A karate for everybody

As a 11-year-old he saw a poster of Maso Yama, the founder of Kyokushinkai — the most influential style of karate — knocking down a full grown bull and breaking rock with his bare hands.

As a 11-year-old he saw a poster of Maso Yama, the founder of Kyokushinkai — the most influential style of karate — knocking down a full grown bull and breaking rock with his bare hands.

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“This is power,” he thought. Fifty-six years later he still remembers the poster as the pivot which turned him to karate.

Meet 67-year-old ninth degree black belt holder and legendary founder of Seido Karate: Grand Master Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura. Nakamura is presently in the Capital to train members of the Indian chapter of Seido Karate, which is spread in 26 countries, with over 50,000 students.

“I went to meet Master Masutatsu Oyama to see him with my own eyes. I will never forget the moment I met him.”

Thus began a life long passion. For the next 22 years, Nakamura trained in Karate under Maso Yama.

He was a dedicated student. “I became the youngest black belt in Japan in Kyokushinkai at 16.”

But Nakamura wanted something else. He met the president of the company and told him he wanted to “see the world and teach karate.” The president told him that they would keep his position for two years.

Nakamura never returned.

The ‘Right Karate’

Though his parents were unhappy, he left for the US where he became the first overseas karate instructor in the US.

Over the years he taught and spread Kyokushinkai over the world.

But he felt something was missing in traditional Kyokushinkai, he says.

“New students had to fight without safety … we could not change rules. My instructors were full of ego and one kept hearing of injuries.”

Kyokushinkai, he felt, was a system that fighters to be strong, “to damage the opponent, cause much injury.” But, he says, the human spirit is not to damage but to help each other.

“The Japanese embassy wanted me to train a person who could not move his arm. I had never taught handicapped people. My mind froze.”

It was a moment of epiphany.

“I then felt Karate should be open for people of any age, regardless of physical condition. That's how it would be right karate.”

That was the beginning of Seido (the 'Sincere way') Karate in 1976, with the three founding principles respect, love and obedience.

The idea of Seido is to make a karate student not just physically tough but also give him or her a strong spiritual basis with more compassion and a balance between physical, mental and spiritual strength.

“I wanted to change the image of karate. It is not just kicks and punches,” he says. “We fight with full safety precautions wearing gloves, head gear, mouth piece. Hitting the lower body and deliberate impacts are not allowed.”

The Seido Karate Benefit Foundation supports the visually and hearing challenged and the learning disabled and teaches them Karate.

“We teach Zen meditation and sitting still and watching each moment to moment with proper breathing,” says Nakamura.

“We are a 21-year-old organisation with four branches, at present only in Delhi,” said Shaurya Shandilya, Secretary, Seido Karate Foundation (India).