The charismatic leader of world traditional karate. He was born in 1928 in Tokyo and began his kendo training when he was five. His karate training began in 1944 under the instruction of Sensei Funakoshi Gichin and later he continued it at Takaushoku University.

The founder and the member of JKA (Japan Karate Association). The technical director of this association responsible, among others, for delegating Japanese karate instructors to particular regions of the world. He has been living and teaching in Los Angeles (USA) for over thirty years.

After WUKO had split in 1972 ( the admission of the Republic of South Africa, the country practising then the policy of apartheid, to the World Championship, against which the delegations of Japan and USA, among others, protested was the direct cause of the split.) Hidetaka Nishiyama was appointed the ITKF (International Traditional Karate Federation) President.

The author of many works about traditional karate, among others „Karate, the Art of Empty Hand Fighting” which is the first karate monoghraph published in the world. Hidetaka Nishiyama’s first objective is getting karate into the Olympics. He is the creator of new disciplines of karate (fuku-go – contest in which each competitor takes part in two events, a synthesis of kata and kumite in one discipline and en-bu choreographically directed fight). He was undoubtedly the man on whose shoulders, for many years, has rest the responsibility for passing traditional karate to the next generations.

Hidetaka Nishiyama was a founder and first President of the ITKF. He passed away on 7 November 2008.