History

Shihan Robert Kane is the founder of Tenshinkan Karate U.K. This has only been achieved through his Personal commitment to the martial arts from a very early age. He began as a young boy, at the age of 15, training in the Dudhope Castle, Dundee. In those days, however, it wasn't a matter of just turning up and starting, first you had to have an interview with the club committee, who asked why you wanted to train, who introduced you to karate etc. After being accepted he continued training for two and a half months and took his first exam. He failed, applied three months later and failed again. He was disappointed and went back to football training for six months. But his friend Bob Barrowman, convinced him to come back to karate training, which hr did, and continued to this day. That was over 40 years ago. Training for Robert back then was three nights a week, plus Sunday morning and Sunday evening sessions.

After leaving Dudhope Castle three and a half years later, he joined Pat Dempsey's Karate Club. Having already achieved Black Belt (Shodan), he was forced to start again from beginner grade. He trained in this Club in Albert Street, Dundee, from 1967 until 1971 when he emigrated to South Africa. When he returned back to the U.K. he re-joined Pat Dempsey's Club, but soon left with two other members, Jim Kidd and Bob Barrowman. Together this trio entered the Full Contact Karate scene which was just getting popular at the time. Shihan explains, "We won a few and we lost a few, and believe me it was brutal at times, you had no consideration for your opponent, you just went out to knock him out and that was it. Just getting him away as quick as possible and collect your money. That was more or less what it was like. We did this for about two years." (Interview from the UK Federation Newsletter No. 4, 1995.)

It was in 1981 that Robert was invited by Shihan Hans Haupt to return to South Africa to begin intensive training sessions in a new style called 'Tenshinkan'. Shihan Hans had himself given up work in South Africa to go to Japan to learn this style.

Circumstances prevailed however and Robert was forced to return to the U.K. but not before giving his commitment to Shihan Hans that he would promote and develop the Tenshinkan style in the U.K. After the very tentative steps of hiring a hall and inviting people to try this new style, three people turned up to his first ever Tenshinkan training session. Things began to develop but not fast enough for Robert who feared that he lacked the necessary authority to establish this new style. This led to the decision to visit the Honbu Dojo and train with the World Chief Instructor, Kancho Mamoru Miwa in Hasadu City. He trained for a grueling four weeks and also participated in the World Championships that year in 1984. He returned again to Japan for a further punishing regime of training for seven weeks and was then awarded the very honorable grade of Shihan, 5th Dan. He has since been back regularly to Japan a further three times over recent years. These direct links with Japan have served to establish and firmly root Tenshinkan Karate Federation within the United Kingdom. On his visit in 1996 he was examined by Kancho Mamoru Miwa and successfully passed his 6th Dan grading. 10 years later, in October 2006, a further visit saw him being awarded 7th Dan