Japanese Karate World Champion in Ireland

Hyori Kanazawa is a 4th Dan Black belt and current World Shotokan Karate International Federation Grand Champion and this week she is doing seminars all around Ireland

Hyori Kanazawa

Hyori Kanazawa is a 4th Dan Black belt and current World Shotokan Karate International Federation (SKIF) Grand Champion. And this week she is doing seminars all around Ireland.

Hyori comes with a prestigious linage, her father, Nobuaki Kanazawa being the World Head of SKIF, one of the largest single style karate federations, and her grandfather, Hirokazu Kanazawa now regarded as one of the historical legends of karate, tracing their roots back to the originator of karate, Master Gichin Funakoshi.

Currently, Hyori is a full-time profession instructor in SKIF, and travels the world teaching traditional Karate-do (The way of karate), emphasising the importance of it in your daily life and the benefits to each person it can have. But also showing that the future of karate can include women at the very top of the tree.

From an early age, she was surrounded by karate royalty, and grew up knowing exactly what the way of karate-do was. But more importantly, knowing as a female heading into a karate world dominated by men, what her impact could be. Her parents were always encouraging her to grow and “break the mould” of what the typical expectations of a young Japanese woman should be.

Her goal now is to develop Karate all around the world, with a clear emphasis on encouraging girls and women into karate. As the 20/20 movement famously said, 'If they can’t see it, they can’t be it', Hyori can only inspire and motivate girls and women to take up this great martial art.

Hyori Kanazawa will be in Ireland until Sunday, then travelling back home to Japan next week following a European tour that included Portugal, Czech Republic and UK.