Enoeda Keinosuke, 9th Dan was the JKA representative and Chief Instructor for Great Britain. He was born in Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan on July 4th 1935 and practiced martial arts from an early age. While attending Takushoku University and after only two years training he passed his first dan black belt examination, and then two years later, aged 21, he was made captain of the Karate club. It was during his university training that he received instruction from the great master, Funakoshi Gichin. After graduating in 1957 with a degree in commerce, Enoeda was invited to take the special instructors course at the JKA headquarters. He accepted and for the next three years studied long and hard on a daily basis under Masatoshi Nakayama, the chief instructor of the JKA and Hidetaka Nishiyama, a leading senior. He won the JKA All Japan Championship in 1963 and during this period he and after Nakayama described his fighting he picked up the nickname "tiger" (tora in Japanese). He headed the Karate Union of Great Britain as well as the Karate Union of Scotland in his time, but sadly passed away in 2003.

Abe Keigo, 9th dan, born 1938 on Shikoku, Japan, was a direct student and confidante of Nakayama Masatoshi with whom he often assisted with his research. As a senior JKA instructor, he spent more than 35 years in the JKA Honbu, holding the office of both JKA Director of Qualification (presplit) and JKA Technical Director (Matsuno). A formidable tournament fighter in his day, he received many accolades while within the JKA and after he left to form the Japan Shotokan Karate Association in 1999. Abe sensei was one of the few instructors who could truly say that he taught Shotokan as developed and perceived by Nakayama, while headmaster of the JKA. A formidable fighter in his day, this was reflected in his time as a tournament competitor where he took 3rd place in the first JKA National Championships, was Captain of the Japanese team at the 2nd World Championships in Paris and took 1st place in 1973 at the JKA International Friendship Tournament, 1st place in the second Japan Karate Federation's (JKF) National Championships and 1st place in the third Japan Karate Federation's (JKF) National Championships. He currently heads the Japan Shotokan Karate Association.

Sumi Yoshikazu, 8th Dan was born in Shiritori, Japan on the 23rd June 1936. He started practicing karate at the age of 18 years at Keai University. His first karate teacher was Sensei Takaura, a senior graduate of the Japan Karate Association (JKA). He graded to Shodan (1st dan) in 1957 under Takaura sensei but formally  joined the JKA in 1962 where he went on to teach the military on a US Airforce base in Japan. At the JKA's behest, he was sent into Europe as an assistant instructor, where he spent some time teaching in the UK in the late 60s with Enoeda sensei before moving to Italy to act for many years as assistant to Shirai Hiroshi 9th Dan. After the JKA split, he followed his heart and became an instructor and member of Asia’s faction of the JKA. Sensei Sumi still lives in Shiritori Japan, and is the official head of the Karate Union of Australia and The School of Traditional Karate in the UK and was formerly Technical Director to the Britain Netherlands Union of the JKA based in Holland.

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