30/06/2026
There's a photograph from the William Street dojo, around the early 1980s, that most people would walk straight past. The image is grainy, the faces hard to place. But the man second from the left is Chuck Norris — at the height of his fame — standing in a small dojo in Perth, Western Australia, with Yoshiaki Unno Sensei.
Perth, in those days, was a long way from anywhere. A martial artist of Norris's standing being in the eastern states made sense — but Perth? That's four hours further west, off the map of any ordinary tour. So how did he end up on Unno Sensei's mat?
As Darren Edwards — Unno's long-time student — recalls it, the visit wasn't chance. It came about through a mutual connection in the Australian martial arts world, a senior karate teacher who knew both men and suggested Norris meet Unno while he was in the country. It was a small world at the top of the martial arts, more connected than it looked from the outside — and through it, a Hollywood star found his way to a Perth dojo to meet a teacher worth meeting.
What's striking isn't the celebrity. It's what the visit says about Unno Sensei's standing. In an era before the internet, before Perth was on anyone's martial arts map, his reputation was enough that a connection was made and a visit was worth making.
Unno himself, characteristically, made little of it. Asked about it years later, he was warm but unimpressed — a nice man, he said, big, travelled with a bouncer. And when asked whether they'd kept in touch, he simply smiled: "No… he's far too famous for me."
That was Unno Sensei. A teacher of standing enough that the wider martial arts world found its way to his door — and humble enough to wave it off in the same breath.
Twenty years on from his passing, we remember the man behind the photograph — and we'd be glad for you to remember him with us.
Twenty years ago today — 30 June 2006 — Yoshiaki Unno Sensei passed away.
Join us on the mat this Wednesday, 7:30pm, for our second evening of training in his memory.
173 Gildercliffe Street, Scarborough — free parking outside, wear your gi. Whatever line you came through, you're welcome.
