Japan Karate Association

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The emblem of the JKA

The Japan Karate Association ( JKA ; Japanese 日本 空手 協会 , Nihon karate kyōkai , literally Japanese Karate Association ) is an association for karate in the Shōtōkan style with headquarters in Tokyo and is represented in over 100 countries . It was founded in 1949 and became the first officially recognized karate association in Japan in 1957. From 1964 to 2014, the JKA was in the World Karate Federation nationals, Japan Karate Federation organized.

history

The rise of the JKA

The JKA was founded in 1949 by a group around Nakayama Masatoshi and Funakoshi Gichin became the first head coach (Shusseki Shihan ). The first administrative dōjō of the JKA was built on March 20, 1955 in Yotsuya ( Shinjuku , Tokyo ). In April of the following year, the training began in the premises of the main dojo. At the same time, the JKA set up an instructor program to train karate trainers who would later teach at Japanese universities and abroad.

On April 10, 1957, the JKA was recognized as the first karate association by the Japanese Ministry of Education (since 2001: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology ), which made cooperation with Japanese universities possible in the first place.

Funakoshi died two weeks later, on April 26, 1957. On April 10, 1958, Nakayama was appointed to his successor. Nakayama promoted the incorporation of competitions into karate. The JKA has been organizing the All Japan Karate Championships every year since October 1957 . Since 1975 it has organized international championships every two years: first the IAKF (International Amateur Karate Federation) World Cup and from 1985 the Shoto World Cup Karate Championship Tournament . The 5th national championships in 1961 took place in the presence of Crown Prince Akihito . The JKA had thus achieved high recognition by the imperial family.

In 1964, the JKA and other karate associations founded the Japan Karatedō Federation . In 1975 the JKA left this association, but rejoined in 1981. In 2014 he was expelled from the JKF due to violations in the application for funding.

After the Nakayama era

On April 15, 1987, Nakayama Masatoshi died and the JKA began to fall apart. Famous trainers such as Kase Taiji , Shirai Hiroshi , Kawasoe Masao , Yahara Mikio , Abe Keigo and Asai Tetsuhiko gradually separated from the JKA and founded their own organizations.

On April 1, 1991 Sugiura Motokuni was the head coach of the JKA. For ten years (1990–1999) there was a trial against the Asai faction, which had split off from the JKA, over the rights to use the name JKA. In the second instance, the group around Shihan Sugiura finally won. Well-known masters such as Tsuyama Katsunori , Enoeda Keinosuke , Ochi Hideo , Tanaka Masahiko , Ueki Masaaki , Osaka Yoshiharu , Iida Norihiko , Aoki Osamu and Kawawada Minoru belong to this group. Asai was forced to rename his organization to Nihon Karate Shōtōkai .

Since 2001 the JKA has had a new headquarters in Bunkyō in the center of Tokyo.

Principles

According to its statutes, the goals of the JKA are “study and teaching of karate”, “spread karate” in Japan and the world, “improve public health and maintain healthy sportsmanship”. This mission idea was the basis for the instructor program initiated in 1956.

While the JKA initially wanted to be an organization for all (Japanese) karate styles, after its re-entry into the Japan Karatedō Federation it limited itself to Shōtōkan karate in the Funakoshi tradition.

Funakoshi rejected all kinds of competitions. Nakayama also attached great importance to the original values ​​of karate, but at the same time developed competitive karate as a component of karate. The JKA differs significantly from other associations in the philosophy and rules of its competitions.

  • "There is no karate as a sport, only karate as a martial art." ( ス ポ ー ツ 空手 で は な く 、 武 道 空手 で あ る。 )
  • "It is not stopped shortly before the goal, but goes to the end." ( 寸 止 め 空手 で は な く 、 極 め の 空手 で あ る。 )
  • "There are competitions, not games." ( 試 合 は 行 う が 、 競技 は 行 わ な い。 )
  • "Karate as a martial art knows no protective clothing and no weight classes." ( 武 道 空手 で あ る の で 、 組 手 で で は 、 防具 等 は 使用 使用 し な い。 体重 無差別 で あ る。 )

The Budō idea is expressed primarily in the ippon shōbu system ( 一 本 勝負 , sudden death ) in Kumite : The fight is not based on points, but rather the first point ( ippon ) or two half points ( 技 あ り , wazaari ) jump the fight. This was a major reason for replacing the IAKF World Cup with the Shoto World Cup in 1985 .

Even in competition, strong and correct techniques should always be in the foreground, not acrobatics or entertainment value for the audience. Therefore, the JKA does not seek recognition of karate as an Olympic discipline. The JKA represents a contact karate, but not a full contact karate, which means that no techniques are evaluated whose end point is too far away from the opponent or which injure him.

These principles set the JKA apart from its umbrella organization, the Japan Karatedō Federation. There, competitions in the Kumite are divided into weight classes and based on 8 victory points.

The JKA instructor program

Funakoshi had already made it his mission to spread the techniques and spirit of karate in the world. In order to achieve this, the JKA founded an instructor training program in 1956 in the newly built main dōjō in Tokyo. The training there lasted three years; afterwards the graduates began teaching as full-time instructors at Japanese universities and in other countries. Numerous national organizations in the tradition of the JKA quickly emerged. The German Karate Federation was, for example, in 1967 the JKA instructor Hirokazu Kanazawa directed and 1970 by Ochi Hideo taken that to date (as of 2014) Chief Instructor of the German JKA Karate Federal is.

Spin-offs from JKA

  • In 1977 JKA instructor Hirokazu Kanazawa founded his own organization, the Shotokan Karate-Do International Federation (SKIF) .
  • After Nakayama's death in 1987, Kase Taiji and Shirai Hiroshi, the representatives of the JKA in Europe, left the organization and founded the World Karate-Do Shotokan Academy .
  • Okuda Taketo , the JKA Chief Instructor in Brazil, ended his engagement in 1987 in order to concentrate fully on his own organization, Butoku-kan.
  • Asai's group left the JKA and founded other organizations after the lost legal battle over the naming rights: Japan Karate Shotorenmei , the Japan Shotokan Karate Association and the Karatenomichi World Federation .
  • In 2007 the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) became independent. This US-based organization was led by Okazaki Teruyuki , one of the leading JKA instructors.

Because of these many splinter groups, there is now the term JKA karate, that is, a karate that largely follows the tradition of the JKA but is taught by masters who are not officially part of the JKA.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Expulsion of the Japan Karate Association ( Memento of the original from July 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of July 17, 2014)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jkf.ne.jp
  2. ↑ a b JKA - The Early Years (1949-1957) ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of October 6, 2008)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jka.or.jp
  3. ↑ a b c d e f JKA - Growth & Development (1957-1989) ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of October 6, 2008)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jka.or.jp
  4. ↑ JKA - Overcoming Challenges (1990-1999) ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of October 6, 2008)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jka.or.jp
  5. ↑ JKA - HQ Dojo ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of October 6, 2008)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jka.or.jp

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