Stan Schmidt

Stan Schmidt
Born(1936-10-06)6 October 1936
South Africa
Died7 October 2019(2019-10-07) (aged 83)
Melbourne, Australia
StyleJudo, Shotokan Karate
Teacher(s)Keinosuke Enoeda, Masatoshi Nakayama, Tetsuhiko Asai; Taiji Kase
Rank8th dan karate (JKA)[1]

Stan Schmidt was a South African master of Shotokan karate. Along with others, such as Norman Robinson, he was an early practitioner of Shotokan karate in South Africa and his establishment of the South African branch of the Japan Karate Association (JKA) in 1965 after training in Japan, along with his subsequent promotion of the art in South Africa, earned him the appellation of 'The Father of South African Karate'.[2] In 1963, he was one of the first westerners to be invited into the JKA's famous Instructor Class in the Tokyo Honbu dojo and he was later one of four non-Japanese karateka to sit on the JKA's international Shihankai. He was also the first non-Japanese karateka to attain 7th dan from the JKA[3] and also the first to attain 8th dan. Today, he is the highest ranking non-Japanese karate master of that organization.[1][4][5] He is also known for his acting roles in several martial arts films of the 1970s and 1980s.

  1. ^ a b "JKA SKC Australasia official site - biography".
  2. ^ Shotokan Karate Magazine, Issue 42, January 1995
  3. ^ sylvainlafitte.com, Sylvain Lafitte, Web Designer. "Budo Karate International". www.bki-karate.com. Retrieved 11 January 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Robin L. Rielly, Karate Basics, Tuttle Publishing, 20 Dec 2011
  5. ^ Black Belt, Dec 1984, p94, Vol. 22, No. 12, ISSN 0277-3066