Shihan John Williams                   7th Dan

Shihan John Williams was appointed as Advisor to MOKKA and brings a lifetime of knowledge and experience to the group, its instructors and students.

Shihan John Williams started his martial arts journey in 1965, inspired like so many by the films and tv series at that time. He started practicing Judo in Bankstown at the YMCA and then karate with Wally Slagowski who started many clubs in the early 50’s after coming back from the end of the second world war.

After this early start Shihan Williams was drawn to Kyokushin (which was a new exciting full contact karate in Australia). He started in Revesby YMCA under Arther Thomas Sempai and then Peter Wolf Sensei and then finally Shihan Williams took over the running of the club.

In the early days the governing body in Australia was FAKO. (One of the early founding and guiding members of FAKO was Shihan Bob Boulton, original early student of Sosai Mas Oyama).

FAKO (Federation of Australian Karate Organizations) ran tournaments open to all styles and arts. In 1976 Shihan Williams won the NSW All Styles Championships and part of that years winning National team. During the same year Shihan Williams was picked to Represent Australia in the Asian Pacific Games held in Indonesia where the team would go on to get the Bronze Medal. The officials that year for the Australian team were Hanshi Tino Cebrano, Sensei Frank Novak and Shihan Bob Boulton. (All legends in the Australian Martial Arts community).

It was shortly after this time that Sosai Oyama advised that Kyokushin would not compete in these types of tournaments and so the Kyokushin Full Contact Tournament in Australia/New Zealand was born.

Shihan Williams competed in the first Kyokushin Full Contact Tournament  in the Sydney Town Hall held by Hanshi John Taylor.

 

Shihan Williams ran many dojo’s over the years as well as a full time dojo in Minchinbury NSW. Over this time Shihan was given special permission by Sosai Oyama to bring many guest fighters to Australia for seminars, these included the greats, Shihan Akira Masuda and Sensei Hajima Kuzumi and many others.

Shihan Williams continued his many trips to Japan attending training camps at Yugarwarra and Mt Mitsumine (the memorial grave site of Sosai Oyama) and Honbu dojo in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

In 1989 Shihan John Williams was appointed a Branch Chief in Australia and in 1992 was graded 5th Dan by Sosai Mas Oyama. Shihan Williams is also a  International Tournament Referee and Judge.

After Sosai’s  death in 1994 Shihan Williams trained and ran his dojo independently for a number of years before finally retiring from the dojo life. 

Shihan Williams still supports Kyokushin in Australia and is a regular at tournaments around the country.