Hirokazu Kanazawa

Hirokazu Kanazawa, born on 3 May 1931 in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, and dead on 8 December 2019, was a Japanese master of Shotokan karate who reached the rank of 10th dan. He trained in judo at school, then began karate at Takushoku University under Masatoshi Nakayama and also learned from the Shotokan founder Gichin Funakoshi. He won the inaugural All Japan Karate Championship kumite title in 1957 and shared the kumite title in 1958 with Takayuki Mikami while winning the kata title. The Japan Karate Association sent him to Hawaii in 1961 and later to Europe, and in 1966 he became Chief Instructor of the Karate Union of Great Britain. In 1977 he left the association and founded the Shotokan Karate-Do International Federation.