British Karate history 1956-1963:                      

Questions, facts and answers

An article by Simon Keegan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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           Vernon Bell’s very first Karate club in Essex

 

Background to the introduction of Karate to England

By the time Vernon Bell introduced Karate to England in 1956, the arts of Jujutsu and Judo had already been taught here some 60 years. The Edwardian musichalls were no strangers to the sight of Japanese Jujutsu players grappling with wrestlers and strongmen and eventually, thanks to masters like Gunji Koizumi and Yukio Tani, these arts spread through cities like London and Liverpool. It was not until the 1950s however that Karate appeared. A Frenchman, Claude Urvois and a French-Algerian Jean ‘Jim’ Alcheik trained in Shizuoka, Japan at the Yoseikan Dojo of Minoru Mochizuki, a master who has studied all of the main Japanese martial arts (mostly with the founder of each of these arts no less) and they convinced Mochizuki to introduce the arts of Karate and Aikido to Europe. Urvois and Alcheik joined with their friend, Judo instructor Henri Plee in establishing a base for European Karate and on July 12 1956, his son Hiroo Mochizuki arrived in Paris, later followed by Mitsuhiro Kondo to Switzerland, Shoji Sugiyama to Italy and Tetsuji Murikami, who would end up in England.

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Vernon Bell, a 3rd Dan Judo instructor under instructors like Kenshiro Abbe, began corresponding with Henri Plee and attending his classes in France, soon after Bell started what would today be called a “study group” at the tennis courts of his parents’ back garden. We should note this was around eight years before Japanese masters like Kanazawa, Enoeda and Suzuki ever came to this country.

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We should note that while many Jujutsu schools may have taught atemi waza or strikes that had much in common with Karate or Kempo, this essay will only deal with official Karate-Do schools derived from the main Okinawan schools. A history of British Jujutsu is for another project.

We should also note that Bell’s Judo teacher Kenshiro Abbe – a great master who seemingly studied every art BUT Karate – did begin to advertise his credentials as including Karate. Abbe was a master of Jujutsu, Judo and Aikido so his repertoire of strikes was likely impressive, but since Abbe had not actually studied Karate, we do not class it as such.

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What kind of Karate was first brought to the UK?
Yoseikan founder Minoru Mochizuki studied Karate with Gichin Funakoshi and some suggest he was awarded the grade of 5th Dan. The Karate of Yoseikan resembled old style Shotokan. Mochizuki was also a master of Aikido under Ueshiba, Judo under Mifune (and briefly Kano) and many others styles. We can safely say that Mochizuki’s varied training will have ‘coloured’ his Karate. At his Yoseikan Dojo a Shito Ryu instructor named Yamaguchi also taught there so Yoseikan also had this influence. Reading Henri Plee’s Karate book, the Karate of Yoseikan was good, basic Karate.

 

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Vernon Bell                                                  Tetsuji Murikami                                      Hiroo Mochizuki

pic courtesy of Mike Manning

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Vernon Bell was adept at Jujutsu, Judo and possibly to some degree Aikido before ever studying with the Yoseikan, so we may also assume these skills will have been transferable to his Karate to some degree. Bell was awarded 1st Dan after 18 months of study on March 13 1957, dated on his certificate April 1 1957. He was awarded his 2nd Dan on July 19 1959 under Tetsuji Murikami. Bell’s group was called the British Karate Federation.

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Who were the first British Karate students?
Vernon Bell’s first Karate students on record were: Dennis Clarke (the earliest recorded on August 18 1956), Michael Manning and Gerald Tucker as well as a D Blake and P Byron. In this very first year other students included D Brandon, B Dolan, D Dyer, Kenneth Elliott, B Miles, L Pearson and Trevor Guilfoyle.

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In 2013, Michael Manning told Simon Keegan:

“I started having Judo lessons under Vernon at Thurrock Technical College in 1955, I was 18 years old. Things were very basic, coconut mat and a canvas sheet…. I finally reached the dizzy heights of 3rd Kyu. Mr Bell asked me if I would like to have Jujutsu lessons. He wouldn’t teach anybody [Jujutsu] below green belt [in Judo]. I jumped at the chance….

