Budo-Ryu International Karate S.A. teaches the Shito-Ryu form of karate and has clubs 
Situated in the Hillcrest, Waterfall, Westville, Pinetown and Bluff areas of Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.
Instruction in karate is also held at many schools. 

"True victory is victory over one's self"

The Beginnings 

Karate is a fighting technique that makes use of the body's natural weapons and thus the Japanese term for Karate being "Empty Hand".

Many students who start karate, are of the opinion that they will receive "Super Powers" and in a short period, will be able to beat anyone up and become a type of "Bruce Lee". This is unfortunately not the case. 

The Instructor (Sensei) is there to assist you in developing this true power and strength that is within the student, but it is only by a students own dedication, commitment and by striving, from the outset, to develop the true power of the body and mind, that the student will start to experience the "True Feeling" and understand the "True Meaning" of Karate both from the beauty of the external form as well as the inner feeling of confidence and peace.

Karate is a disciplined sport, and we should, at all times endeavour to use Karate as a vehicle to the perfection of ones own character, thereby striving to become the person that we were meant to become.

Background - Budo-Ryu International South Africa

Budo-Ryu International S.A. is a full member of Budo-Ryu International and is also a member of the World Karate Federation (W.K.F.), which is the world body controlling semi-contact karate.

Bodokan South Africa was founded by Hanshi Richard Salmon in the early 1960 and he was one of the pioneers of early karate in South Africa.

Hanshi Richard was the first ever Springbok Karate captain.

He now heads up Budo-Ryu International and has studied martial arts under some of the most famous masters of all time such as Kaiso Gogen Yamaguchi of Goju-Kai (The Cat), Master Chojiro Tani founder of Shukokai and Osensei Ueshiba Morihei the founder of Aikido to name just a few

Background  
Shito-Ryu Karate

In brief, Shito-ryu was founded by Kenwa Mabuni who originally studied under Yasutsune Itosu and also under Kanryo Higashionna.

Later he named his style of karate the Shito style, taking the first characters of each of his teacher's names. 'Shi' is the one of the Japanese readings for the character meaning "string" which is the first of the two characters which make up the name "Itosu".

"Higashi" is the first character of Master Higashionna's name. Master Mabuni combined them to get "Shito" as the name of his style.

The Shito-Ryu taught within Budo-Ryu International Karate is from one of Mabuni's principal students Master Chojiro Tani called Tani-ha Shito-Ryu.

This style in turn has been handed down through Tani's disciples Master Kumiro, Master Tomiyama and Shihan Marinus. Technically, Shito-ryu karate has a lot more flowing and natural type movements and is performed in a lighter, more angular and rangy fashion than they are in schools derived from Naha-te alone.

Shito-ryu stresses speed, and fighting is generally initiated from a higher, more upright stance than Shotokan employs. On the other hand, because the style has so many kata, a great deal of time is spent perfecting any one of its 40 to 60 forms and places great emphasis on technical aspects of the art.

Sensei Kelvin Daniels

Kelvin Daniels was born in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania on 30 December 1954. He was educated at Westville Boys High School outside of Durban. At age 13 

he started his Karate career with Budokan and training under Sensei Vic Sykes and the late Sensei Ray Ryan. 

Shihan Kelvin remains a registered member of Budoryu International and enjoys the opportunity of being able to come together through the efforts and interests of karate-ka from around the globe who originally trained at Budokan/Budo-Ryu Dojo's.

In 1974 as a brown belt, he changed styles to train with Sensei Conrad Scheepers at Renshukan and later moved styles to join Shukokai Fighting Arts in Waterfall, a year later he graded to 1st Dan.

Through business commitments he moved to Melmoth in Zululand and it was here that he opened his first Dojo and took Zululand by storm.

Twelve years later he would find himself back in Waterfall and taking over the Dojo he used to train at.

In 2002 he lived and trained in Japan with Sensei Takeshi Masuyama (8th Dan).

He holds the rank of 5th Dan and is the Head Instructor for Budo-Ryu International South Africa.

He has 27 years of teaching karate experience and is a practitioner of Shito-Ryu Karate and has trained under many internationally recognised masters which includes Sensei Shigeru Kimura, Shihan Keiji Tomiyama (Kofukan), Yoshio Kuba Sensei (Okinawan Goju-Ryu), Hansi Koga (Shotokan Karate-Do International Swiss Federation and Shihan Takeshi Masuyama (Ryushin-Kan).

Sensei Kim Heaton

Sensei Kim started training in Sankukai karate under Sensei Barry Anderson in 1990 and obtained her 2nd Kyu in 1993 where she stopped training due to her studying.

She started training and teaching in 2002 in the art of Sankukai under Sensei Brett Sumner.  

Sensei Brett moved the style to Hayashi-Ha shito-Ryu karate under the instructionof Shihan Nicky Pillay in 2004 and was then graded to Shodan in July 2004.

In 2009 Sensei Kim moved to Kofukan and trained under Shihan Kelvin Daniels and was graded to Nidan in August of 2010.  In August of 2011 she graded to Sundan.

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