Ashihara? I've never heard of it!

[Harkon72]

Can anyone tell me more about Ashihara Karate? I've never heard of it before. Where is is from? Who teaches it? Is it a new style? Just curious that's all.

[GaryMo]

I'm sure Dobbersky will be along soon. He teaches a form of Ashihara Karate in Manchester.

[Dobbersky]

Sorry on my HTC phone.

Ashihara Karate is an off shot of Kyokushin Karate. It has several offshoots itself Enshin being one of them. but still very popular around the world. It was created IN Japan in the 70's by Ashihara Kancho (Wikipedia will give you details about Ashihara)

We practice Full Contact Knockdown Karate. I'll add a few URL'S when I'm on my laptop.

Famous fighters Semmy Schilt - 4 x Heavyweight K-1 Champion.

Sabaki Challenge is a famous open Competition.

Ashihara kata are not like traditional kata, they ate Jissen based. Again I'll add URL'S for this

[Harkon72]

Oh, I have great respect for the Kyokoshinkai!

Mas Oyama's style is one of the best in the world.

Ashihara is a recent derivative then, suited to full contact Kumite.

I'm more of a traditionalist myself, I train for my mind more than anything. I shall look further into Ashihara with interest.

Thank you for sharing. Osu!

[Dobbersky]

Oh, I have great respect for the Kyokoshinkai!

Mas Oyama's style is one of the best in the world.

Ashihara is a recent derivative then, suited to full contact Kumite.

I'm more of a traditionalist myself, I train for my mind more than anything. I shall look further into Ashihara with interest.

Thank you for sharing. Osu!

I suppose its a similar situation for Shito Ryu and Shukokai, please correct if I have it wrong?

As You're an hour or so down the road, it would be an honour to have you attend my dojo. We do practice some traditional kata in my dojo. And I am happy to pop over to your dojo, if you want me to go through anything.

Thank you my friend.

OSU

[Harkon72]

The same applies to our style too, you are right. Shito Ryu is the parent style of Shukokai. Sensei Tani derived Shukokai in the 60's, Sensei Kimura created an offshoot that is also very popular.

Thank you for the invitation, our parent Dojo is in Tameside. I care to visit Manchester next year and I will be in touch before then, thank you. I've got a contract with work that has tied me to long hours at least until January. After that I will be training harder and maybe opening more doors. Osu!

[kansascityshuffle]

The original Ashihara style has unfortunately been dying over the last couple of decades, if not longer.

Hideyuki Ashihara, the founder, was a very well respected Kyokushin instructor, that many went to, to learn advanced footwork, and such from.

One of the issues was, after he passed, he left the style to his son, who I believe was only a green belt at the time, and his son wanted to make some big administrative and costly changes for people that have been under his father, and were far more superior in karate experience and skill.

Ninomiya Kancho, has had much more luck after breaking off, and forming "Enshin," but I will say that the not original Ashihara fractions have been gaining steam, the ones under Jonkers/Schilt, Cook (Tsu Shin Gen) and Narker's.

I have been in contact with Narker's Shihan(?) or Kancho for some years, now, he's a very nice man, and very easy to talk to, I know Dobbersky has, too. As of recently I have been in contact with Cook Soke who was a Kyokushin practitioner, grading to, I believe yondan or godan directly under Oyama Sosai.

Anyhow, if you're familiar with Enshin, Ashihara is very, very similar.

Osu!

[Dobbersky]

*NO IDEA WHY THIS TRIPLE POSTED, UNFORTUNATELY, i DIDN'T SEE AN OPTION TO DELETE THE LAST TWO, OR i WOULD HAVE, I DID TRY*

The original Ashihara style has unfortunately been dying over the last couple of decades, if not longer.

Hideyuki Ashihara, the founder, was a very well respected Kyokushin instructor, that many went to, to learn advanced footwork, and such from.

One of the issues was, after he passed, he left the style to his son, who I believe was only a green belt at the time, and his son wanted to make some big administrative and costly changes for people that have been under his father, and were far more superior in karate experience and skill.

Ninomiya Kancho, has had much more luck after breaking off, and forming "Enshin," but I will say that the not original Ashihara fractions have been gaining steam, the ones under Jonkers/Schilt, Cook (Tsu Shin Gen) and Narker's.

I have been in contact with Narker's Shihan(?) or Kancho for some years, now, he's a very nice man, and very easy to talk to, I know Dobbersky has, too. As of recently I have been in contact with Cook Soke who was a Kyokushin practitioner, grading to, I believe yondan or godan directly under Oyama Sosai.

Anyhow, if you're familiar with Enshin, Ashihara is very, very similar.

Osu!

I would say its rather the offshoots from NIKO are increasing. Predominantly due to politics. There's 3 Ashihara Dojos in the UK have managed to build bridges with the one in Edinburgh, hopefully looking at maybe doing a UK Sabaki Challenge Cup in a few years.

The style itself is awesome, but its the people at the top causing issues.

I'm independent so not tied into Honbu.

I'd like to see Ashihara Karate as popular as Shotokan, but needs a few "converts" and a Kaicho who isn't political, that's one reason why I have so much respect for Narker Kaicho, he's far from political.

[evergrey]

Narker Kaicho is good people, for sure. OSU!

[ShoriKid]

Since we're on the subject, are there major technical differences between Kyokushin/Ashihara/Enshin? I know the later two are off shoots/derivatives of Kyokushin, but other than a political break, are the styles different? Training methodologies, stance/footwork etc, where do the differences lie?