Japanese Karate and Shotokan Pioneers: In Memoriam
The Japan Karate Association’s instructor course sent a generation of Shotokan teachers abroad, while Goju-kai and Kyokushin built international organizations of their own. These profiles follow the founders of Japanese karate and the instructors they sent around the world.
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The profiles
Masatoshi Nakayama
1913 – 1987
Japanese Shotokan karate master and chief instructor of the Japan Karate Association from 1949 to 1987.
Hidetaka Nishiyama
1928 – 2008
Japanese Shotokan karate master who moved to Los Angeles in 1961 and founded the AAKF and the ITKF.
Teruyuki Okazaki
1931 – 2020
Japanese Shotokan karate master who founded the International Shotokan Karate Federation in Philadelphia.
Keinosuke Enoeda
1935 – 2003
Japanese Shotokan karate master who led the Karate Union of Great Britain from 1965 to 2003.
Hiroshi Shirai
1937 – 2024
JKA Shotokan master who won both kata and kumite at the 1962 All Japan Championships and spent six decades building Shotokan karate in Italy and Europe.
Gogen Yamaguchi
1909 – 1989
Japanese karate master who founded the Goju-kai school of Goju-ryu karate.
Mas Oyama
1923 – 1994
Korean-born Japanese karate master who founded Kyokushin karate and the International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan in 1964.
Takayuki Kubota
1934 – 2024
Founder of Gosoku-Ryu karate and the International Karate Association, and inventor of the Kubotan, developed for female LAPD officers and trademarked in 1978.
Every profile in this section follows the In Memoriam research standard: deaths confirmed before anything is written, every claim sourced, conflicts between sources printed, and promotional claims labelled as such.