Karate in Europe its Roots?

Damo W

ShaneT wrote:

Blumings comment refers to all standup fighters. Remember, he's been around for as long has Karate has been in Europe. He brought it here.

Hi Shane,

I’m not having a go but I don't think he was the first to bring ‘karate’ to Europe, he is one of the first pioneers and introduced Oyama’s style and his intrepertation of it. [Please correct me if I've got that wrong]

Just some bits and pieces of interest below…. Sometimes these guys get forgotten.

Henri Plee (France)

1954, Henri Plee establishes Le Karaté Club de France. This is the first karate club in France. Plee simultaneously organizes the Fédération Francaise de Boxe Libre et de Karaté in Paris. While techniques originally came from savate and le boxe française, they became more Japanese after Ohshima Tsutomu of the Shotokan system visited Paris in 1962.

I guess that club was the first in Europe as well. Murakami founded a Shotokan dojo there three years later. Juergen Seydel introduced Karate in Germany in 1957.

There might habe been some demonstrations before, as Judo and Jujutsu was already quite popular.

Vernon Bell (UK)

By the early 1950's he began to train in Karate at the Headquarters of the Federation Francaise de Karate, in Paris, under the watchful eye of Master Mochizuki Minoru and obtained his shodan in 1957.
Having established the British Karate Federation, he then affiliated the B.K.F. to the Yoseikan Hombu in Shizuoka Japan in the same year.

As a pioneer of karate in Great Britain, Vernon Bell was instrumental in bringing a number of leading practitioners of karate to England including Murakami Tetsugi, Mochizuki Hiroo, Kanazawa Hirokazu, Enoeda Keinosuke, Kase Taiji and Shirai Hiroshi. Sensei Bell also organized visits to his honbu from Harada Mitsusuke and Nambu Yoshi.


Jon Bluming indicates in his interview with Graham Noble that he started karate in 1959, ‘That’s right, 1959, and actually what made me aware of karate was Peter Urban.'

I understand that he returned to Holland in November 1961.

Please correct me if I’ve got my dates wrong.

Interesting to look at how it all got going, isn't it.

Cheers

Damien

ShaneT

I'd say you're right there Damo. For him (and for me) if it's not practised with contact - it's just not Karate.

That said, he certainly introduced "full contact karate" to Europe and, at that time, Karate was not generally available in anyform to the masses of Europe. The Kyokushinkaikan (now broken up) became the largest Karate organisation and style in Europe and the World.

Bluming was responsible for the European side of it. He was the European president with Steve Arniel as the Vice President. He was they only man authorised to use the Kyokushin Kanku and Calligraphy for "any purpose he sees fit" in Europe and as the "only person qualified to teach karate in the Netherlands". (I still have a copy of the letter somewhere, Bluming of course has the original).

Holland still produces arguably some of the best fighters in the world. Typically students of Jan Plas or Johann Vos who are, in turn, students of Bluming (and current members and grade holders within Bluming's organisation).

But, I'd rather not get into the political "what is REAL karate..." argument. It never leads anywhere useful.

Damo W

ShaneT wrote:

I'd say you're right there Damo. For him (and for me) if it's not practised with contact - it's just not Karate.

That said, he certainly introduced "full contact karate" to Europe and, at that time, Karate was not generally available in anyform to the masses of Europe. The Kyokushinkaikan (now broken up) became the largest Karate organisation and style in Europe and the World.

Bluming was responsible for the European side of it. He was the European president with Steve Arniel as the Vice President. He was they only man authorised to use the Kyokushin Kanku and Calligraphy for "any purpose he sees fit" in Europe and as the "only person qualified to teach karate in the Netherlands". (I still have a copy of the letter somewhere, Bluming of course has the original).

Holland still produces arguably some of the best fighters in the world. Typically students of Jan Plas or Johann Vos who are, in turn, students of Bluming (and current members and grade holders within Bluming's organisation).

But, I'd rather not get into the political "what is REAL karate..." argument. It never leads anywhere useful.

Cheers Shane

Your right karate is different things to different people.... enjoy and lets hope we are all doing 'our thing' at 73