History International Budo Kaikan

Our Founder and President Jon Bluming.

Kaicho Jon Bluming, was born in 1933 and he lived in Holland. He is regarded as a living legend in the home of Budo - Japan. He has been involved with Budo for over seventy years, and his list of Japanese issued grades must be unique: Karate l0th Dan, Hapkido 10th Dan, Judo 9th Dan, Bo Jitsu 4th Dan, Iai Jitsu 4th Dan and Kendo 2nd Dan. It would take a book to describe this man's career, so we will just mention some of the highlights of his extraordinary life. He was a royal marine and wounded three times during the Korean War. He received numerous decorations for bravery. Kaicho Jon Bluming has had leading and supporting roles in Dutch, Belgian, American and Japanese films. In Judo, Kaicho Jon Bluming was of the same level as Anton Geesink, the Olympic Champion. Among Kaicho Jon Bluming's students are Chris Dolman, three-time World Champion Sambo and eight-time Dutch Judo Champion, Willem Ruska, two-time Olympic Champion and Semmy Schilt four-time K-1 World Grand Prix Champion and one-time Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam Champion

It was in 1954 that Kaicho Jon Bluming was awarded his first Dan grade, when he was promoted to 1st Dan in Judo. Then in 1956, he became 2nd Dan. In 1957 he was the captain of the Dutch Team which became European Champion. The same year he was promoted to 3rd Dan by Sensei Tokyo Hirano (one of the most famous Judokas of the Kodokan) after beating 75 Judoka in 26 minutes at the Summer Camp in Holland. In 1959 he won various Tournaments. Later that year he travelled to Japan to train Judo. He also became interested in Karate and began training in the old Kyokushin Honbu. In November 1959, he was proposed by Donn Draeger and accepted for the Kenshusei class (Kodokan), which is only for the 25 best Judo-kas in Japan. He soon climbed to the position of third best after Kaminaga Akio San and Inokuma Isao San. in 1960 he defeated Kaminaga Akio San with his specialty, a choke. At his peak, Kaicho Jon Bluming was invincible in Judo. Kaicho Jon Bluming also joined the Kendo Federation together with Donn Draeger and trained Bo Jitsu, Iai Jitsu and Kendo in order to better understand the Japanese fighting spirit. By 1961 he became 2nd Dan in Kyokushin and he then introduced Kyokushin Full Contact Karate to Europe. From then on he continued to return to Japan where he was, and still is, regarded as a legend. Until 1970 Kaicho Jon Bluming was in charge of Kyokushin Full Contact Karate in Europe. At that time he resigned in order to concentrate on his business. The promotions kept on coming and in 1980 he started his own organisation, which he named the "Kyokushin Budo Kai" which later changed its name and was called the International Budo Kaikan (IBK).There are only two sections within the International Budo Kaikan and those are Kyokushin Full Contact Karate and Kyokushin Budokai All-Round Fighting.

To crown a magnificent career Kaicho Jon Bluming was promoted to l0th Dan in 1994. As far as we know, Kaicho Jon Bluming was the only European who has ever been promoted to l0th Dan in Karate by the Japanese. He was also an Advisor of several large Japanese Budo Organizations. It was Kaicho Jon Bluming's dream, to give all he learned in over seventy years of training to the students of the International Budo Kaikan. On Monday, December 17, 2018 our Kaicho passed on to the Budo Heaven and left us an amazing legacy of Budo information.

Many of you have probably heard the name Kenji Kurosaki, 10th Dan, but do not know so much about this man. He was born into an old fashioned Samurai family, on March 15, 1930, on the outskirts of Tokyo. Around 1951 he joined the Yamaguchi Karate style of Goju Ryu, and trained there together with Masutatsu Oyama. In 1953 Sosai Mas Oyama, and Sensei Kenji Kurosaki decided to make their own style and called it Kyokushinkaikan.