Henry Plée

Henry Plée (also named H.D. Plée, Henri Plée, Henry D. Plée, or Henry-Désiré Plée, 24 May 1923; Arras, Nord-Pas-de-Calais–19 August 2014; Paris) was a French martial artist who is considered as the 'father of European and French karate'.[1] He was one of the rare 10th dan karate masters living outside Japan, and one of the few Westerners who held this rank. At the time of his death, Plée was also the oldest and highest karate ranking Westerner alive, with more than 60 years of fighting arts, including 50 in martial arts. He was a pioneer in introducing karate to France and Europe, and has taught most of today's highest ranking karate masters in Europe.

Henry Plée
Henry Plée (1923-2014)
BornMay 24, 1923
Arras, France
Died19 August 2014(2014-08-19) (aged 91)
Paris
Other namesH.D. Plée
Henri Plée
Henry D. Plée
Henry-Désiré Plée
Residence34, rue de la Montagne Ste Geneviève, 5th arr., Paris, France
Nationality French
StyleKarate, Judo, Aikido, Kendo, Bōjutsu, French savate
Teacher(s)Gichin Funakoshi, Murakami, Hiroo Mochizuki Enoeda, Yoshinao Nanbu, Taiji Kase, Fukuda Rikutaro, Tsutomu Ohshima, Tsuneyoshi Ogura
Rank10th dan Karate
5th dan Judo
4th dan Aikido
3rd dan Jujutsu
1st dan Kendo
1st dan Bōjutsu
SpouseLéa Plée Jabri
ChildrenHenry Alcide "Ricou" Plée (deceased)
Pascal Plée, 6th dan karate, teacher
Thierry Plée, 2nd dan judo teacher
Christophe Plée (deceased)
Arnaud Plée
Elodie Plée
Notable studentsDominique Valera, 9th dan
Roland Habersetzer, 9th dan
Guy Sauvin, 8th dan
Alain Setrouck, 8th dan
Francis Didier, 7th dan
François Petitdemange, 6th dan
Jacques Delcourt, 4th dan
Vernon Bell, 10th dan
Websitewww.henryplee.com

Background

Henry Plée was born in Arras, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France on 24 May 1923. His studies were interrupted by World War II in 1940.

An only son, Henry Plée started his sports career with gymnastics, weight lifting, French savate, English Boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, Ju Jutsu, and Fencing with his father Alcide Plée, who was a sword master since 1912. He diversified into judo in 1945 at the 'Judo Club de France', Mikonosuke Kawaishi's second club. He was the 96th French black belt and is now ranked 5th dan at judo.

Physically, he demonstrated very powerful kicks and punches. So from 1946, he returned to French savate, also known as French kickboxing, at the club 'Banville' (the only remaining club at that time). He trained with famous fighters such as Rigal, Pierre Plasait, Cayron, and Pierre Baruzy. Despite the high training quality, he was still feeling the need to go stronger and deeper, and was still looking for something else.

He discovered aikido with Minoru Mochizuki, then karate from an article in Life magazine with Fukuda Rikutaro, his Judo Kodokan magazine's translator. Fukuda Rikutaro confided in him that he learnt karate in Tokyo with Gichin Funakoshi. This was the start of his karate career in 1953, with help from Donn Draeger in Japan.

Karate
Door entrance to the dojo at 34 rue de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève

In 1955 he founded his dojo: the Karate Club de France (KCF), which became Académie française des Arts Martiaux (AFAM), which became 'Shobudo', also known as 'The Mountain/ La Montagne' (in French) or as 'Dojo de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève' in Paris. It is the oldest karate dojo in Europe, which has won 32 French, Europe, and world championships since its creation.

Here he taught the four pillars of Japanese Martial Arts: karate, judo, aikido, and kendo. Plée instructed many black belts who, at a later stage, became the foundation of the European karate institutions, and are today some of the highest ranking karate masters in Europe.

He frequently traveled to Japan. There he met with and learnt from some of the most famous karate masters of all styles. He invited many of them to visit him in France. He even financed the visit to France of many Japanese and Chinese martial arts experts. They taught at the Shobudo, where the secrets of karate were being unveiled to Europe.

In 1956, he founded the 'French Federation of Karate and Boxing' (Fédération Française de Karaté et de Boxe Libre), which became part of the 'French Federation of Judo and Associated Disciplines' (Fédération française de Judo et Disciplines Associées - FFJDA) in 1960. Under his influence, the creation in 1966 of the 'European Union of Karate' (Union Européenne de Karaté), showed an independence of karate from the judo federations, and the decision of not favoring any karate style over another. He also served as a Technical Advisor to the 'European Karate Federation (EKF)', and as its General Secretary in 1967.

