Hideyuki Ashihara
Hideyuki Ashihara (芦原 英幸, Ashihara Hideyuki) (5 Desember 1944—24 April 1995) adalah seorang tokoh bela diri Jepang yang mendirikan aliran karate Ashihara di tahun 1980. Sistem karate ini dibuat berdasarkan aliran Kyokushin
Masa kecil
Ashihara lahir tak jauh dari Hiroshima dan dibesarkan oleh kakek-neneknya di sebuah desa kecil bernama Nomicho. Ia mulai belajar Kendo pada usia 10 tahun. Pada tahun 1960, ketika ia berumur 15 tahun, ia pindah ke Tokyo di mana ia bekerja di sebuah pom bensin selama 6 tahun. Pada bulan September 1961, ia mulai belajar karate di Dojo Oyama, yang kemudian dibah namanya menjadi Dojo Honbu Kyokushinkai oleh Mas Oyama, pendirinya. Ia sangat tertarik dengan gaya latihan Kyokushin yang keras dan realistik. Ia mendapatkan sabuk hitamnya pada tanggal 26 Maret 1964, di usia 19 tahun.
Karir
Pada tahun 1966 ia ditunjuk sebagai pembina (instruktur), namun tak lama kemudian ia diskors oleh Mas Oyama karena ketahuan menghajar beberapa Yakuza di jalanan. Sikap Oyama yang keras diduga karena Oyama memiliki kedekatan personal dengan Yakuza yang dihajar oleh Ashihara.[1] Setelah dua bulan, skors dari Oyama tersebut dicabut. Ashihara kemudian dikirim ke Nomura (di pulai Shikoku) untuk melatih karate. Ia kemudian dipindahkan ke Yawatahama, di mana ia membuka sebuah sekolah Kyokushin Karate.
Di pertengahan tahun 1970-an, ia mulai membentuk gayanya sendiri, dengan lebih banyak gerakan melingkar daripada Kyokushin. Ia menyebut gayanya ini sebagai Ashihara karate. Ia kemudian pindah ke Matsuyama untuk menyebarkan alirannya. Salah satu muridnya, Joko Ninomiya, berhasil memenangkan turnamen All-Japan di tahun 1978. Di tahun-tahun selanjutnya, ketegangan yang meningkat antara Ashihara dengan pembina Kyokushin lain di akhir tahunh 1978 menyebabkan Ashihara dipecat dari Kyokushinkai.
By the mid-1970s he had begun to form his own style, more circular and less linear than Kyokushin, which would eventually be called Ashihara Karate. He moved to Matsuyama where he taught the system. One of his students, Joko Ninomiya, won the 1978 All-Japan tournament. Later, tensions with other Kyokushin instructors led to Ashihara being formally expelled from the Kyokushinkai in late 1978 to early 1979. In 1980 the Honbu Dojo for the new system was completed, and the New International Karate Organisation (NIKO) was founded to govern the system. Hence, the date of the true beginning of the system is often taken to be 1980. The basic principle of his new system was "sabaki", which means to move to the side, to angle, and reach the opponents blind spot. That way you get out of the line of his attack into a safe position without losing distance so you can easily hit him from his side or back. The linear style of Kyokushin often leads to that the winner is the strongest or maybe the fastest. Ashiharas vision with his new system was that it could be used by anyone regardless of size or physical abilities.
Beginning in 1983, he published three books and three instructional videos for his new style. The first book, entitled Fighting Karate (the nickname for the style), was very popular, even among practitioners of other Karate styles.
Death
In 1987 he began to show signs of ALS. His condition worsened in the 1990s and he died of complications of the disease in 1995. His son Hidenori Ashihara became the second head of the system. (The head of this style is referred to as Kancho.) He continues to head NIKO.
Legacy
Hideyuki Ashihara is remembered as an innovator who took the realistic full-contact training of Kyokushin and built a more refined and technical self-defense system from it. Since then, others have created their own variants of his system, such as Enshin Karate.