About me

I think I should also tell you something about myself and my teachers:

In 1985, at the age of 14, I started karatedo training with my main teacher and mentor Reinhold Hirsch Sensei (1954-2016), who had been a student of Ichikawa Isao Hanshi (Karatedo Dōshinkan).

Hirsch Sensei was given the honor of receiving the 10th Dan and the title Dai Shihan, Iemoto Shudokan, from Ichikawa Hanshi. He had been the student in the background, the Uchi Deshi (inner student) of Ichikawa Hanshi. Hirsch Sensei never made this high distinction public except among a handful of his students.

Very early in his childhood, Hirsch Sensei started with judo and, in 1969, his karate training with Helmuth Hofbauer Sensei, a student of Ichikawa Hanshi. It was also Hofbauer Sensei who introduced Hirsch Sensei to Ichikawa Sensei during a karate demonstration in Klagenfurt in 1970. Hirsch Sensei lived in Klagenfurt and later studied in Graz. Hence, the Vienna-based Honbu Dojo was not the place of his main training sessions. Nevertheless, during the first few years of his karate training, Hirsch Sensei regularly drove to Vienna to train at the Honbu Dojo and take private lessons from Ichikawa Hanshi. In addition, from 1970 onwards, he had been taking part in the annual Dōshinkan training camps. During his university years, he already led a dojo in Graz. After receiving his university degree in 1980, he returned to his hometown Klagenfurt and opened a karatedo dojo there. In the middle of the 1980s, for reasons unknown to me, the paths of Ichikawa Hanshi and Hirsch Sensei temporarily separated. In 1992, after an absence of seven years, Hirsch Sensei attended a Dōshinkan training camp (taking place in Germany at the time) for the first time again. During Ichikawa Hanshi’s final year, Hirsch Sensei traveled to Vienna almost weekly to take private lessons with the master. Ichikawa Sensei had Hirsch Sensei show him every Dōshinkan kata he had learned. Ichikawa Hanshi then pointed out technical subtleties and also taught him several new kata. Shortly before his death, Ichikawa Sensei handed Hirsch Sensei the 10th dan certificate mentioned earlier.

Hirsch Sensei was an outstanding talent. During training sessions, he focused on Kihon, kata and their applications. He taught karatedo in a very comprehensive way. He did not teach karatedo, judo and jujutsu as separate disciplines, but considered them an integral part of a comprehensive martial art. Moreover, he instructed selected students in the disciplines of kendo, iaido and yoga, which he had learned from Ichikawa Hanshi.

Hirsch Sensei worked as a teacher, teaching mathematics and PE at a Gymnasium (a type of Austrian high school). He followed the same pedagogical approach during his karatedo lessons as during his school hours.

Aside from the technical and historical aspects of the martial arts, his students’ self- development was very important to him, and so he also taught humility, courtesy, and respect. Respect for your training partners, for all your fellow human beings, and for nature itself. He instilled in his students a great sense of awareness of the here and now, and he was and will always be a great source of inspiration to his students, both in karatedo and in everyday life. For four decades, he taught karatedo to several hundreds of students and provided guidance along their own paths. 

​Since 1985, I have been following the tradition of Okinawa Seito Karatedo with great inner joy and enthusiasm. Hirsch Sensei shaped my life like no one else. He was at all levels an exceptional teacher. I am infinitely grateful to him for everything he taught me and I feel honored to have trained under him.

​In the summer of 1991, I traveled to Japan for the first time to be instructed by Ishida Kenshin Sensei (Toyama-ryu Dōshinkan). During this visit, I lived at the master's house for three months. Ishida Sensei made it possible for me to meet and train with many students of Toyama Sensei. Among these masters were Tanaka Mikio Sensei, Takahashi Hiroshi Sensei, Takahashi Kuniyoshi Sensei, Kawamoto Masayuki Sensei and Tokuyama Yoshiki Sensei.

Since 1991, I have been to Japan several times, alone and with karatedo friends, to visit the Ishida family and to train under Ishida Sensei. In return, Ishida Sensei and his wife Reiko visited me several times in Austria in the last decades. The last time was in June 2019 at my wedding. The year 1991 was both the beginning of an extraordinary teacher-student relationship with Ishida Sensei and the beginning of a strong and sincere friendship with him and his wife Reiko. I feel deeply connected to both of them and am extremely grateful for everything they have done for me in the last three decades.

Some years ago, I decided with enthusiasm and great devotion to share my knowledge about the karatedo history of Toyama Kanken with like-minded people. The work on my book "Toyama Kanken - The Heritage of Shudokan" has given me a lot of pleasure. The process of writing is a form of training for me during which I have learned a lot. I am highly motivated to pass on the heritage of Toyama Kanken in the form of books, DVDs and seminars. The founding of the International Shudokan Research Society was only a natural next step in my personal journey. 

Dr. Christian Bellina, Hanshi, 9. Dan
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Okinawa Seito Karatedo Toyama-ryu / Shudokan
Director of the International Shudokan Research Society