Chozen Toguchi

Chozen Toguchi is a fictional character who appears in the motion picture The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and in Season 3 of the streaming television series Cobra Kai (2021). He is portrayed by Yuji Okumoto.

Chozen Toguchi
The Karate Kid character
First appearanceThe Karate Kid Part II
Last appearanceCobra Kai (Season 3)
Created byRobert Mark Kamen
Portrayed byYuji Okumoto
In-universe information
GenderMale
OccupationKarate instructor for Miyagi-Do karate in Okinawa
FamilySato Toguchi (uncle)
NationalityOkinawa Prefecture

Overview

Chozen Toguchi grew up in Tomi Villiage, in Okinawa Prefecture. In The Karate Kid Part II, Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) is Sato's nephew and karate student, and Daniel's rival.

He is currently (Cobra Kai) a Karate instructor for Miyagi-Do karate in Okinawa. He neither married nor had children, but inherited all of the Miyagi-do artifacts from his uncle after his death.

Young Chozen
Main article: The Karate Kid Part II

In 1985, Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi arrive at Tomi village in Okinawa Prefecture, as Mr. Miyagi's father is dying. He tells Daniel that when he was young, he fell in love with a woman named Yukie, who was arranged to marry his best friend Sato, son of the richest man in the village and fellow karate student of his father. Upon announcing his intentions to marry Yukie, Sato challenged him to a fight to the death to save his honor. Rather than fight, however, Mr. Miyagi left the country, though Sato is still holding a grudge.

In Okinawa, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel are greeted by Sato's nephew Chozen, who takes them to meet Sato rather than to the village. Sato then threatens Mr. Miyagi, who dismisses it. Sato then allows them to go so that Mr. Miyagi can see his father, but after that he will return. Arriving at the village, Miyagi and Daniel are welcomed by Yukie and her niece Kumiko, and discover that Sato owns and runs the village. Mr. Miyagi also discovers that Yukie never married Sato because she still loves him.

After Miyagi's father dies, Sato gives him three days to mourn out of respect before their fight. Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel the secret to his family's karate — a handheld drum that illustrates the "drum technique", a block-and-defense karate move that Daniel begins to practice. Some time later, Daniel accidentally exposes corruption in Chozen's grocery business. Chozen accuses Daniel of insulting his honor and begins to harass him. After several encounters, their feud comes to a head when Chozen vandalizes the Miyagi family property and attacks Daniel. Daniel and Mr. Miyagi decide to leave and return to the U.S. However, Sato threatens to destroy the village if Mr. Miyagi doesn't fight him, so a date is set. However, a typhoon cancels the fight, and Daniel and Mr. Miyagi rescue Sato, effectively ending the feud. When Sato sees a young girl trapped in the bell tower, he tells Chozen to rescue her. As he is too afraid to do so, Daniel rescues her instead, and Sato disowns Chozen who runs out into the storm.

The next day, Daniel and Kumiko approach Sato about hosting the upcoming O-bon festival in a ceremonial castle, to which he agrees and invites Daniel to join in the celebration. While Kumiko is performing a dance at the festival, Chozen ziplines into the presentation, takes Kumiko hostage, and demands to fight Daniel. Mr. Miyagi reminds Daniel that this isn't a tournament, this is for real and to the death. Daniel still agrees to go.

After an intense fight, Chozen overwhelms Daniel. Miyagi, Sato and the crowd respond by using handheld drums they brought to the celebration, inspiring Daniel. Seemingly confused, Chozen closes in for the kill, but Daniel is able to deflect Chozen's attacks and land counter-attacks using the drum technique. Daniel grabs the vanquished Chozen and threatens to end his life by saying, "Live or die, man?!" Chozen chooses death, but, remembering the way Miyagi handled Kreese earlier, Daniel honks Chozen's nose and drops him to the ground.

Adult Chozen
Main article: Cobra Kai

Episode 4

In Cobra Kai, after learning that his business rival Tom Cole has convinced Doyona Industries to cut their business ties with Daniel, he travels to Tokyo, Japan to try to persuade them not to. His attempt fails, however, prompting Daniel to travel to Okinawa and revisit old memories of Mr. Miyagi. He returns to Tomi Village to find that it has been turned into a mall and sees Kumiko dancing. They meet for tea and catch up on the past few decades. Daniel confides in Kumiko and tells her of his troubles with Doyona, as well as his loss of confidence in general.

The next day Kumiko meets Daniel. While talking, his old rival Chozen appears in the doorway.

Episode 5

Daniel's former rival, Chozen approaches Daniel and Kumiko, and bows. The three then sit together in awkward silence, as Chozen says that he never married and has no children. When he leaves to get a drink for Daniel, Kumiko confesses that she invited him to meet Daniel, saying that he has changed since they last met. She then leaves them to spend the day together.

Chozen takes Daniel to a mountain top, and Daniel recognizes it as the place where Karate was born through Miyagi Shimpo sensei. Daniel then tells the story that Mr. Miyagi told him, of Miyagi Shimpo sensei traveling to China and returning 10 years later with the “secret” of Miyagi-Do Karate. While Daniel is confident that Mr. Miyagi taught him everything, Chozen is skeptical and asks Daniel to follow him.

They arrive at the Miyagi-Do Dojo where Daniel finds original scrolls containing the family techniques. Chozen explains that Mr. Miyagi's father taught Sato, who then taught him. After Sato died, Chozen inherited all of the Miyagi family artifacts. However, Chozen suddenly takes the scroll from Daniel's hand, saying that Daniel is a foreigner who cannot take their secrets. When Daniel says that Mr. Miyagi treated him like a son, Chozen challenges him to a fight to see how much Daniel really knows. Daniel is then surprised to find himself beaten when Chozen uses unknown techniques, and Chozen tells him that “your sensei did not teach you everything.”