For 21 years (1950–1971) he financed and published the first bilingual (French/ English) karate magazine named Budo Magazine Europe. He also published another magazine named Judo Kodokan, which was a translation of the Japanese magazine of the Tokyo Kodokan. He wrote books, and appeared in the movie La Vie, l'amour, la mort.[2]

He owns at 'The Mountain' the most comprehensive private Martial Arts library available in Europe. Also located there is his Martial Arts store named 'Budostore', which offers equipments, books, videos, and DVDs. Henry Plée heads a very exclusive European think-tank on Martial Arts, which studies the essence and spirituality of Martial Arts, and he regularly publishes his chronicles on-line.[3]

From 200 karate practitioners in 1961, Henry Plée's efforts have led today to more than 200,000 practitioners in France. The French government considers him as one of the greatest international experts in Martial Arts, and has knighted Plée with the French Ordre national du Mérite in 2008.[4]

Ranks

Since the 1950s, numerous trips to Japan allowed him to meet some of the most famous karate masters of all styles, and to pass belts in various styles and disciplines:

Karate
  • 10th dan, Hanshi Karate in Japan, by Tsuneyoshi Ogura in 1987.
  • 9th dan, Hanshi Karate in Japan, by Tsuneyoshi Ogura in 1984.[5]
  • 8th dan, Shihan Karate in Japan, by Tsuneyoshi Ogura in 1972, and in France by the Fédération Française de Karaté - FFKAMA in 1975.
  • 5th dan, Renshi Karate in Japan, by Chojiro Tani.
  • 1st, 2nd, 3rd dan, karate in France, by Minoru Mochizuki.

Judo
  • 5th dan, Judo.
  • The 96th French black belt.

Aikido

Kendo
  • 1st dan, Kendo, by Minoru Mochizuki.

Bōjutsu
  • 1st dan, Bo-Jutsu, by Minoru Mochizuki.

Awards

Henry Plée has been granted the following awards:[6]

Teachers

Henry Plée has traveled frequently to Japan in order to learn and meet with the most famous karate masters of all styles such as Gichin Funakoshi and many others. Along the years, he financed the visits to France of more than 17 Japanese and Chinese martial arts experts, including:

Inviting many Japanese masters to France allowed him to learn in continuity from his actual level, instead of starting from the beginning in every school in Japan. It also molded French karate with a unique blend of not favoring any karate style over another.

Students

Henry Plée instructed many black belts who became the foundation of the European karate institutions, and are today some of the highest ranking karate masters in Europe, including:

Bibliography

Henry Plée is the author of hundreds of articles and reviews, and has held numerous conferences for 60 years. He has written books under the names Henry Plée, Henry Plee, Henri Plée, Henri Plee, Henry-Désiré Plée, H.D. Plee or H.D. Plée, which are known as the quintessence of the original Martial Arts and strongly focused on the awakening of the Human Being.

His books are:

  • The sublime and ultimate art of vital points / L'Art sublime et ultime des points vitaux (in French), published in 2004.[8]
  • Martial chronicles / Chroniques martiales (in French), published in 2002.[9]
  • The sublime and ultimate art of vital points / L'arte sublime ed estrema dei punti vitali (in Italian), published in 1999.[10]
  • The sublime and ultimate art of vital points: kyûshô, vital points, dim mak, killing touches, dim hsueh, poison touches / L'Art sublime et ultime des points vitaux: kyûshô, points vitaux, dim mak, touches mortelles, dim hsueh, touches poison (in French), published in 1998.[11]
  • The sublime and ultimate art of vital points: kyûshô, vital points, dim mak, killing touches, dim hsueh, poison touches / El arte sublime y ultimo de los puntos vitales: kyûshô, puntos vitales, dim mak, toques mortales, dim hsueh, toques veneno (in Spanish), published in 1998.[12]
  • Aikido up to 1st dan in image / L'aikido jusqu'à la ceinture noire 1er dan par l'image (in French), published in 1975.[13]
  • Official basic Karate Katas: Shotokan, published in 1973.[14]
  • The secret vital points of the human body / Les points vitaux secrets du corps humain (in French), published in 1972.[15]
  • Karate: Beginner to Black Belt, published in 1967.[16]
  • Karate in pictures / Karaté par l'image (in French), published in 1962.[17]
  • Karate by pictures: the science of self-defence by the empty hand lucidly explained and illustrated, published in 1962.[18]
  • ABC of karate-do / ABC du karate-do (in French), published in 1957.[19]
  • Conquer or die, the spirit and technics of karate-do: by H.D. Plee / Vaincre ou mourir, l'esprit et la technique du Karaté-Do: par H. D. Plée (in French), published in 1955.[20]
  • Official international Judo directory / Annuaire officiel de Judo international (in French), published in 1950.
  • Judo international (in French), published in 1948.
  • Judo Kodokan and Budo Magazine (in French and English), published from 1950 to 1973.

