Shu Taira, was born on July 22, 1942 in Asahikawa (Japan)._x000D_
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Red belt 9º Dan, National Master-trainer, national referee and numerary teacher of foot, floor and kata judo, arrived in Spain in 1967._x000D_
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Shu Taira was started in judo by his strict father: Tsuson Taira, a Buddhist priest from a temple built in the 14th century. For six centuries, the firstborn of the family had been priests. They are said to have descended from Shinran, the founder of the Jodo-Shinshu School of Buddhism, who determined that anyone in the village, including thieves and murderers, could be saved. Tsuson Taira had countless honorary and social positions. Among them, he presided over the Judo Federation and was a councilor. A man of the Meiji era (in which Japan opened up to the West), he wanted his son Shu, the last of the boys, to do judo and learn English to leave Japan with a means of earning a living and a language to understand himself.