Jeff Klein September 10-14, 2026 – Kansas City Shotokan Karate Club

As Mr. Ohshima’s student from the late 1960’s, Jeff was a karate prodigy who first won the Nisei Week karate tournament at age 16, fighting adults. As a kid, he faced Caylor Adkins, Don DePree, Lee Muhl, George Gamble and many others who were among SKA’s strongest fighters. In 1970, Jeff was one of the five USA Team members who competed in the World Karate Championship held in Tokyo. He is a Life Member of SKA.

Jeff lived, worked, and practiced in Japan for twenty years and in Hong Kong for three. He developed media and entertainment products for Japanese clients (ELLE & ELLE Décor magazines, Harley-Davidson, Suntory, and others). He was executive producer of THE HIDDEN for New Line Cinema (a huge cult film in Japan), co-produced JOHNNY MNEMONIC. Later, he introduced the famous Japanese actor Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi), to an international audience.

In 1995, Jeff moved to Aspen, Colorado where he produced and managed Matsuhisa for chef Nobu. He’s created numerous other restaurants in Aspen, Miami, Bankok, and elsewhere. Currently working on projects in Aspen, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

He’s competed in (and won) karate tournaments all over the world.

I first met Jeff in Aspen in 1995. I was already sandan then. He had designed and built and was still running the famous Matsuhisa restaurant and also leading an SKA dojo in Aspen, Colorado near my parents’ home. I attended practice at the dojo while they were working on kata and Jeff made a performance of Bassai. I was blown away. My instructor, Jon Beltram, had been close friends with Jeff and always spoke highly of him and had told us about what a great fighter Jeff had been. So I expected a good fighter, but I didn’t expect that Jeff’s kata would be so amazing. He moved with incredible grace, precision and energy. I remember feeling so moved and inspired by his performance. Jeff offered to meet me the next morning on the local high school basketball court where he’d teach me some elements of jiyu kumite.

Jeff was a big guy, very strong. He moved like a cat and he was very intimidating. We spent a couple of hours together and when we were done I felt lucky to have escaped in one piece though I’d felt I’d been in danger pretty much the entire time. Jeff tried to get me to wake up to a most basic strategy of kumite – sense an opponent’s intention, encourage him to act on it, then turn it to your advantage. I continue to work on what he showed me that day.

Here’s a vivid memory from that morning.

As we faced each other at the beginning of an exchange, Jeff asked me to look at him carefully and to announce what he appeared to have in mind. So said, “it looks like you want to punch me in the face with your front hand.” Jeff said, “YES! That’s exactly what I intend to do! So, knowing that, what should you do?” I put my arms up in front of my face so he couldn’t punch me there. And Jeff’s face got red and he looked really angry and he asked me, “What? Are you STUPID?!?” I replied that I didn’t think I was stupid. And Jeff said, “Then why in the world, knowing that I intend to punch your face, would cover your face? Now I can’t do what I intended, so I’ll have to do something else now – sweep your leg or kick your groin or grab you and throw you. You actually figured out what I intended and then, like an idiot, you made it impossible. So now I have to do something different and you have no idea what that will be! You blew your big chance. Since you perceived what I would do, you should have set the hook – encouraged me to follow through on my intention – maybe you’d lower your hands, maybe you’d lean forward to make it easier for me to punch your face – then, at the moment I took the bait, you’d turn my attack to your advantage!

So I did kind of understand this at the time, but intellectual understanding is not the same as innate capability. It has taken me so many years of practice to acquire any genuine level.

So that was more than 30 years ago. Now I’m 75 years old and Jeff just turned 74. Although he’s no longer youthful, he remains a tour de force in the dojo and has turned into a gentle and generous instructor.

I’d alerted a few senior members from other dojos to Jeff’s visit and really appreciated getting to practice with David Altman, David Affeld, Mark Petrigac, Vladimir Fokin, Lien to Phan and Quang Nguyen, Greg Tunink, Sam Giuffre, plus all the current KC Dojo members! Thank you all for your practice and support!

Thursday Sep 10:

6 to 8 pm regular dojo practice led by Jeff. Warmed up moving back and forth across the floor wrapping and unwrapping our arms. Then a relaxed kind of shuto-uke. Then partner work. Sliding in to place our palm onto opponent’s face, covering his eye. Adding gyaku-zuki. Shuto variations – dropping onto opponent’s front arm, getting in and throwing, shuto into upper level block/attack.
9pm dinner at Grünauer Restaurant near the dojo with Jeff, Takamasa, Josh, Mike K, Mike L