Sensei Whitcher is direct lineage to the great Masters of Shotokan through his dedicated following of Shihan Kanazawa.

Sensei Whitcher started Martial Arts around 1960 with Judo. Following a motorcycle accident he was forced to give this up. Out of curiosity derived mostly from American magazines he started karate in April 1963.

The next milestone in Sensei Whitcher's Karate life was in 1965 when four Japanese Sensei arrived, including the two well known Karate Masters, Shihan Enoeda and Kanazawa. In July of that year Sensei Whitcher took an open grading under Sensei Kanazawa and attained 3^rd kyu. In April 1966 Sensei Whitcher was one of the first Western students of Shihan Kanazawa to obtain Shodan. This was soon to be followed in 1966 with Nidan.

Shortly after taking Nidan, Sensei Whitcher followed Shihan Kanazawa to Japan, where he would stay for four years, and in fact meet his wife, Mrs Toshiko Whitcher. He endured daily sessions of brutally hard training, which far exceeds that of today's classes. Further difficulties including finance and the extreme humidity made his stay even more of a challenge. Due to his ability, Sensei Whitcher was directly invited by Shihan Kanazawa, to join the instructor's class.

Sensei Whitcher's time in Japan ended in 1971 when he returned to England as Sandan. This is when he started his own club and continued to train and maintain a traditional standard until he sadly passed away in 1990.

Sensei Whitcher continued training very hard and continued to pass on the teachings of Shihan Kanazawa. He is sadly missed by all those who were privileged enough to have known and trained with a truly great karateka and ambassador for our art.
Matsuba Kai will always honor Sensei Whitcher by trying to make him proud by training with the spirit and discipline he showed us.
 
 
 
 
 

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