Kudo and Daido Juku are worldwide copyrights and all of its instructors and branch chiefs are certified under the Kudo International Federation, also known as K.I.F. Kudo is recognized by over 10 national Olympic committees and has over 50 member countries. KUDO is MMA or Mixed Martial Arts; it is a safe, scientific, modern, & practical Combination of traditional & sports Karate, Judo, Jujutsu, Muay Thai, & Kickboxing. Daido Juku is the Honbu for the martial art Kudo , founded in 1981 by Takashi Azuma. Azuma, originally a Kyokushin karate 1977 full contact karate champion, resigned from the Kyokushin organization to form Daido Juku in Sendai city, located in northern Honshū, Japan. Daido Juku literally translated means "School of the Great Way". It incorporates techniques which were not present at that time in full contact karate styles. Azuma, being a third-degree black belt in Judo as well as a 4th-degree black belt in Kyokushin karate, recognized the potential for a hybrid martial art. These would not be restricted by the boundaries of a single style but would use techniques from various martial arts, namely, at the time of its creation in 1980, Judo and Karate. In the late 1980s and early 90s the style began to incorporate various techniques from muay thai, boxing, Jujutsu, sambo, submission wrestling, and other martial arts, fine tuning each technique for use within the Kudo style. One of the fundamental goals of Kudo being the creation of a versatile and realistic fighting style without compromising safety, Azuma created a style which incorporated various offensive as well as defensive techniques which includes punches to the head, elbow strikes, head butts, judo throws, jiu-jitsu joint locks and other standup and ground fighting techniques. In 1981, Daido Juku made its public debut at the 1981 Hokutoki Karate Championships, also known as Hokutoki. Originally known as Kakuto Karate Daidojuku ("Combat Karate Daidojuku"), the name of the style was changed to recognize its unique and unorthodox techniques as a mixed martial art. In 2001 at an official press conference held for Daido Juku, founder Azuma Takashi and president of Daidojuku, N.P.O., renamed the mixed martial art Budō to Kudo. This renaming allowed Kudo the opportunity of becoming an official Japanese Cultural Budō sport under the same category as Judo, Aikido and Kendo. Jukucho Takashi Azuma currently holds an 8th degree black belt in Kyokushin Budokai, awarded by Jon Bluming and an 8th degree black belt in Daidojuku, awarded by the board of directors of Daidojuku.
