Hidetaka Nishiyama

Hidetaka Nishiyama (西山 英峻) was a prominent Japanese master of Shotokan karate.

He was an internationally recognized instructor, author, and administrator, and helped to establish the Japan Karate Association.

Nishiyama was one of the last surviving students of Gichin Funakoshi, founder of Shotokan karate.

His interest in karate had been sparked by two things: an old book written by a sword master (Nishiyama estimated the book to have been written around 1550), and Zoku Sugata Sanshiro (1945), a film by Akira Kurosawa.

He recalled that training in the honbu dojo was around 80% kata (patterns) and 20% kihon (basics), and that Funakoshi and his son, Gigō Funakoshi, would divide the teaching load evenly between them.

Nishiyama served in the Imperial Japanese Navy before the end of World War II, and was unable to continue his karate training during this brief period.

Nishiyama was born on October 10, 1928, in Tokyo, Japan.

His father was a lawyer and a kendo master, and he had two sisters, Sumiye and Michiko.

During Nishiyama's childhood, karate was mostly unknown in Japan, and children were required to train in either judo or kendo in middle school.

He started learning kendo in 1933 and judo in 1938.

Recalling the beginning of his martial arts training, Nishiyama said, "I began, as is the custom in Japan, on the 5th day of the fifth month at the age of five. I started in kendo."

His kendo instructor, Moorio Mochida, had a strong and lasting influence on the youth's development in the martial arts.

By the time Nishiyama reached 14 years of age, he had attained black belt status in judo.

In 1943, Nishiyama was promoted to the rank of 1st dan in kendo (and would eventually reach 3rd dan in that art), and began training in Shotokan karate at the art's honbu dojo (headquarters training hall) under its founder, Gichin Funakoshi.

In 1946, he was promoted to the rank of 1st dan in karate, and in 1948, he was promoted to 2nd dan.

With the war over, he was able to begin studying at university.

While enrolled at Takushoku University, Nishiyama became a member of the university's karate team, and in 1949 he was named team captain.

That same year, he helped to establish the Japan Karate Association (JKA).

He also co-founded the All Japan Collegiate Karate Union, and was elected its first chairman.

In 1950, Funakoshi promoted him to 3rd dan in karate.

He was appointed to take charge of the JKA instructors' training program, and continued to oversee it until the late 1950s.

Recalling notable graduates of the course, he said, "There were many but I think Mr. Kanazawa was exceptional, even though he left the JKA. There were many very good people, like Mr. Enoeda, Shirai, Mikami and many others as well."

Nishiyama received a Master of Arts degree in economics from Takushoku University in 1951.

That year, he was appointed to the JKA's Board of Directors.

He began working for Shell Oil, but his JKA role soon became his full-time occupation.

In 1952, Nishiyama began teaching karate to US military personnel from the Strategic Air Command (SAC).

The other karate instructors for this program included Masatoshi Nakayama and Isao Obata.

The following year, United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay invited several instructors, including Nishiyama, to tour US air bases on the North American mainland.

In 1960, Nishiyama published his first book, Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting (co-authored with Richard Brown).

In June 1960, Nishiyama was promoted to the rank of 5th dan in Shotokan karate.

He was based in the United States of America from 1961 until his death in 2008, and was a pioneer of karate in that country.

In July 1961, Nishiyama moved to the United States of America at the invitation of his students from the SAC, and founded the All American Karate Federation (AAKF).

It was around this time that Tsutomu Ohshima invited Nishiyama to take charge of his karate students in the US, as Ohshima was planning to return to Japan following completion of his US university studies.

The arrangement did not work out satisfactorily, and was to be a source of bitterness between the two men.

Four years later, in 1965, Nishiyama organized the first United States vs. Japan Goodwill Karate Tournament.

He wrote a long letter on the state of karate tournaments, published in 1967 by Black Belt magazine.

In that letter, he warned of the dangers of unqualified competitors and officials.

In 1968, he organized the first World Invitational Karate Tournament, held at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

This work has been recognized as a seminal textbook on karate; the cover of a 1990 reprint noted that over 300,000 copies had been sold.

He had been posthumously awarded the rank of 10th dan in karate.