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Master Hirokazu Kanazawa was born in 1931 in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. As a young man, he witnessed an Okinawan neighbour, not known as a martial artist, subdue in seconds a burly judo fifth dan who was trying to restrain him. He vowed on the spot to study this remarkable art that had impressed him so much, and thus began the karate career of Hirokazu Kanazawa, twice All Japan kata and kumite champion, senior International instructor and one of the greatest teachers of karate that the post war world has seen.
Enrolled by his parents in a university in Tokyo to study the family business of fishery, he transferred without telling them to Takushoku University as theirs was the karate club that he wanted to join. To maintain the subterfuge, he continued to wear the uniform of his original college on his visits home. The first that his parents knew of the change in their son’s life, was when they read of his prowess at karate in a newspaper article.
At Takushoku University, the karate class was always oversubscribed. Students overflowed into the courtyard and practice in the dojo was often dangerous as over one hundred students kicked and punched with full power but less than total accuracy. In desperation, the organisers decided to reduce the numbers by making all students run to a local temple before every training session, dropping the last two to return from the club register. As the numbers dropped, so the fitness of the remaining students improved dramatically!
As a new student life in the dojo was very hard. Nobody would dare mention how cold it was during the harsh Japanese winter for fear of being told to “practice until you warm up”, a euphemism for training until you dropped. Being new to karate, he had to train harder than the other students to catch up. And so, for five or six hours every day, including a session from twelve midnight to 2am, the youthful Kanazawa forced himself towards his first black belt, which he attained after eighteen months at the age of twenty.
Graduation day was approaching as his university career came to its natural conclusion. Kanazawa had already been offered a good job with a company in Tokyo, and was looking forward to life in a successful business undertaking, as were so many of his contemporaries. Here fate played a hand in his future, for from no lesser person than Nakayama Sensei, chief instructor of the Japan Karate Association, came the offer of a position with his world renowned instructors class. All commercial aspirations abandoned, Kanazawa entered the JKA and applied himself to the training with a fury that would have done credit to the vandals that sacked ancient Rome.
As his technique improved, so he was encouraged to train harder and harder, the better he became the greater the incentive to improve. So year in year out, through diligent training, he forged the technique, dedication and fighting spirit for which he would soon become famous and which would make him a legend in his own lifetime. This improvement did not go unnoticed by his seniors. Kanazawa shone as a star amongst a class of star instructors all of whom would go on to become household names in later years in the countries to which they were assigned as chief instructors. All the seniors were agreed, this would be the man that they would train for the forthcoming, first All Japan Championship; the man to represent the JKA. The man they could not allow to fail.
As the decision of the seniors became public, Kanazawa was a marked man, a target for any young karate hopeful who wanted to make a name for himself by beating the star fighter of the JKA. Many tried but none succeeded. Thus in an atmosphere of intense speculation, he remained the favourite to win the coveted title and stepped up his training with only one thought in mind; the championship that he had to win at all costs. Many thought that the event would become a bloodbath as a result of the fanatical rivalry between schools, all realised the need for stringent refereeing and strict discipline. With four days to go, training was increased yet again to bring him to his peak.
During one of the full power battles that typified this last stage of his preparation, he realised that all was not well, his arm was troubling him, a pain just above the right wrist was spoiling his concentration. The doctor’s verdict shook him, the arm was broken, there was no possibility of his fighting, favourite or not he would have to wait until next year for his chance at the championship. He returned to the JKA, the plaster cast on his right arm told the whole story, he could not fight, it would be too dangerous, he would try again next year. The words of the doctor rang in his ears like the peals of a giant bell as he made his lonely way back to the tiny Tokyo apartment that he called home.
There to his amazement waited his mother. She had made the long journey from the family home in lwate Prefecture to see her son fight in the first All Japan Championship. How could he tell her now, after her long journey that he would not be competing. Seeing his right arm in plaster, and sensing the heaviness of her son’s heart, she waited, saying nothing. “Mother” said Kanazawa, “the doctor has told me not to fight because my arm is broken”. With the dignity inherited from her samurai forebears she replied.
“Tell me my son, do you practice karate with only one arm?”
“No mother, with the whole body.” “Then my son, you will fight!”
The day of the championship arrived, the stadium was packed with people, alone in the audience sat Kanazawa’s mother, anxiously waiting to see her son compete. With no thought of winning he fought each opponent with great courage and skill. He recalls that their attacks although fierce and well timed, seemed to come at him in slow motion. He reached the quarter finals, then the finals, suddenly to his great surprise he was being acclaimed by the audience as the first All Japan Karate Champion. In the crowd the old lady smiled to herself, she was proud of her son, and his triumph over hardship and pain, he was a good son she reminded herself.
The following year, this time at the peak of fitness he again won both the kata and kumite championships, but this time it was harder, with his title to defend. The attacks of his opponents came at him like bolts of lightning, he resolved to train even harder for the next championships. 1959 saw him lose the title as a result of a technical decision, but he was awarded a special prize for fighting spirit that had been reserved for the first competitor to win the championship in three consecutive years. A fitting reward for a man maturing from a first class championship fighter, into a teacher who would in years to come, set the standard for technique and performance of kata in the many countries that he visited as chief international instructor for the JKA.
Many instructors, having reached this elevated position at such a young age, would have rested on their laurels and enjoyed the accolades of their followers and colleagues. Not so Kanazawa, he trained still harder every day, incorporating the Chinese art of Tai Chi into his schedule under the tutelage of Mr. Yang.
A modest and immensely likeable man, Master Kanazawa lives in Tokyo with his wife and three sons, and continues to travel for six months of the year to teach students in thirty eight countries.
Shotokan Karate-Dō Upper Harbour Dojo 