Peter Urban
American Karate Ka (1934-2004)
- Born
- 14 August 1934, Jersey City
- Died
- 7 April 2004, Massachusetts
- Citizenship
- United States
- Sport
- karate
- Occupation
- karateka
Peter George Urban (August 14, 1934 – April 7, 2004) was an American martial artist. Called "The George Washington of American Karate" by Kick Illustrated magazine, and "The Godfather of American Goju" by Official Karate magazine. Urban was the founder of the karate style known as American GōJū Ryū Karate Do (USA GoJu Karate). He was one of only a small number of white students under Gōgen Yamaguchi, an early Japanese GōJū Ryū practitioner and instructor as well as the head of the style's organization, the Gōjū-Kai. Controversially, Urban created an American style of Gōjū-ryū without the permission of Yamaguchi who would not allow Urban to represent Japanese Karate in America as head representative for the Goju-Kai.
Teachers
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q3900953 (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.