Kanazawa Hirokazu
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Kanazawa Hirokazu (金澤弘和, b 1931) is a world renowned shotokan karate instructor.
He is currently the Chief instructor and President of Shotokan Karate-do International Federation, an organization he himself founded after he left the Japan Karate Association (JKA). Kanazawa is one of the few masters to have achieved 10th Dan (the highest rank that can be awarded to a Shotokan karateka) and is also the only living person holding that rank.
Kanazawa won the very first ‘All Japan karate Championship’ Kumite championship in 1957. He had registered in the kumite competition with a broken hand from a prior event, but not wanting to disappoint his mother who had traveled from far away to watch him compete, he fought anyway and won the title. The following year, Kanazawa won the Kata title and shared the Kumite title with Takayuki Mikami in one of the most spectacular moments in Shotokan tournament history. Mikami and Kanazawa had been classmates and roommates for the entirety of their karate careers, but had never fought the previous year because Mikami was away teaching in the Philippines for two years. When they fought one another in the final round, very few techniques were thrown, they knew each other too well. They circled searching for openings until time was up. For that reason, it was decided that both instructors were All Japan Kumite Champions for 1958.
[edit] History
Although trained in judo in his early years, Kanazawa began training in karate whilst at Takushoku University under the late headmaster of the Shotokan Nakayama Masatoshi. Kanazawa is also one of the few remaining karateka privileged to have studied under Funakoshi Gichin, the famous Okinawin schoolteacher who brought karate to mainland Japan and founded the Shotokan style. Kanazawa also was among the first to graduate from JKA's instructor training program (before JKA fragmented and Kanazawa went on to form his own organization. Some of his other famous classmates in the instructor training program include: Takayuki Mikami, Teruyuki Okazaki and Takaura Eiji.