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“Mainly our Jujutsu lessons consisted of a few basic locks, a few trips and sometimes a glimpse of Atemi Waza. It was this ‘dirty fighting’ that drew me in…. One morning Mr Bell sowed us a scratchy film about Karate…. He had been visiting a Dojo in Paris…”

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When was the first Karate grading in Britain and who graded?
On April 30 1957, at Maybush Road, Vernon Bell awarded the grade of 6th Kyu to Trevor Guilfoyle and Gerald Tucker.

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When was the second Karate grading in Britain and who graded?
On May 31 1957, at Maybush Road, Vernon Bell awarded the grade of 6th Kyu to Michael Manning, P Byron, DF Clarke and Ken Elliott.

Michael Manning said:

“We were really stumbling around in the dark. Vernon would make weekly visits to Henri Plee’s Dojo in Paris, come back and pass on what he had learned…. Vernon would be so badly bruised he could only walk with a stick.”

When did the first oriental Karate instructor come to Britain?
On July 19 1957, Vietnamese Hoang Nam 3rd Dan (presumed to have studied some Kung Fu-like art prior to Karate and was billed as “Karate champion of Indo China”) taught his first class at Maybush Road.

Michael Manning said:

“It was an eye-opening experience… Nam was very small, very lithe and most polite. He made allowances for our lack of even the most basic skills and it was a joy to learn from him.”

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When was the first public Karate demo in Britain?
On July 20, 1957, Hoang Nam, Vernon Bell and his senior students gave a display of Karate at a village fete in Ilford.

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When was the third Karate grading in Britain and who graded?
On July 21 1957 Hoang Nam awarded 6th Kyu to D Blake, P Brandon, B Dolan, D Dyer and B Miles; 5th Kyu to Mike Manning and Ken Elliott; and 4th Kyu to Trevor Guilfoyle and Gerald Tucker.
When were the first brownbelts awarded in British Karate?

On December 21 1957 Vernon Bell awarded 3rd Kyu to Trevor Guilfoyle and Gerald Tucker.

 

Who was the first English woman to study Karate?
Doris Keane from Romford and a Miss Higgins have both been quoted as such at various times by Vernon Bell. It is possible that Higgins was the maiden name of Keane.

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Where was the first UK Karate Dojo where Karate was taught?
The British Legion Hall, St Mary’s Road, Upminster, Essex began classes in December 1957.

Who was the first Japanese to teach Karate in Britain?

Tetsuji Murikami (1927-1987) 3rd Dan Yoseikan under Minoru Mochizuki and 1st Dan of the JKA arrived in England in July 1959.

Michael Manning said:

“He began his first lesson by telling us that we were a load of rubbish. This didn’t please Mr Bell, after all he was our Sensei and we were the product of his teaching.

“We practiced full contact kumite and some of us wore cricket boxes with a thought to marriage in later life! Murakami sussed this our and ended this practice by delivering a Mae Geri to one unfortunate, completely splitting the box.

“….One another occasion…Murakami showed us a defence against a strangle hold and slammed Bob [Buckner’s] head hard into a wall. There was really no need for that level of violence.”

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Who was the first student to obtain 2nd Kyu and 1st Kyu?

Michael Manning was awarded 2nd Kyu on July 19 1959 and 1st Kyu on February 1 1960.

In applying for Manning’s 1st Kyu, Vernon Bell wrote to Minoru Mochizuki directly saying: “He is in charge of beginner’s classes and was graded to 2nd Kyu by Mr Murakami on July 18 1959. He has been doing Karate for four years regularly every week and has good execution of all five ippon and sanbon kata and the first three Pinan Kata. He can defeat six lower kyu grades in succession in Shiai and his technique is very good.”

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Who were the first students to obtain 1st Kyu under Murakami?
Three years after Michael Manning was awarded 1st Kyu by Vernon Bell, Tetsuji Murakami awarded the grade of 1st Kyu to Terry Wingrove and Jimmy Neal.

The first Karate summer school was held at the Ippon Judo Club, Scarborough, above the Imperial Hotel in September 7th-12th 1959. It was funded by Judo enthusiast and local business magnate Peter Jaconelli. Tetsuji Murakami taught the seminart.  The event was repeated the following year.

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Where was the first Karate Dojo outside London/Essex area?
The Liverpool branch of the British Karate Federation was set up by Frederick Gille in around 1959 and officially recognised in 1961. Training was at Harold House Jewish Boys Club in Chatham Street before relocating to the YMCA in Everton where it became known as the Red Triangle. Early members included Andy Sherry who had previously studied Jujutsu with Jack Britten.

