Mutsuro Nakazono

Mutsuro Nakazono (December 20, 1918 – 1994) (first name also spelled "Mitsuro" or "Masahiro") was a Japanese acupuncturist, an Oriental medicine practitioner and a 7th dan Aikikai aikido master with a strong judo background.

Born in the Kagoshima prefecture, he relocated to France in 1961 where he remained until the early 1970s as a representative of the Aikikai. He then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, where he spent several years. He operated the Nakazono Clinic, a natural healing center in San Diego, California.

Nakazono was an authority on kotodama and wrote privately published books on the subject. His study of kotodama was a result of his studies with Morihei Ueshiba, founder of the martial art of aikido. Ueshiba is believed to have mastered kotodama to a certain degree, yet few of his disciples have been interested in learning this aspect of aikido from him with the exception of Nakazono.

Nakazono was also deeply involved in the spiritual aspect of healing such as Inochi. Coming from a long family tradition of healers he passed on both his Aikido and his spiritual approach to healing to his son Jiro Nakazono (now known as Jei Atacama) who practices spiritual healing in New York City.

In 2007 there was a series of memorial events in Rosfall, Switzerland and Neath, UK sponsored by his students in memory of their teacher.