Shihan Fumio Demura, actor, martial arts expert and film consultant, passed away on Monday at the age of 84. Word spread throughout multiple posts in social media with the news shared by martial arts entertainment laureates like Scott Adkins, Cynthia Rothrock, and Douglas Wong.
“I just received word that our close family friend the great Karate Pioneer Fumio Demura has passed away,” wrote Wong in a Facebook post. “Master Demura was one of the greatest and kindest Karate Master that we have known for over 50 years. He will be missed but will live on in our hearts and minds. Rest in Peace and Paradise until we meet again…”
An expert in karate and kobudo, the Yokohama-born Demura began training at the age of nine and started training in multiple disciplines before plying his trade in the U.S. after moving in 1965, and becoming a staple in the Western world for proliferating Japanese martial arts and culture in the U.S.. That would eventually include him serving Hollywood for a time in a number of films, most notably working as a stunt performer and double for actor Pat Morita in The Karate Kid franchise, as well as appearing in films like the Sean Connery/Wesley Snipes-led Rising Sun, and in Isaac Florentine’s 2009 feature, Ninja, starring Adkins.
Demura’s life and accolades earned the attention of filmmaker Kayvon Derak Shanian who would go on to begin work on The Real Miyagi, a crowdsourced documentary bolstered with celebrity interviews and discussions with Demura’s friends and family. As recorded in the doc upon its release in 2015, it was in 2011 when Demura suffered a subdural hematoma, leaving him incapacitated with given a 5% chance of survival. As time passed, Demura showed signs of healing and improvement with reports of the martial arts stalwart folding 5000 cranes.
Details on cause of death remain pending as well as trade reports with further possible details which I will update via this article as news develops.
Lead image via Polskie Centrum Karate-Do Shito-Ryu/Wikimedia Commons