GOJU
KAI KARATE DO
Paul Starling Kyoshi
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GOJU
KAI KARATE DO Paul Starling Kyoshi |
PROFILE~
AUSTRALIAN SHIHAN INSTRUCTORS- Paul Starling Shihan Former Australian Chief Instructor and World IKGA Vice President Paul Starling Shihan Kyoshi, a member of Goju Kai Karate do Australia for 40 years, was the first graduate in 1973 as Shihan from Gogen Yamaguchi Sensei's prestigious Nihon Karate do Senmon Gakko, and the only Australian Shihan Graduate. Paul Starling commenced training in the Gogen Yamaguchi school of Goju Kai Karate do as a teenager 40 years ago in the early 1960's, with the founder of Goju Kai in Australia, Merv Oakley Sensei. At that time in Australia, very few Karate Instructors were qualified to teach and only a handful were legitimately graded to any black belt level of proficiency. Oakley Sensei was a pioneer of Australian Karate, and had travelled to the Hombu Dojo in Japan to train with Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi for extended periods. Paul had trained in Judo from a very young age with a very distinguished teacher Sensei Ron Cox, and for many years continued training in Judo and Goju Kai Karate do concurrently, on a daily basis. After graduating from Barker College in Waitara Sydney, he commenced a career with Unilever Australia, and also the Australian Army CMF, due to the influence of his father. Lieutenant Colonel Noel George Reid Starling, a career Army man, was said to be the longest serving soldier in the Australian Regular Army when he passed away in 1996. Colonel Starling born in 1913 had added a number of years to his birth date in order to sign on as a soldier in approx 1926. It was as an Army Officer that Paul also honed his skills at leadership and the self discipline that helped him build a successful Dojo, represent Australia at the First World Karate Do Championship in Japan in 1970, and the second in Paris in 1972. Paul was a founder member of the Australian Karate Federation,the Kokusai Karate do Shihan Kai, the New South Wales Karate Federation, and the Macquarie University Karate Club.(1968) Paul has also represented Australia as an International official at WUKO World Karate do Championships. Whilst in Japan at the Karate do College, Paul had
stayed with Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi in his home , and had also acted in
a secretarial capacity for the IKGA. In this role he had became very
closely aligned with the Yamaguchi family in Japan, and he has returned
on many occasions with very large groups of his students to train with
both Gogen Yamaguch Hanshi prior to his death in 1989, and also Goshi
Yamaguchi Shihan, Gosen Yamaguchi Shihan and also Wakako Yamaguchi
Shihan. Whilst in Japan in 1970 representing Australia at the
First World Karate do Championships, Gogen Yamaguchi suggested the name
of Sydney Goju Kan for Paul's own Dojo, and the School has been in
operation ever since. Along with the Macquarie University Karate Club
(established 1968) The North Sydney branch of Goju Kai Karate do ,
along with the other foundation Dojo ie: in Hornsby, Asquith and West
Pymble, Sydney Goju Kai members of Paul Starling Shihan trained with,
and competed against, their Melbourne Goju Kai colleagues under the
tutelage of Constantino Ceberano Shihan in the foundation years and
until 1989 when Ceberano Shihan formed a new school apart from the
Yamaguchi family. It was at that time that Paul Starling Shihan became
the Chief Instructor of Goju Kai Karate do Australia until retiring
from teaching in 2004.
photograph courtesy of Blitz Martial Arts Magazine
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