Hiroshi Shirai

Martial artist

白井寛

Born

31 July 1937, Nagasaki

Died

9 October 2024, Milan

Citizenship

Japan

Sport

Shōtōkan-ryū

Occupation

karateka

Hiroshi Shirai (白井 寛, Shirai Hiroshi; 31 July 1937 – 9 October 2024) was a Japanese master of Shotokan karate. He was the founder of the Istituto Shotokan Italia, a subdivision of FIKTA (the Italian Traditional Karate Association) and of the SCI (Shotokan Cultural Institute, formerly WSI - World Shotokan Institute). Shirai held the title of Shihan and was responsible for taking the dan examinations within SCI and, together with Carlo Fugazza, for those within the FIKTA.

Teachers

• Masatoshi Nakayama
• Hidetaka Nishiyama

Students

• Luigi Zoia
• Paolo Biotti Natoli

External links

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q348074 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.