CSM Karate Club
The Instructor
 
 
 
    The head instructor of CSMKC, affiliated member of Japan Karate-do Ryobu-kai Colorado is Isao Gary Tsutsui. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1946 and moved to Denver, Colorado when he was six months old. He began his formal training in the art of karate in 1965 in Shotokan karate under Yutaka Yaguchi of the Japan Karate Association (JKA) of Colorado. After six years of JKA training he moved to Irvine, California and began his apprenticeship under Kiyoshi Yamazaki, world renowned karate master and weapons expert. From 1970-79 Tsutsui trained with Master Yamazaki, completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), taught photography and serigraphy for the UCI Recreation Department, and was head instructor of the UC Irvine Karate Club. He moved back to the Denver area in the fall of 1978. He is a 6th degree black belt and continues to actively train and promote the ideals and principles of traditional karate-do.

    Tsutsui was a bronze medalist at the Fourth World Union of Karate-do Organizations (formerly WUKO, now named World Karate Federation, WKF) World Championships at Tokyo, Japan in 1977. He is one of only two American males to ever medal in individual kata competition in the WKF World Championships. He was four times a United States Karate Team member from 1977-80.

    Tsutsui is certified as a WKF International Kumite Judge (only 7 WKF Referee/Judges in the United States), a Pan American Union of Karate-do Organizations (PUKO) International Kumite Referee, is a member of the Referee Council of the United States of America National Karate-do Federation (USA-NKF, national governing body for karate in the United States), and is Vice-President of the mountain region for USA-NKF.

    Also, he is a member of the Colorado Governor's Council on Physical Fitness.

 
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