Hiroshi Shirai
Hiroshi Shirai 1937
“The Tornado of Shotokan”
Hiroshi Shirae is a Japanese master
of Shotokan karate. He is the founder of
the Instituto Shotokan Italia (ISKA), a subdivision of the Italian Traditional Karate
Association (ITKF), and of the SCI (Shotokan Cultural Institute, formerly WSI –
World Shotokan Institute. He was awarded
10th Dan by the Board of FIKTA in 2011. He is responsible for taking the Dan
examinations within SCI and together with Master Carlo Fugazza, for those within
the FIKTA.
Shirai was born on July 31, 1937 in Nagasaki. He started learning karate in 1956, three years after seeing a promotional video of the Japan Karate Association (JKA) at Komazawa University. In 1962, he won both the kata and the kumite championships of the JKA, thereby becoming one of those receiving the title 'Grand Champion'.
Shirai’s teachers include Masatoshi Nakayama, Hidetaka Nishiyama, and Taiji Kase.
After a world trip to promote karate together with Taiji Kase, Hirokazu Kanazawa, and Keinosuke Enoeda to Europe, South Africa, and the United States of America, he settled in Milan, Italy in 1965. Under his tutelage the Italian karate flourished and many titles went to his students.
Shirai felt that the self-defence (goshindo) aspect of Shotokan karate has been too much in the shadow of kumite and kata. Although he practised karate for self-defence initially, he focussed on kumite for a few years until moving to Europe, where he started refocussing on self-defence and its incorporation in the practise of shotokan karate. During the last five
years (2010-2014) Shirai has given special goshindo oriented stages in Europe often together with hanshi Claudio
Ceruti and kyoshi’s Massimo Abate and Angelo Torre.
For the practice of goshindo, Shirae developed several basic (kihon) training methods focusing on simple, powerful and effective techniques, almost always executed in a frontal stance towards the opponent. Turning, in order to achieve this stable frontal stance is a basic principle of Shirai’s goshindo. In addition to kihon, Shiraei developed specific goshindo kata. These kata stress the importance of being able to address an attacker coming from any direction. Several of these kata include grabbing and open handed techniques, elements not so often seen in ‘normal’ Shotokan karate.
Some of his senior students include Sparteco Bertoletti and Ennio Falsoni, Carlo Fugazza, and Tiziana Rizzo.
Often regarded in the Western world as the “Tornado” and “Moving Tank”, for his effective multiple counterattacks, Hiroshi Shirai is arguably one of the great karate masters of contemporary period, known as the guardian of traditional karate, and for the expansion of shotokan to the practice and kata of goshindo.