About Us

In the beginning Sensei Pat studied the style of Goju Ryu Karate in Singapore under the expert tuition of Sensei H Horiuchi at the Metropolitan YMCA from 1974 to 1976. At the time Pat was based in Singapore with the New Zealand Army. One day he watched a training session being conducted by Horiuchi Sensei and decided to join and is still today a member of this organisation.

Pat founded Shi Sei Kan Karate Do, a dojo teaching traditional Karate at the Christchurch YMCA in 1980. Since then he and his instructors have taught thousands of students, including a significant number who have achieved national and international honors.

Pat has returned to Japan many times for training at a number of Dojo, developing his knowledge and understanding of the traditional Goju Ryu Karate Do. In Goju-Ryu the emphasis is on developing the way of hard and soft which characterizes this style of Karate.

In October 2009 the name was changed to Jitsuei Kai which comes from the kanji or characters of the family names of Tanaka Sensei and Maekawa Sensei, the two 8th Dan Masters heading Jitsuei Kai in Japan.

Jitsuei Kai is a member of Japan Karate Do Federation Goju Kai, and an active member of Karate New Zealand, Oceania Karate Federation and the World Karate Federation.

Jitsuei Karate Do is represented in Tologa Bay, Gisborne by Les Harding, 4rd Dan Black Belt. Les also trained in Singapore for about four years, firstly under the tuition of Mr Horiuchi and then under Goju Kai Singapore Chief Instructor Hui Yew Kok.