User talk:MatsuiFriend

James Gillis was a Kyokushin Karate practitioner of the old school style, from South Bend and Mishawaka, Indiana, USA, whose Kyokushin instructor was Charles V. Gruzanski. Shihan Gillis died in the summer of 2006.

Gillis began karate training in 1959 under Japanese Shotokan instructor Kokoyama. In 1968 Gillis was invited my Masutatsu Oyama to join the International Karate Organization (IKO) and was promoted to third dan.

Gillis' schools grew and had many students and instructors in different states, under the umbrella of the IKO, and the Kandan Karate School, his own personal organization.

Shihan Gillis was promoted to 8th dan in 1996 at the Bendix Woods County Park in St. Joseph County, Indiana, USA, the same place where he began his training under Kokoyama (a Japanese engineer for the Bendix Corporation), 37 years earlier.

His final place of training was at the dojo on Mayflower Road in South Bend. To his students he was an inspiration. He never showed any weakness when he was there. The dojo he left behind when he died (2006) still trains to this day.