Earliest days of karate in Denver CO, the CKA

I am writing this article in remembrance of the Colorado karate association, founded by Joseph Castillo. I used to eat at a place called the Subway Tavern on 38th and Maraposa in northeast Denver. There were pictures on the wall of people attacking each other wearing pajama like clothing. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked the bartender what those pajama clan people were doing. The bartender answered that the pictures showed karate training. His brother, Dan Longo and himself Ray Longo were studying karate in a studio just a block away. That evening, I became acquainted with CKA and their instructor, Joe Castillo, a second degree Black Belt In the Japan Karate Assn. The CKA was about a year-old at the time; founded around 1963. They was very little martial training in the Denver area at that time, a Tang Soo Do club, and a judo academy that was operated by Officer Goodie of the Denver Police Department. It was Officer Goodie who helped Joe Castillo get on the Denver P. D. Joe taught karate at the judo academy for a while before getting one of the first JKA charters in the USA. The club grew and it was arranged that a fifth degree JKA instructor be invited to Denver. Mr.Yataka Yaguchi arrived in 1964 and assumed the responsibility for instruction. At that time there were two Black Belt's in the club, Joe Castillo and one of his students Hedeki Iwakabi. Two brown belts, Dan Longo and Jeff McMullen were promoted to Black Belt by Mr.Yaguchi. This brought the number of black belts in the club up to 4. See the picture taken in 1964 during chief instructor Naykyama's visit. Later it was decided to move the Dojo to a downtown location, which unfortunately was not a location which attracted enough new students to pay the bill's, so Mr. Yaguchi could no longer be supported even with special donations from the Longo brothers. He returned to the west-coast headquarters in Los Angles CA. After Mr. Yaguchi's departure, the CKA moved several times before it finally came to rest at a location on South Broadway. Meanwhile, Joe Castillo's first Black Belt student, Hedeki Iwakabi split from the CKA. The club did well at its Broadway location, the members build a shower -- at last! Stan Lake donated a three-man sauna and someone else donated a weight set. The members also built a lounge bar and dressing room in the basement to go along with the shower and sauna. Seldom did we hire any work done, we always had competent volunteers in the club. The membership threw some great parties featuring international buffets, dancing and late-night philosophizing. The club was made up of people from many backgrounds, brought together by the strong bond of comradeship in karate. Joe Castillo arranged martial arts exchanges through local tournaments and mutual practices. Being from Hawaii Joe oversaw an annual pig roast in the spring and in the summer he arranged training in the mountains.
I moved to Utica NY to teach at Mohawk Valley Community College where I was the adviser and instructor for the MVCC karate club. The club was a branch of the CKA and for nine years the MVCC club flew Joe Castillo to Utica for a week of training in the spring. In 1973 he passed away from a congenital heart problem. At Joe.s death, two of the CKA members, Stan Lake and Neal Condon went to Hedeki Iwakabi's Dojo where Mr. Yaguchi was visiting and invited him to take over the CKA. Soon after he came back he renamed the CKA as the JKA of CO, whose 10th anniversary was celebrated in 1984. No mention was made of the founding organization, the CKA. I was happy to learn of the successes of the new organization in the spotlight volume No. 3. But I am sure some of this success was derived from the work of the earlier CKA members, the foremost being Joseph Castillo, fourth degree Black Belt Posthumus, combat soldier, policemen and pioneer in America for the Japan karate association.




Masatoshi Nakayama Yutaka Yaguchi Joseph Castillo Hedeki Iwakabi Danny Longo Jeff Mc Mullen
Chief Instr. JKA Chief Instr. CKA Pres. CKA Black Belt Black Belt Black Belt

JKA, Japan Karate Association, the parent organization
CKA, Colo. Karate Association a part of the JKA

Back