Shihan Kyosuke Machida (Stand up
)
Tournament Committee Chairman and Board Member of IKO Kyokushinkaikan
In Memnorial
Shihan Bobby Lowe (in front)
International Committee Chairman for North America and South Pacific
Shihan Bobby Lowe, 8th Dan
August 23, 1929 ~ September 14, 2011
Shihan Bobby Lowe passed away on Wednesday, 9:18pm on 14th September in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Shihan
Bobby Lowe was the son of a Kung Fu master, held Black Belts in Judo,
Kenpo and Aikido and was a powerful welterweight boxer. Incredibly
impressed by a karate demonstration performed by Sosai Masutatsu Oyama
in Hawaii, Shihan Bobby straightaway entreated Sosai Oyama to work with
him as teacher. They quickly became lifelong friends and Shihan Bobby
ventured to Japan to join Sosai Oyama at his Tokyo dojo, becoming the
first Kyokushin "Uchi Deshi" (apprentice student) and then, the first
person to open a Kyokushin school outside of Japan, currently the oldest
continuously operating international Branch of the Kyokushinkaikan.
Shihan
Lowe served Sosai Oyama from the outset of the International Karate
Organization, from promoting Kyokushin in the United States, Canada and
around the world, to hosting the first international Kyokushin match
outside of Japan, to serving the IKO tournament circuit around the globe
as Chief Referee, serving as contributor to the current IKO Technical
Syllabus and IKO Bylaws for the Kyokushinkaikan, to writing three
renowned books on the Kyokushin system and never neglecting teaching
daily Kyokushin classes in his native Hawaii.
Personally,
Shihan Lowe has been my greatest mentor in the Kyokushinkaikan since
Sosai Oyama. He has generously shared his wealth of knowledge with me,
shared his philosophy of patience and peacekeeping and shown me the
strength, wisdom and perseverance earned over a lifetime of Kyokushin
training. He was an exemplary student and supreme master of the martial
arts, a great friend and a trusted advisor, and with his dynamic
personality, easy temperament and lust for life, a shining example to us
all.
