One of the world’s most renowned and respected traditional karate masters alive Kanazawa Shihan, 10th Dan. He won the notorious ‘All Japan karate Championship’ Kumite championship in 1957 and in 1958 won the Kata and Kumite Titles. On one occasion winning the finals whilst nursing a broken wrist from an earlier event. 

Although trained in Judo in his early years, Kanazawa took up karate whilst at University under the late headmaster of the shotokan style Matsatoshi Nakayama (10th Dan). Kanazawa is also one of the few remaining karateka privileged to have studied under Master Gichin Funakoshi, the famous Okinawin schoolteacher who brought karate to mainland Japan from Okinawa and founded the Shotokan style.

Breaking away from the JKA (Japan Karate Association) in 1973, Kanazawa set up SKIF (Shotokan Karatedo International Federation). SKIF is now the world’s largest Shotokan association, having over 2 ½ million members in over 100 countries.