top of page
History of FSKA Mililani Dojo

1970's Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi

1980's Sensei Kevin Funakoshi

2010 Sensei Richard Nelson

 

The Mililani Dojo was started here in Mililani back in the 1970's by Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi. In the 1980's he passed the Dojo on to one of his top student's who also happened to be his son, Sensei Kevin Funakoshi. In 2010, Sensei Kevin Funakoshi then passed on the Dojo to one of his top student's, Sensei Richard Nelson.

 

Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi

 

Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi, founder and chief instructor of the Funakoshi Shotokan Karate Association is fourth cousin to Master Gichin Funakoshi - the founder of Modern Shotokan. He started judo training in 1948 under Arakaki Sensei at the Fort Gakuen Japanese Language School in Honolulu, Hawaii. He attended Farrington High School in the Kalihi District and was on the football team and captain of the Territory of Hawaii (Hawaii was not a state yet) Championship swim team. While attending at the University of Hawaii on a swimming scholarship Funakoshi Sensei started Kempo training under Adriano Emperado from 1956 to 1959.In 1960, Funakoshi started shotokan training when the Japan Karate Association (JKA) assigned its first grand champion, Hirokazu Kanazawa to teach at the Karate Association of Hawaii for three years. For the next three years, Funakoshi trained under Masataka Mori, another senior instructor from the Japanese Karate Association. From 1966 to 1969, he trained under the third and last instructor sent by the J.K.A., the legendary Tetsuhiko Asai, another former grand champion from Japan. In 1969, after training 10 years under three of Japan´s top instructors and winning the grand championship of the Karate Association of Hawaii for five years in a row (1964 - 1968), Kenneth Funakoshi was appointed as the Chief Instructor for the Karate Association of Hawaii.Funakoshi moved to San Jose, California to teach karate in December 1986, in 1987, the non-political Funakoshi Shotokan Karate Association was founded with its world headquarters now in Milpitas, CA and affiliates throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Middle East and South America.

bottom of page