A.K. Ismail

Kancho A.K Ismail, Born in Durban, South Africa, on 31st December 1949 which was during the apartheid era. He lived & schooled in Durban, then in the year 1964 A.K Ismail spent three years in Pakistan studying. It was here that he became interested in martial arts while watching Chinese Martial arts movies but unfortunately there were no martial arts schools in his vicinity, he then started training on his own at home. He returned to South Africa around 1966 and joined the only karate school for non whites under Solly Kathrada, who was then a brown belt. Kancho A.K. Ismail opened his first dojo on a roof top of an 11 storey building in Durban, South Africa. Within a few months, the roof top became too small to facilitate the number of students, he had to give up his job as a salesman in a hardware store and started teaching karate full time. In 1967 he then had to hire a hall to teach karate full time. He came across a book titled "What IS Karate?" by SOSAI MASUTATSU OYAMA, who was renowned for chopping off the horns of a bull with a single karate chop and killing them with one single blow. ?Kancho A.K Ismail wrote to SOSAI MASUTATSU OYAMA requesting to come to Japan, but he did not have the money to take up this journey, instead he was instructed by SOSAI MASUTATSU OYAMA to travel to Rhodesia and train under Ian Harris, in January 1968. He traveled to Salisbury now Harare, Zimbabwe, and trained for six months learning about Kyokushinkai karate, on his return he was not satisfied, he knew there was much more to Kyokushinkai karate. During 1969 on borrowed money he bought a one way ticket to Japan and with just $140 cash in his pocket he set out to the land of the rising sun to come face to face with the greatest karate legend SOSAI MASUTATSU OYAMA. OYAMA welcomed his first full time karate student from Southern Africa. Kancho A.K. Ismail spent 9 months in Japan training three times a day personally under the watchful eyes and guidance of SOSAI MASUTATSU OYAMA, he was awarded his first Dan black belt in 1970 and returned to South Africa to start building his karate empire. On his return his success was so great that he became the first person to open a full time karate school. He was conducting six classes daily, seven days a week. During the 1970s Kancho A.K. Ismail had more than 50 karate schools under his banner stretching all over Africa as far as Mauritius and Seychelles. In 1984 he was awarded his 6th Dan black belt by SOSAI MASUTATSU OYAMA & he became the youngest non Japanese to achieve this rank from Africa.