Finding Your One Thing and Becoming Who You Are

This interview, posted to commemorate International Women's Day, was conducted in 2024 before Kiyou Shimuzu retired from competitive martial arts.

One day, when she was 9 years old, Kiyou Shimuzu of Japan followed her brother to karate class to watch him train. Soon, she joined the training on the mat. Her brother stopped after a short time, but now, into her third decade of training, Kiyou Shimuzu, kata World Karate Champion, Asian Games Champion, and Olympic Silver Medalist, is still going strong.

E. Paul Zehr: How did you discover karate originally?

Kiyou Shimizu: My brother started karate, and one day I went to watch him practice and wanted to try as well. He actually quit pretty quickly, but I never stopped!

EPZ: In the past, you said that you enjoyed karate when you started at 9 years old because it was fun. Is it still fun?

KS: Working on and perfecting technique and learning more about the history and the deepness of karate is still very interesting and fun. But when it comes to competition and winning or losing, of course it's fun when you win, maybe when you lose it's not fun! I’ve experienced both already, so sometimes it's fun and sometimes not.

EPZ: If you didn’t find karate, what do you think you would be doing now? Would you have “found your karate” in something else?

KS: (answers immediately) I would play basketball. I love basketball but I’m not really good at basketball! And I don’t really watch it much. I just like playing.

When you win, you train the next day. When you lose, you train the next day.

EPZ: When you perform in kata competition, there’s a structure that's handed down that must be done a certain way, but there’s also your personal expression of martial arts. Is that part of what makes it fun, gives a spark and a life to karate beyond just doing the training?

KS: I have to perform the kata as the shape of the kata. Everyone, and especially the judges, are expecting this. Just like in life, there are expectations. There are rules, and this is what it should look like. But the exact timing and how it's going to look in the body shape is up to me. It’s a challenge, but that's what makes it so interesting—to be respectful of the history of karate and the way of moving but also expressing yourself at the same time. It’s a process, and it takes many years before saying that you have a valid and special way of doing a technique for many years. To train the basics all the time and eventually to put your personality in it.

EPZ: Let's say you win the World Championships, and then the next day, you have training. Or you're training after you get silver. Is it the same, or do you approach it differently?

KS: There has to be no difference. When I win gold, I train the same next day. When I get silver, I train the same the next day.

EPZ: At the Tokyo Olympics, you must have felt a lot of pressure because it's your home country. Was it a different feeling from all the other championships?

KS: Of course, it was a lot more pressure because I'm Japanese, karate is from Japan, and the Olympics were in Japan. So I had no choice but to go and try to win. Mostly, it was the same whenever I go to another country, the pressure is still there. But of course, it was like a lot for this event.

Mental preparation and growth are the keys to success

EPZ: Recently, you took some time away from competing. This was probably a really healthy idea, and I’m just wondering how that came to be.

KS: During my break, it was very important to get back to my roots and what I like about karate. Because of all the competitions, I am always in high-pressure situations, and winning and losing are so critical. If I win three gold medals, but then one time I don’t get gold and finish with silver or bronze, this time is much more important than the three other ones. In order to keep the good feeling about karate, I needed to just take a step back and to get back to doing what I like. Because it’s my life. Yes, sure, I get told a lot of things by lots of people, but in the end, it’s my choice what I do.

EPZ: What will your karate be like when you are 50 or 60 and maybe coaching? Do you have any thoughts about teaching at a dojo with folks in the community?

KS: I'm going to do karate until I die. There is nothing that you can make perfect in karate (and in life), and there's always something to challenge and learn more about! Of course, I want to do coaching and stuff like that, but I want to study every technique for my whole life. I really like teaching. And eventually, I would like to be involved in that kind of community thing.

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EPZ: What’s your reaction to the question, “Is life a journey or a destination?”

KS: For sure, life is a journey. Because life is short, I follow it as a road with many things to try and to improve every day. We have to make the best of it. I like to face challenges rather than escaping. Maybe you can avoid difficulty and have an easier life, but I would rather accept what is in front of me, take it as learning, and then continue and integrate it into my karate journey.

Each person needs to find that thing inside that is their thing.

EPZ: When you look at your whole life journey so far, what is the key that you’ve discovered about yourself?

KS: Mental strength, basically. No matter how long you practice the techniques and no matter how hard you work in the dojo, if you don’t also focus on mental strength, it's not going to lead to anything that lasts. I discovered through my journey that sometimes in life, there are things you want to escape from. If you try to have a more even and happy approach to it, then even if it's hard, it will be a little better in the end if you have the good mentality to go with it.

EPZ: When you think back to when you started martial arts, how much do you remember about your own mental strength? Do you think you were already really strong, and then karate training made it stronger? Or was it smaller and it grew into something much stronger as a result of the training?

KS: I think it’s both things. My training helped me truly express what was part of my personality. But I think anyone can find something to help their mental strength and resilience. It doesn’t have to be martial arts. Maybe even basketball.

EPZ: What is the most important thing you have learned about life?

KS: Well, there’s been a lot of hard training. But something really important has come from it all. Karate is the one thing that enabled me to build up my personality. It took a lot of sacrifice, but that made me grow a lot as a person. For me, it was karate, but it doesn’t have to be karate for everyone. Each of us can find this one thing in our lives. One thing that motivates you to work on yourself. At the end, that’s the whole point of anyone's life journey right there.

Thanks to Rei Jiloca of Reisky Martial Arts in Surrey BC, Ali Najafi of Kimnik Karate in Langley BC, and especially to Héloïse Thiboutot in Vancouver BC for her skillful work as interpreter.

© E. Paul Zehr (2025)