Hidetaka Nishiyama, 1928–2008: The Man Who Brought the JKA to America
Hidetaka Nishiyama was one of the founders of the Japan Karate Association, and in 1961 he moved to Los Angeles to build it in America. He co-wrote the karate textbook that taught a generation of Americans, founded the national and international bodies that ran traditional karate competition, and spent decades fighting over who should govern the sport. He died in Los Angeles on 7 November 2008, aged 80.
- Full name
- Hidetaka Nishiyama
- Born
- 10 October 1928, Tokyo, Japan
- Died
- 7 November 2008, Los Angeles, California, aged 80
- Art
- Shotokan karate; “traditional karate”
- Trained under
- Gichin Funakoshi, Yoshitaka Funakoshi, Masatoshi Nakayama and others, from 1943
- Founded
- All American Karate Federation (AAKF), 1961; later the International Amateur Karate Federation, renamed the International Traditional Karate Federation (ITKF) in 1985
- Book
- Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting (1960, with Richard C. Brown)
- Notable students
- Including Hiroshi Shirai, James Yabe and the actor John Saxon
Takushoku and the JKA
Nishiyama began training in Tokyo in 1943 under Gichin Funakoshi, and at Takushoku University he captained the karate team. He was among the senior students who founded the Japan Karate Association; Wikipedia dates its founding, and his part in it, to 1949, while his own federation’s history gives 1951. In the early 1950s, by his federation’s account, he taught on an instruction tour for U.S. Strategic Air Command personnel visiting Japan, one of the first contacts between JKA karate and the American military.
The book
In 1960 Nishiyama and Richard C. Brown published Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting. For many Americans in the 1960s and 1970s it was the first serious karate book they owned. Wikipedia reports sales of more than 300,000 copies; his own federation calls it the best-selling karate textbook in history, a claim we have not been able to check.
Los Angeles, 1961
In 1961 Nishiyama moved to Los Angeles, opened a dojo, and in the same year founded the All American Karate Federation and ran its first national championship. From there he built outward: a U.S.–Japan goodwill tournament in 1965, a world invitational in 1968, membership of the U.S. Olympic Committee for the AAKF in 1970, the Pan American Karate Union in 1973, and in 1975 the first world championship of the International Amateur Karate Federation, held in Los Angeles. The IAKF became the International Traditional Karate Federation in 1985.
Nishiyama’s federations stood for “traditional karate,” competition judged on the decisive, fully committed technique, and they placed him in a long contest with the World Union of Karate-do Organizations over which body should represent karate internationally. The ITKF says the International Olympic Committee confirmed it as the governing body for traditional karate in 1987; that claim is the federation’s own. Contemporary reporting in Black Belt described the dispute as one reason Olympic recognition of karate stalled.
Death
Nishiyama died in Los Angeles on 7 November 2008, aged 80, of lung cancer following a long illness, according to The Times of London. He was survived by his wife, Yohko, and three daughters. His federation says he had declined a tenth-degree rank in life; it conferred one after his death, in October 2009.
What a school owner should take from Hidetaka Nishiyama
Nishiyama understood that a single school is a business, but a federation is an industry. He did not stop at a dojo in Los Angeles; he built the tournaments, the rules and the governing bodies that gave hundreds of other schools a reason to affiliate.
He also shows the value of writing the standard text. A book that becomes the reference in its field brings students to the author for decades.
And his long fight over international recognition is a warning. Governance disputes consume years, and the students and schools caught between rival bodies pay for them.
Quick answers
- Who was Hidetaka Nishiyama?
- Hidetaka Nishiyama (1928–2008) was a Japanese Shotokan karate master, a founder of the Japan Karate Association, who moved to Los Angeles in 1961 and founded the All American Karate Federation and the International Traditional Karate Federation.
- What book did Hidetaka Nishiyama write?
- Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting (1960), with Richard C. Brown, one of the most widely read karate books in English.
- What is traditional karate?
- The term Nishiyama’s federations used for karate competition judged on single, decisive, fully committed techniques, as distinct from the point-sparring rules of other bodies.
- When did Hidetaka Nishiyama die?
- He died in Los Angeles on 7 November 2008, aged 80.
Sources, and what we could not confirm
Sources: the English Wikipedia biography of Nishiyama and the sources it cites, including The Times obituary of 22 November 2008 and Black Belt, for his life, students, book sales, cause of death and survivors; and the ITKF’s own history of its founder (labelled promotional) for his organizations, tournaments and ranks.
Conflicts printed rather than smoothed over. The JKA’s founding, and his role in it, is dated 1949 by Wikipedia and 1951 by the ITKF. Wikipedia gives his age at death as 79; his dates make him 80, as the ITKF says. Wikipedia reports a tenth-degree rank awarded by another body in 2003; the ITKF says he refused tenth degree in life.
Promotional claims. The “best-selling karate textbook in history” and the 1987 IOC confirmation come from the ITKF. We could not load The Times obituary directly and rely on its citation for the cause of death and survivors.
Corrections. See our editorial policy. If you trained under Nishiyama, we want to hear from you.