One of the world's most renowned and respected traditional karate masters alive Kanazawa Kancho, 10th Dan. He is the first karateka to have won the notorious All Japan karate Championship.

In 1957 kumite champion, In 1958 kumite and kata champion, on one occasion winning the finals whilst nursing a broken wrist from an earlier event.

Although trained in Judo in his early years, Kanazawa Kancho took up karate whilst at University under the late headmaster of JKA shotokan, sensei Matsatoshi Nakayama. Kanazawa Kancho is also one of the few remaining karateka privileged to have studied under Master Gichin Funakoshi, the famous Okinawin schoolteacher who brought karate to mainland Japan from Okinawa and founded the Shotokan style.

In 1977, Kanazawa Kancho set up SKIF (Shotokan Karatedo International Federation). SKIF is now the largest Shotokan Karate Association in the World and under one chief instructor Kancho Kanazawa. SKIF has over 3.5 million members in over 120 countries worldwide.