 

When was the first Karate Dojo in Scotland?
Edward Ainsworth, a blackbelt Judoka, set up the first Karate study group in Scotland having attended the third ‘Karate Summer School’ in 1961. The Dojo was at Auchen Larvie, Ayrshire.

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When was Karate introduced to Manchester and who by?
Despite nearby BKF Dojos in Liverpool (such as the Red Triangle) it is thought that Karate was introduced to Manchester in around 1960 by Martin Stott who had no affiliation with Vernon Bell. It appears Stott had trained with a teacher in Paris called Tam Mytho (alternatively Tham Ny Tho) who may have been Vietnamese. Stott, it seems, corresponded with Bell in 1961 over affiliation but it appears this did not go ahead but Stott continued to teach anyway.

In an interview with Traditional Karate magazine the late Danny Connor who trained with Stott said:

“My father saw an advert for a Karate club opening in Ashton-Under-Lyne, and so I went along to this Judo club that was called Kyushindokwai. There, Martin Stott was teaching Karate, and so, at last, I learned how to pronounce that word. The mats at the club were a series of bedspreads with sheets pulled over them. I started training there, alongside Roy Stanhope, Tony Hudson… This was about 1960. I trained at the same club for three years, and then Martin invited me to be his partner and we moved to central Manchester and opened a gym there. Now at this time, we thought that you only had to know three katas to get your black belt. They were Kata One, Kata Two and Kata Three. There were no names! Somehow we located a book called ‘What is Karate?’ by Mas Oyama, and I used to hold the book while Roy Stanhope executed the katas that were in it.”

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Who was the first notable Brit to practice Karate to black belt level outside of Vernon Bell’s organisation?
Charles Mack was graded 1st Dan Shotokan by Masatoshi Nakayama on March 4 1962 in Japan. His grading kata was Bassai Dai.

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What was the next Karate style to come to the UK after Yoseikan?
Shotokai Karate was introduced to England in 1963 by Mitsusuke Harada in 1963. Harada was graded 5th Dan, a very senior grade at the time by Gichin Funakoshi himself.

When was Wado Ryu Karate introduced to the UK?
Yoseikan inheritor Hiroo Mochizuki returned to Japan from France and studied Wado Ryu with the founder, so when he returned in about 1963 technically he introduced Wado Ryu to England. Officially however the art was introduced by Tatsuo Suzuki, a 6th Dan at the time in 1964.

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When did official JKA Shotokan come to the UK?
Vernon Bell was ratified as a JKA blackbelt on February 5 1964 having corresponded with the JKA in Tokyo and relinquished his Yoseikan grade. Taiji Kase, Hirokazu Kanazawa, Keinosuke Enoeda and Hiroshi Shirai gave the first JKA demo at Kensington Town Hall on April 21 1965.

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Why did JKA Shotokan replace Yoseikan Karate in the UK?
When Vernon Bell began teaching Karate in 1956, with Tetsuji Murakami and under Henri Plee and Hiroo Mochizuki, he was under the impression that the Yoseikan Dojo was the personal HQ of Gichin Funakoshi and that Murakami was a designated representative of the JKA. Eventually it came to light that this was not the case and so Bell contacted the JKA directly and asked for his grades to be ratified in Shotokan. The JKA obliged and Bell requested Hirokazu Kanazawa and other Japanese instructors to come and live in England. Murakami took umbridge and left the country, later re-emerging as a 5th Dan Shotokai under Harada. At this point Bell had already fallen out with Henri Plee.

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Who were the first UK students to be graded brown belt in JKA Shotokan?
Jack Green was awarded 2nd Kyu by master Kanazawa on June 24 1965; Andy Sherry and Joseph Chialton were graded 1st Kyu around the same time; and Eddie Whitcher and Robert Williams were awarded 1st Kyu in February 1966.

 

Who were the first UK students to be physically graded black belt 1st Dan in JKA Shotokan?
Andy Sherry and Joseph Chialton of the Red Triangle, Liverpool were graded 1st Dan by master Enoeda on February 10 1966 and Blackpool area instructor Jack Green around the same time. Sherry, Green and Whitcher were also the first to be graded 2nd Dan in 1967 at Crystal Palace. The first female blackbelt was Pauline Laville graded by Kanazawa in 1967.

