication.”
Ryoshi has been teaching and training at several judo dojos, including Gardena, San Gabriel, Tenri, UC Riverside Judo and the Riverside Youth Judo Club. He had been enjoying his work at a well-known cookie bakery, but recently passed an exam that qualifies him to teach at CSDR.
In addition to the competition, Ryoshi is looking forward to eating Tokyo cuisine and walking around learning about the history. If he wins a medal, he’s excited to show it to his family, notably to his grandparents, who are buried at the The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific – known locally as Punchbowl Cemetery – in Honolulu.
“Hopefully, they will come back with the gold, but if they don’t, we know it will be an experience of a lifetime, to be around judokas just like them,” Sharon said.
