The karate master Hidetaka Nishiyama was instrumental in popularising his martial art in the West, particularly in the US.

The son of a master of kendo (a form of fencing using wooden swords), Nishiyama, who was born in Tokyo, had practised martial arts since childhood, taking up kendo at 5, and later studying judo. When, in 1943, he began to study karate, it was still a minority interest in mainland Japan, having been imported from the archipelago of Okinawa only in the 1920s. Nishiyama became a pupil of Gichin Funakoshi, who was chiefly responsible for bringing karate to Japan, and the founder of the Shotokan school of karate.

He trained at Funakoshi’s dojo in Tokyo. Naval service interrupted his training, but he obtained his black belt in 1946, and continued to study under Funakoshi while a student at Takushoku University. There, he joined the karate team, becoming its captain in 1949. He was a founder member of the Japan Karate Association, and was elected to its board of directors in 1951, that year that he obtained his master’s degree in economics from Takushoku.

In the late 1940s the US Strategic Air Command had begun to train forces in martial arts. Nishiyama was the youngest of several instructors who gave demonstrations to US personnel in Japan. In 1953 he was one of a team of ten that toured SAC bases in the US and Cuba. In the same year he became chief instructor of the JKA.

In 1960 Nishiyama co-wrote (with Richard C. Brown) Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting, still in print and regarded as one of the most authoritative texts on its subject. In 1961 he moved to Los Angeles, established the All American Karate Federation and organised the first national karate championship. He was a prime mover behind the US v Japan Goodwill Karate Tournment in 1965, the first international karate competition. Three years later he organised the first World Invitational Karate Tournament in Los Angeles; other tournaments took place in 1970 in Tokyo and 1973 in Paris. In 1974 he helped to set up the International Amateur Karate Federation. This, later renamed the International Traditional Karate Federation, arranged its first world championship in Los Angeles in 1975, and is the international governing body for the martial art today.

In his later years Nishiyama continued to teach at the Los Angeles Central Dojo and in courses worldwide. He worked to perfect a system of training and rules of competition which would take into account the principles of all traditional karate schools. Many of his students became champions.

In 2003 Nishiyama obtained the Judan (tenth degree) black belt from the International San Ten Karate Association, the highest possible rank in karate. His achievement also received official recognition in the US. The Stars and Stripes was flown over the Capitol in Washington to celebrate his 71st birthday in 1999. The following year he received the Fourth Order of Merit and the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Japanese Emperor — the first time that such an honour was granted to a practitioner of karate.

He was married, and had three daughters.

Hidetaka Nishiyama, karate master, was born on October 10, 1928. He died on November 8, 2008, aged 80