Sensei Nathan Ligo
Sensei Nathan Ligo is the instructor of the Hoshokai program at Ligo Dojo of Budo Karate. He works under the close supervision of Soke Okazaki Hiroto, the founder of Hoshokai. Sensei Ligo has a 3rd-dan in Mugai Ryu Iai Hyodo, a 3rd-dan in Ryukyu Kobudo, a 2nd-dan in Shinto Muso Ryu Jo-do, and a 2nd-dan in Shito-ryu Karate-do, all under Soke Okazaki Hiroto, the Grandmaster of Hoshokai, in addition to his 6th-dan and Renshi title in Kyokushin Karate under Kaicho Royama Hatsuo’s Kyokushin-kan.
Sensei Nathan Ligo of Chapel Hill Hoshokai – Martial Arts has devoted 40 years of practice to Kyokushin Karate, was a direct personal student of its founder, Mas Oyama, before his death in 1994, and has been a 20-year student of his successor in Budo Karate, the founder of Kyokushin-kan, Kaicho Royama Hatsuo. For the previous decade, however, Sensei Ligo, has also been learning from Kaicho Royama’s named successor in Kyokushin, Kancho (Director) Okazaki Hiroto, the same “Soke” who was named by his life’s second teacher, Soke Shiokawa Hosho, to be the 16th-generation Grandmaster of Mugai Ryu Iai Hyodo. Sensei Ligo now teaches the Hoshokai arts at Ligo Dojo of Budo Karate in Chapel Hill as a parallel, lower-impact, “Art for Art’s Sake” alternative to Kyokushin Karate. All advanced Kyokushin Karate students at Ligo Dojo in Chapel Hill also participate in Hoshokai classes, but, for the first time, we are launching an option for new members to learn the Hoshokai arts alone, for those who may be less interested in the rigors of a punching-and-kicking-based martial art.
“Soke” Okazaki who Chapel Hill Hoshokai – Martial Arts members have trained with in Japan, and who teaches monthly online seminars to Chapel Hill Hoshokai – Martial Arts members, has an 8th-dan and Hanshi or Shihan title in all of the 4 Hoshokai arts, in addition to his 9th-dan and Hanshi title in Kyokushin Karate. Analogously, Sensei Ligo has a 3rd-dan in Mugai Ryu Iai Hyodo, a 3rd-dan in Ryukyu Kobudo, a 2nd-dan in Shinto Muso Ryu Jo-do, and a 2nd-dan in Shito-ryu Karate-do, in addition to his 6th-dan and Renshi title in Kyokushin-kan. Chapel Hill Hoshokai – Martial Arts at Ligo Dojo is the first and only official branch of Hoshokai currently operating in the United States, and several Ligo Dojo students have now attained 1st-dan in several of the Hoshokai arts.
Sensei Ligo, left, can be seen here in Tokyo in 1990. He was 19 years old and just 3 months into the 600 dyas he would remain in the famed Young Warriors Dormitory as a personal student of Mas Oyama, center.
Sensei Ligo’s second great teacher was Kaicho Hatsuo Royama, above right, who is arguably Mas Oyama’s successsor in Budo Karate. Sensei Ligo, center above, is pictured with 2 additional significant life teachers: Soke Hiroto Okazaki, the founder of Hoshokai, and named successor of Kaicho Royama in Kyokushin-kan, and, above left, Shihan Masahide Ishijima, who has been Sensei Ligo’s most significant teacher for kata.
Against all odds, Sensei Ligo, then 46, took 6th place in the Kyokukushin-kan World Kata Tournament in 2016. In 20023, below, Sensei Ligo took 1st place in the Kyokushin-kan European Open Karate tournament in the Kobudo kata division, and also 2nd place in Karate kata.
Above and below, Sensei Ligo takes 1st place in the Kobudo kata division of the Kyokushin-kan European Open Karate Tournament. Sensei Ligo’s tacher in Kyokushin karate, Kaicho Hatsuo Royama climbed up on the winners’ block to celebrate this victory.
