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Page 2 of 3 1988
Two of Ishii's students, Toshiyuki Yanagisawa and Masaaki Satake, finish 1st and 2nd in the Karate Real Champion Tournament, earning Ishii's Seido Kaikan respect in the martial arts community. 1991
Following a series of successful tournaments, Seido Kaikan comes to Tokyo for a tournament against USA Oyama Karate in which Satake beats the legendary Willie Williams. 1992
The first glove karate event in Japan, the "Karate Japan Open," is held and Satake wins it.
K-1's eight-year history began with the revolutionary vision of Japan's Kazuyoshi Ishii. A well-respected master of Seidokan Karate, Ishii had established the Seidokan Karate school in Osaka, Japan as well as a network of dojos and university-based karate clubs in the area of Kansai in 1980. Following a sky-high climb through the ranks as martial arts mentor, promoter, and official, Ishii organized the premiere annual K-1 GrandPrix single-elimination tournament at the Yoyogi Dai-Ichi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan in 1993. For the first time, a set of rules had been created to allow fighters of all stand-up fighting disciplines to compete in one ring to determine one champion. Because many of these arts brought together begin with the letter K, including Karate, Kung-Fu, and Kickboxing, Ishii named his invention K-1. A sellout crowd of 10,000 was followed up by the migration of K-1 overseas to Switzerland in 1995, courtesy of K-1 superstar, the late Andy Hug. After the Hug-hosted K-1 Fight Night played to a crowd of 12,000, the tournament circuit reached new heights the following year when Japan's Fuji Television Network began its ongoing relationship with K-1 when it broadcasted the K-1 Star Wars fight card from Yokohama Arena in October 1996. Only two months prior to this, the sport had taken its first step into the mainstream world when a video game modeled after it was produced for the Sony Playstation Console. By 1997, K-1 superstar competitors had reached celebrity status in the event's native country, appearing on a variety of television programs and being mobbed by fans in the streets. In less than an hour after tickets went on sale for the Grand Prix Final event, 45,000 seats were sold. Television rates skyrocketed that year and K-1 officially became the country's most popular sport.
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