Karate Classic | ASAI TETSUHIKO Shihan in Shanghai (China) 2004 — Seminar footage featuring Tetsuhiko Asai, founder of Asai-Ryu karate. Preserved as part of the Asai karate video collection. #karate #asairyu #shotokan #seminar
Interview with Sensei Asai
Asai Sensei demonstrates some techniques based on the crane, snake and bear.
This video is devoted to Interview with Sensei Asai.
This recording belongs to the Asai kata collection on this blog, a growing archive of Tetsuhiko Asai's forms kept for study and reference. Asai's karate grew out of Shotokan and was later enriched with White Crane principles, which is why his kata combine direct Shotokan lines with unusually soft, circular movement. Watch the performance slowly and more than once: the value of these recordings is in the details of timing, posture and transition that a single viewing rarely shows.
Tetsuhiko Asai was born on June 7, 1935, in Ehime Prefecture (on the island of Shikoku), Japan. When he was 12 years old, he entered a local karate dojo, and started his career as a karate practitioner. He joined the judo club at high school, and reached the second dan rank, showing a remarkable talent for martial arts from boyhood. He began to lay the foundations of his higher karate techniques through training in judo and karate at this time. Tetsuhiko Asai then came to Tokyo, attended Takushoku University, and became a central member of the karate club. His lithe and agile physique allowed him to create many inimitable techniques, such as the "submarine", in which he passed under an opponent's kick and rapidly made his winning attack. Therefore, he gained much attention in the karate world. Kumite demonstration 1987
