Kenkojuku student of Gichin Funakoshi. He was a member of Funakoshi's karate association the Dai Nihon Karate-do Shotokai. In 1942, Okano was given permission to start a karate research club named Kenkokai Karate-bu in his hometown of Hachiōji, Tokyo. The club was started with the help of Suzuki Shinjo, Kaneko Isamu and Takagi Yoshitomo. He renamed the dojo Kenkojuku Budokan in 1948. Okano's karate was influenced by both Gichin and Gigo Funakoshi, and eventually this branch of Shotokan became known as Kenkojuku Shotokan. He retained the Shotokai lineage as well as the name Shotokan. Okano was on the panel of Masters
Ryu Hayabusa movie. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked the "particularly brutal good guy" 26th in their hundred "most memorable, influential, and badass" gaming protagonists. IGN held an online poll in 2008 asking readers whether Ryu or fellow ninja Joe Musashi (from Sega's "Shinobi" series) would win in a "Hero Showdown"; Ryu received a decisive 82% of the votes. Readers of the Japanese magazine "Famitsu" voted Ryu 43rd in a 2010 poll deciding the best video game character of all time. Ryu is additionally esteemed as an iconic video-game ninja character by gaming media such as TechCrunch, "Unreality", "PC World" (who added that Ryu