On Sunday, September 6th, I attended the Seidokaikan Karate Organization’s All Japan Open Tournament at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium/ Edion Arena (formerly the Bodymaker Coliseum) in the Namba section of Osaka City. I had been looking forward to seeing the tournament as it was my first non-Kyokushin tournament in Japan. I was excited to see the fights and compare and contrast both styles of Knockdown Karate. I was joined by my friend from Kyokushin Karate New York, Xavi, and his girlfriend, Rasa, who are currently in Japan as part of a trip around the world.
Seidokaikan was founded by Kazuyoshi Ishii in 1980. Ishii was black belt in Kyokushin Karate under Hideyuki Ashihara and followed his teacher when Ashihara left/was dismissed from Mas Oyama’s Kyokushinkaikan in 1980. Ishii stayed with Ashihara and his newly formed Ashiharakaikan for only a few months before breaking away to form his own organization, Seidokaikan. Seidokaikan gained notoriety in the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s by hosting “style vs style” challenge matches. Ishii eventually founded the K-1 kickboxing organization in 1993. Seidokaikan became a “feeder” organization for K-1 with famous kickboxers such as: Nobuaki Kakuda, Masaaki Satake, Musashi, and later Andy Hug ( formerly Kyokushinkaikan) coming from Seidokaikan.
We arrived at around noon and waited about 40 minutes for the opening ceremony and quarter-final rounds of the tournament to begin. A taiko drum group played during the opening ceremony and it was a really cool thing to see. The players “kiai” during key points of the songs definitely fit the mood of the day. After the concert, the best 16 fighters lined up in front of Ishii Kancho and the top black belts of the organization and gave the fighters pledge. The pledge basically states that the fighters promise to uphold the rules of the tournament and give their best in every fight. After the opening ceremony, the tournament began.
I was surprised by the amount of grabbing and clinching allowed in the bouts, compared to Kyokushin style fights, where you get a warning for the slightest push. The grappling must come from Ishii time with Ashihara, an skilled exponent of the concept of “tai sabaki”, or “body movement”. Tai Sabaki is also found in other full contact styles, such as Enshin ( another Ashihara off shoot) and in various grappling arts and traditional Karate styles. The fights were very chaotic with a mix of grabbing, clinching, and striking. It was kind of refreshing to see. To me, high level Kyokushin fights can be kind of boring sometimes with the usual “get close, body punch, move around, maybe throw a half-hearted head kick, get close again…” style of fighting.
After the semi-final matches and before the final fight, there were 3 super fights including two Kyokushin vs. Seido fights. Each match was two 3 minute rounds with a 1 minute rest period in between. In the first fight, budding action star “Mr. Seido Karate” Shingo Koyasu fight against a fighter from the Seidokaikan Honbu Dojo. This fight was pretty exciting and there was a light of fancy kicks thrown. In the end, Koyasu lost on points. In the second match, Hideo Sawada from the Seidokaikan fought a fighter from the Kyokushinkaikan. Sawada was incapacitated by a series of leg kicks and lost via ippon from said low kicks. In the third and final match,Dimitri Lunev, a Kyokushin fighter from Russia, took on Seido’s Masanori Tonooka. After two rounds, the match was called a draw.
Overall, it was a really fun day and I was glad that I had some friends to enjoy it with. I would really like to see more Seidokaikan events and will hopefully go back next year, if I can. For my next adventure, I am going to see if I can get tickets for a bareknuckle kickboxing/karate event at the end of September!
The Budo Journey 