References
  1. "Henry Plée nous a quittés" (in French). Karate Bushido. 2014-08-20. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  2. Henry Plée appears in the movie La Vie, l'amour, la mort, Claude Lelouch, Paris, France 1998
  3. Henry Plée publishes regularly his chronicles on-line in his 'un-official website'
  4. Henry Plée was knighted with the 'French Ordre national du Mérite in 2008'
  5. Henry Plée receives his 9th dan by Tsuneyoshi Ogura in 1984
  6. Henry Plée has been granted many awards
  7. Henry Plée was knighted with the French Ordre national du Mérite in 2008
  8. The sublime and ultimate art of vital points / L'Art sublime et ultime des points de vie (in French), Henry Plée, 668 pages, (ISBN 978-2-84617-048-2), Budo Editions, Paris, France 2004
  9. Martial chronicles / Chroniques martiales (in French), published in 2002. Henry Plée, 526 pages, (ISBN 978-2-908580-80-8), Budostore Editions, Paris, France 2002
  10. The sublime and ultimate art of vital points / L'arte sublime ed estrema dei punti vitali (in Italian), Henry Plée, Fujita Saiko, 368 pages, Edizioni Mediterranee, Italy 1999
  11. The sublime and ultimate art of vital points: kyûshô, vital points, dim mak, killing touches, dim hsueh, poison touches / L'Art sublime et ultime des points vitaux: kyûshô, points vitaux, dim mak, touches mortelles, dim hsueh, touches poison (in French), Centre national japonais de recherches sur les techniques guerrières ancestrales, Fujita Saiko, Henry Plée, 366 pages, (ISBN 978-2-908580-81-5), Budostore Editions, Paris, France 1998
  12. The sublime and ultimate art of vital points: kyûshô, vital points, dim mak, killing touches, dim hsueh, poison touches / El arte sublime y ultimo de los puntos vitales: kyûshô, puntos vitales, dim mak, toques mortales, dim hsueh, toques veneno (in Spanish), Centre national japonais de recherches sur les techniques guerrières ancestrales, Henry-Désiré Plée, 366 pages, (ISBN 978-2-908580-99-0), Henry-Désiré Plée Editor, Budo Editor Publisher, Paris, France 1998
  13. Aikido up to 1st dan in image / L'aikido jusqu'à la ceinture noire 1er dan par l'image (in French), Louis Boileau, Henry D. Plee, 112 pages, Editions Judo international, France 1975
  14. Official basic Karate Katas: Shotokan,Henry Plée, Roland Habersetzer, 73 pages, Editions Judo international, Paris, France 1973
  15. The vital points of the human body / Les points vitaux secrets du corps humain, Fujita Saiko, Henry-Désiré Plée, Jacques Devêvre, 95 pages, Judo International Editions, Paris, France 1972
  16. Karate: Beginner to Black Belt, H.D. Plee, 128 pages, Budo Editions, Paris, France 1967
  17. Karate in pictures / Karaté par l'image (in French), published in 1962.Henri Plee, 96 pages, Editions Judo international, France 1962
  18. Karate by pictures: the science of self-defence by the empty hand lucidly explained and illustrated, H. D. Plée, 51 pages, (ISBN 978-0-572-00081-3), Foulsham Publisher, Paris, France 1962
  19. ABC of karate-do / ABC du karate-do (in French), Henry-Désiré Plée, illustrations by E. Guillo, 48 pages, Chiron Editions, Paris, France 1957
  20. Win or die, the mind and technics of karate-do: by H.D. Plee / Vaincre ou mourir, l'esprit et la technique du Karaté-Do: par H. D. Plée (in French), Henry-Désiré Plée, 32 pages, Impr. de Midol Editions, Paris, France 1955
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