“A JKA Master with some of the greatest kicks ever”. Share please

Teruyuki Okazaki 1931 –

“A JKA Master with some of the greatest kicks ever”.

Teruyuki Okazaki a tenth degree black belt in Shotokan Karate, is the founder, chairman and chief instructor of the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF). Along with Gichin Funakoshi, Hidetaka Nishiyama and Masatoshi Nakayama, Okazaki helped found the Japan Karate Association's instructor training program.

As a young man, he grew up studying judo, kendo, and aikido. In 1948, at the age of sixteen, he entered Takushoku University. It was here that Okazaki began his karate training. Teruyuki Okazaki studied primarily under Gichin Funakoshi (Shotokan's founder) as well as Masatoshi Nakayama. In 1953, Okazaki graduated and was immediately appointed coach of the Takushoku team. Later that year, it was decided that Okazaki would be trained as a "test case" for the still formulating JKA Instructor Trainee Program. In 1955, he was appointed head of the program, which produced some of modern Shotokan's most integral leaders. Takayuki Mikami, Eiji Takaura, and Hirokazu Kanazawa were among the first graduates from this program.

As part of an effort by Nakayama to spread the practice of Shotokan karate internationally, Okazaki came to the United States in 1961, originally planning to stay only six months, but has since opened a dojo in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and settled there permanently. In 1977, Okazaki founded the International Shotokan Karate Federation.

His decision to leave the JKA completely in 2007 came following Okazaki's concern that the JKA had not been conducting itself in the manner appropriate to the teachings of Master Gichin Funakoshi.

At the Canadian National ISKF Championships in Toronto, Canada in October 2007, the ISKF technical committee announced Okazaki's promotion to 10th dan, the highest ranking karate master in the ISKF, and among only a couple others internationally at the time.