 

Who was the pioneer of Shotokan in the Midlands and central Lancashire?
Judo instructors Jonny Brown, Tommy Ryan and Les Hart began teaching Karate in around 1963 probably from a book. Their only notable student was Cyril Cummins who began studying with them in 1964. He also trained on seminars with Harada and was awarded 1st Dan in 1966 by ‘Budo of Great Britain’. He later retook his Shodan with Hirokazu Kanazawa and was a prominent KUGB instructor, running the Birmingham Shotokan Karate Club.

Phillip AJ Handyside began studying Judo under Preston Judoka Richard Butterworth in 1963. After watching a demonstration by Hirokazu Kanazawa’s assistant Sadashige Kato in around 1965 he turned his attention to Shotokan, travelling by train to the Midlands to train with Cyril Cummins. He took his 1st Dan under Hirokazu Kanazawa and launched the Red Sun Karate Club (later Shobukan Karate) in 1973.

Who were the early pioneers of Wado Ryu Karate in the UK?
Among the first 1964 students of Tatsuo Suzuki were David ‘Ticky’ Donovan, John I Smith and Danny Connor. John I. Smith who studied Wado Ryu Karate under Tatsuo Suzuki from 1964, began teaching in London in 1968. He later joined with Danny Connor to devise a system of Karate called Bujinkai which included influences from Connor’s Kung Fu training including Preying Mantis. The Bujinkai Academy was launched in Plymouth in 1972. An early student in this style was Bob Carruthers, who opened the Bodmin Bujinkai (Cornwall’s first dedicated Karate Dojo) and later returned to his hometown of Wigan, taking his 1st Dan under PAJ Handyside.

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Who was Britain’s first Shukokai practitioner?
Scotland’s Tommy Morris visited founder Chojiro Tani’s Dojo in Kobe in 1967, some years before Terry Wingrove also trained there. Morris became Scotland’s first blackbelt.

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When did Vernon Bell lose control of British Karate and why?
According to Shotokan Dawn , from around 1963 Bell’s health began

to deteriorate and he suffered a nervous breakdown, therefore for

the two years 1963-1965 he took a backseat in the Dojo, both to

his seniors Murakami and later Kanazawa and to his assistant

instructors Terry Wingrove and Jimmy Neal. By 1965 many students

were growing closer to Kanazawa than to Bell. Among those seniors

worth mentioning are Nick and Chris Adamou, Michael Randall, 

Eddie Whitcher and Mick Peachey.  In 1966, Kanazawa’s contract

with Bell ended and he went to teach in South Africa for a spell.

                                                                                                                 N & C Adamou, H Kanazawa

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What became of Vernon Bell after the KUGB was formed?
In 1966 Bell and Charles Mack (the first Briton to be awarded Shodan in Shotokan in Japan and the first to be awarded 5th Dan in Judo) set up the British Karate Control Commission with Alan Francis and chairman. Bell left the JKA and reverted to the Yoseikan method of Shotokan and even began inviting Hoang Nam back to teach. By the late 1960s one of Bell’s senior students Terry Wingrove was living in Japan and had become employed by the Federation of All Japan Karate Organisations (FAJKO) and through his many contacts arranged for various Japanese instructors to visit Bell as patrons of his organisation. Among the most notable patronage of Bell’s organisation was Masafumi Suzuki of the Nippon Seibukan.

Bell maintained his Jujutsu classes also and by the time of his death in 2004 aged 81 he was graded 10th Dan in what he described as Tenjin Shinyo Ryu Jujutsu. Terry Wingrove currently holds the grades of 9th Dan Karate and 9th Dan Jujutsu.

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The British Karate Federation was resurrected in around 2007 as a member of the World Karate Federation and parent group of the English Karate Federation.

Michael Manning who may well be Vernon Bell’s oldest (in the sense that he trained the earliest) student continues his interest in the martial arts. In 2013 he told Simon Keegan:

“I managed to contact some of Vernon’s old students, Brian Hammond, Jimmy Neal, Terry Wingrove and Bill McGee a real blast from the past…. I sometimes even get the chance to don a gi and get stuck in…. When we do get together, talk always seems to come around to Vernon Bell and the golden days of British Karate. The younger students’ eyes glaze over, yawns are stifled… But we don’t care we were the first!”