Hidetaka Nishiyama 9th Dan ITKF

Hidetaka Nishiyama 9th Dan Chairman and Chief Instructor to the ITKF lost his battle with illness on November 7th 2008. “Mr Nishiyama passed away peacefully following his struggle with cancer”, a family spokesperson said.

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In this edition of SKM we pay tribute to one of Shotokan’s true ‘legends’. ITKF acting chairman, Mr Rick Jorgensen writes: “Nishiyama sensei’s vision was very broad. It included people of all ages and all styles of karate. Sensei Nishiyama strongly held the belief that the Martial Art of Traditional Karate was a path of self development. School children, adults and seniors can use principles of Traditional Karate to achieve their highest potential through the human development of mind, body and spirit. In the last years of his life, he created a system of training these Budo principles for the use in all styles of karate. He believed that creation of a universal system for self development through Budo training was his greatest achievement. He left the ITKF with that treasure of knowledge.”

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Born in Tokyo, Japan, on October 10 1928, Mr Nishiyama had a long history of Martial Arts training beginning at a very early age. He began training in Kendo under the instruction of his father, an accomplished Kendo master, at the age of 5. At the age of 10 he began his training in Judo and in 1943 he joined the Shotokan Karate dojo where he achieved his first degree black belt in 1946 under Master Gichin Funakoshi. He was named captain of the Takushoku University Karate Team and was co-founder of the All Japan Collegiate Karate Federation. He received a Master of Arts degree in economics from Takushoku University and in 1951 he co-founded the Japan Karate Association and was elected to its Board of Directors and was also instrumental in developing the first JKA Instructors’ Course Programme, as well as helping to devise the first rules for competition karate, both kumite and kata. In 1960 he published his first book: Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting. Today, this book still remains one of the foremost authoritative writings on the Martial Art of Traditional Karate.

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As part of the tribute we have a quite recent interview with Nishiyama sensei and also, interestingly, an in-depth article explaining in detail Nishiyama sensei’s approach and ideas whilst teaching a seminar in Edinburgh, Scotland. The reporter, Tom Ristimaki who speaks Japanese and translated for Nishiyama sensei throughout the course had the privilege of accompanying Nishiyama on each class that he taught, thereby getting first hand information and insight into Nishiyama’s karate. Tom gives a very accurate description of what he (Nishiyama) was trying to convey with his karate and in fact the legacy which he leaves behind. Nishiyama sensei was one of only a handful of karateka who actually trained under Shotokan’s founder, master Gichin Funakoshi and as such was a massive contributor to the history of Shotokan karate-do. A great loss.