HISTORY

The roots of the SKA are to be found in the Durham University Karate Club, established by Harry Cook in 1970. As university dojos attract students from many styles it soon became obvious that style as such was not a critical factor in good karate, what really mattered was good training methods and a positive attitude from both the teacher and student. Fighting in the university championships and league taught Harry Cook that good and bad karate existed in all styles, and in order to find good karate what really mattered was the quality of the instructor, not the style he taught.

This belief was reinforced by training in Japan with instructors such as Morio Higaonna sensei (Okinawan Goju Ryu) and Hirokazu Kanazawa (Shotokan).

The first Seijinkai dojo was established in South Shields in 1975 and although on paper it was a member of the Karate Union of Great Britain (Shotokan) the training in that dojo did not follow the usual Shotokan pattern. Experiments in full contact sparring, grappling, trapping hands, bag work etc laid the groundwork for the future evolution of the Seijinkai training methodology, an approach which was refined and expanded through exposure to traditional Okinawan Goju Ryu methods taught in Tokyo by Higaonna sensei in the mid 1970s.

The SKA was established as an independent organisation at the end of the 1980s and the first Seijinkai dan grades were awarded in 1990.