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| Date founded | 1966 |
|---|---|
| Country of origin |  Malaysia |
| Founder | Chew Choo Soot |
| Arts taught | Karate •Kobudō |
| Ancestor schools | Gōjū-ryū •Kung Fu •Judo • Jiujutsu •Shōtōkan •wrestling |
| Practitioners | James Caan, Rod Kuratomi, Val Mijailovic,Takemasa Okuyama, Grant Campbell |
| Official website | https://budokanworldkarate.com/ |
Budokan (武道館,Budōkan) is a style ofkarate recognized by the World Union of Karate Do Organizations[1] and theWorld Karate Federation. Karate Budokan International was founded in 1966 by Chew Choo Soot inPetaling Jaya,Malaysia.
Chew Choo Soot was born inAlor Star, a Northern State of Peninsula,Malaysia, on 7 February 1922. When Chew was an infant, his father died, and so he was brought up under the strict discipline of his grandfather, an elderlyConfucian scholar who believed in education through books and not inmartial arts.
At 15 years of age, Chew became very interested in weight lifting and enrolled for training at a small body building club inIpoh. Due to his dedication and training, he became the nationalMalaysianweight lifting champion in both thefeather weight and thelight weight classes in 1939, 1941 and 1942. During those years he also acquired an interest in martial arts and took upjudo,jujitsu andwrestling.
At age 20, Chew was introduced to Karate-Do, during the Japanese occupation ofMalaya. He was then contracted by aJapanese military officer, who had seen him in health and strength magazines, to become a personal fitness and weight lifting coach. During one of his scheduled visits, the young Chew discovered the officer practicing movements which we now know to be karate ‘Kata’. The styles of karate practiced by the officer were Keishinkan andShotokan. Chew was impressed and asked for and got tuition. For more than 2 years afterwards, he and the officer trained together in karate, jujitsu, judo and weight lifting until the Japanese Army officer left forOkinawa in 1945.
After theSecond World War, Chew went toJapan and occupiedOkinawa to further his karate training, as well as several trips to Taiwan to learn kung-fu and oriental weapons from a number of old kung-fu Masters of China.
In 1966, at the request of his friends, Chew decided to start a dojo atPetaling Jaya with a small number of students, and Karate Budokan International was founded as a lesser organisation. There was a large amount of interest shown by people who wanted to learn karate, and he found it impossible to cope with the classes without seeking assistants. As there were no other karate instructors in Malaysia, he made two further trips toTokyo andOsaka and employed seven Japanese instructors as assistants. Classes then spread the art of Budokan karate throughout the Malay Peninsula within two years.
Chew's ambition was to be able to travel to different countries and conduct karate classes when he reached the age of 80. However, he fell ill from a paralytic attack on 4 February 1995 and died, in Malaysia, on 18 July 1997 at the age of 76 years.
Karate Budokan International is now a global association with branches around the world includingAustralia,India,Israel,Germany,Malaysia,Pakistan,Norway,Sri Lanka,United Arab Emirates,United States of America,Cameroon,Wales andEngland. The world headquarters for KBI is located inNoosa,Queensland, Australia.
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