Ashihara, Hideyuki (1944 - 1995)

Hideyuki Ashihara (Ashiwara), the founder of Ashihara Fighting Karate, was born on December 5, 1944, in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Since opening his first karate school in Yawatahama, a small seaside village in Ehime Prefecture, in 1965, he has devoted himself to the pursuit of the most rational, logical karate techniques.

As a Shihan in Kyokushin Karate, his ability to avoid an attack by moving to the opponent's back or blind side made him one of the most sought after teachers. This combination of defense and offense into one which he would later dub Sabaki is demonstrated by him in the movie "The Strongest Karate," which was made in 1976, as well as "The Godhand," the documentary about the 2nd World Championships. In 1977, his student Takao Nakayama came in second in the All Japan Championships. A year later, Joko Ninomiya, who placed third in the 1st World Championships, won the 10th All Japan. This established Ashihara even more and gave further rise to the development of Sabaki. In 1979, prior to the 2nd World Championships, he left the Kyokushinkai (or according to Kyokushin, he was expelled).

In 1980, he founded the New International Karate Organisation - Ashihara School of which, until his untimely passing on 24 April 1995, he was the Kancho (Headmaster). This school, at the time, grew into one of Japan's largest with member dojos spread throughout the world. His karate has been acclaimed as the most practical. He has taught at a Japanese Police Academy and developed some Japanese karate champions.

Reproduced with permission of Hoosain Narker Shihan, Ashihara Karate International from his website: http://ftp.iafrica.com/a/as/ashihara (Edited for punctuation and clarity)