Hajime Kazumi

Hajime Kazumi (数見 肇)

In the same year, he participated in the 25th All Japan Championship as a seed player for "Number 1".

Again, Kazumi reached the finals and final match was against Yoshihiro Tamura, the same opponent whom he lost to last year.

The fight was intense and dragged on, requiring two extensions.

Kazumi would be declared the winner by 5–0 decision and achieved his first victory at the youngest age of 21 in history.

In addition, he became the last champion to win the championship cup when Mas Oyama was still alive.

(born December 14, 1971) is a Japanese karateka.

Born in Kanagawa prefecture, Kazumi is a karate fighter who played an active part in the full-contact karate tournaments hosted by Kyokushinkaikan from the early 1990s to the early 2000s.

He started Kyokushin karate at age of fifteen and at age twenty Kazumi defeated many top fighters to reach the finals of the 24th All Japan Championship in 1992.

Since then Kazumi has never finished outside of the top two places in any tournament.

His effective punching and kicking combinations helped him reach the finals of six All Japan Tournaments in a row, winning four of these to break Keiji Senpai's record.

He also reached the finals of two World Open Tournaments where he lost to Francisco Filho on boards and Kenji Yamaki, training partner and fellow student of Tsuyoshi Hiroshige's Jonan Branch.

Kazumi is recognized as one of Kyokushin Karate's most successful full-contact fighters.

He is currently director of Hajime Kazumi Dojo, where he works as an instructor of karate fighting techniques.

Kazumi currently holds 6th dan black belt.

Born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.

He had aspirations to become strong and as soon as he began elementary school, his father, who was also a Karate practitioner, pressured him to join the Kyokushin Kaikan General Headquarters Dojo.

However, in the second grade of elementary school, he decided to quit Kyokushin.

His sport interests then laid in soccer and sumo, but at the age of 13, he became interested in Kyokushin again after reading the manga Karate Baka Ichidai.

In particular, he admired the scene of special training in the mountains and wanted to try it out himself.

At that time, Shokei Matsui was instructing at the General Headquarters.

While Matsui cautioned Kazumi to reconsidered, he also told Kazumi that if he invested in the art, Kazumi would be rewarded by it.

After entering high school, he transferred to the Tokyo Jonan Kawasaki branch near his home and studied under Tsuyoshi Hiroshige.

His seniors in Kyokushin included Kenji Midori, Sadao Sakai, Kenji Yamaki, Masahiro Kaneko, and Tatsuya Iwasaki.

In particular, having a large senior like Yamaki train him made Kazumi very confident in himself.

Kazumi, who participated in the first high school tournament at the age of 17, was runner-up.

Around this time, he was doing kumite, such as jumping knee kicks and jumping backward kicks.

In 1992, Kazumi's first entry in a Karate tournament was participating in the 24th Open Tournament All Japan Karate Championships.

At the time, Kazumi's only accolade was winning FTV Cup Tohoku Tournament in the same year, but was otherwise deemed as a unremarkable participant.

He fought and won against also fresh Akira Masuda in the third round on the second day.

Kazumi gained momentum and defeated other successive open tournament World Open Karate Championship representatives.

He beat Hiroyuki Miake in the 4th round.

After defeating Yutaka Ishii in the quarterfinals and Yasuhiro Shichino in the semifinals, Kazumi advanced to the finals.

Although he lost to Yoshihiro Tamura in the final match, he won second place in his first appearance and was named the break-out sportsman of the event.

Kyokushin founder Mas Oyama praised Kazumi's performance, quote "To think [Kazumi] is still in his 20s and yet is so strong? I'm looking forward to [his] future."

In 1993, he participated in the 1st Open Tournament All Kanto Karatedo Championships, and won two of the five tournament games with a left middle mawashi geri and a left lower mawashi geri.

In the 26th All Japan Championship of 1994, his final match was against Kenji Yamaki, his Kyokushin senior.

Kazumi lost the match by decision and ended up as the runner-up.

He was elected as the representative of the World Championship the following year.

In the 6th World Championship of 1995, he successfully won from the D block, and in the 4th round, he took the judgment victory from Norihisa Horiike of the Hyogo branch and won against Brazilian Glaube Feitosa in the quarterfinals.