Chozen then tells Daniel the real story behind Miyagi-Do Karate: “The Miyagi ancestors fought Japanese invaders. The only way to survive was to kill. So Miyagi instructors came up with special techniques designed to kill their enemies.” Chozen suspects that Mr. Miyagi thought that Daniel was “not ready or able” to learn approaches that seemed to defy Mr. Miyagi's “self-defense” approach.

As they continue to fight, Chozen uses techniques that disable Daniel's arms and legs. In a reference to the end of Karate Kid II, Chozen's attempt at a serious attack against Daniel ends with a “honk” of the nose. He tells Daniel that he has waited a long time to do that. Chozen then drops all pretense of anger and Daniel realizes that it was all a joke, as Chozen adopts a normal demeanor. He then explains to Daniel that these are secret pressure points and agrees to teach him these techniques. He tells Daniel, "If an enemy insists on war, then you take away their ability to wage it."

As they say goodbye, Daniel is utterly amazed at his new perspective of Miyagi-Do Karate, and says he understands why Mr. Miyagi never taught it to him. Chozen praises Mr. Miyagi, says he hopes he will be like him, and becomes overcome with guilt. He says that after their fight, he was suicidal, only rescued by the encouragement of Sato to prove himself and that is what he has been doing ever since. Daniel then says that he forgives him for the events of the past, and Chozen is grateful for it. He then gives Daniel the scroll and Daniel leaves.

At the end of Season three, Daniel saves his own life by using these techniques against a surprise and murderous attack from Kreese.

Commentary

Yuji Okumoto had appeared in the films Real Genius and Better Off Dead before appearing in The Karate Kid Part II as Chozen Toguchi.[1] The experience stayed with him, as he noted that “when you play such an iconic bad guy in a successful film, you kind of keep that memory always with you. You always wonder what happened to this character, where did he go after this all went down, where he lost his honor and all that stuff…I never forgot about Chozen, because he was a big part of my life”[2]

Okumoto received a call in September 2019 asking if he was interested in joining Cobra Kai. While he had hoped that Chozen would be written into the narrative, he was concerned with “how Chozen would be portrayed.”[2] He wanted to make certain that “the character is well-written, well-developed…that they paid deference to the character and his development. So they sent me the script and initially I thought it needed a little work. But I gave a little bit of input and the writers and also the producers, they really did a great job in capturing the essence of Chozen and how he would probably be after 30-odd years.”[3] Toguchi was pleased by the investment of the writers in his perspective on the character, noting that "they actually took the notes and incorporated into developing the character. And they really had a great grasp on the direction, which made my job lot easier."[4] He also thinks that, “Chozen has gone through a lot of soul searching after losing his fight with Daniel. I think that he saw the light, and — this is just my take — I think through the dedication that he put into getting back into martial arts for the right reasons, I think he started to understand what the true meaning of martial arts is, and what the true meaning of honor is.”[2] Okumoto also enjoyed working with Ralph Macchio again, saying that “it’s like reuniting with an old friend… I can’t say enough about how fortunate I was to be brought onto the show and to be reunited with him.”[2] He further stated that, "it felt like we're back on the set of Karate Kid II. Working with Ralph especially, he's just so professional. No ego, you conversate and have a good time, and reminisce about a lot of this stuff. And we talked about, you know, our kids, family stuff. And so it was really a wonderful experience."[5]

After the debut of the third season, Jen Yamato of The Los Angeles Times noted in January 2021 that, “there are now three white men at the center of Cobra Kai, a franchise rooted in and deeply indebted to Eastern tradition.”[6] While she notes that in this season Yuji Okumoto and Tamlyn Tomita reprised their roles from The Karate Kid II, Cobra Kai "has yet to cast an Asian lead."[6] She also quoted Ana-Christina Ramon who argues that "except for the Latino character of Miguel, all the other people of color are outside of that main cast, so it actually doesn’t show as a diverse show in a sense."[6] Yamato further states that Ralph Macchio "pushed" for Tomita and Okumoto’s return, and she quotes one of the show’s writers, Schlossberg, as stating: “Having made Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle we’ve been particularly sensitive to Asian American representation in movies and television.”[6] The writers also note that while there are currently no writers of Asian descent on staff, they have turned to Tomita, Okumoto, the stunt coordinator Hiro Koda, and the original Karate Kid screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen for guidance.[6] Regarding Chozen, Okumoto says that he “wanted him to evolve as a character… [and] didn’t want him just to be there as a person to push the story along. I wanted him to go through a journey, to go through a soul-searching.”[6]

References
  1. "Meet Yuji Okumoto". konakitchen.com. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  2. Baldwin, Kristen (2020-12-18). "Yuji Okumoto on Cobra Kai season 3: 'Chozen has gone through a lot of soul searching'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  3. Talbott, Chris (2021-01-04). "In Netflix's 'Cobra Kai,' Seattle restaurateur Yuji Okumoto reprises a role — and a life — he thought he'd left behind". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  4. Show, GeeandUrsula (2021-01-19). "'Cobra Kai' actor, co-owner of Seattle restaurant on how show became Netflix hit". MyNorthwest. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  5. Riddle, Eric (2021-01-28). "Seattle actor reprises his most famous role for Netflix hit series 'Cobra Kai'". KING-TV. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  6. Yamato, Jen (2021-01-08). "At Netflix, 'Cobra Kai' broke out. Now its whiteness is under a new spotlight". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
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