International Traditional Karate Federation


The International Traditional Karate Federation or ITKF is the international governing body for Traditional Karate. This organisation was founded by Hidetaka Nishiyama. In the early 1990s, Nishiyama's refusal to align his ITKF organization with the World Union of Karate-Do Organizations caused the International Olympic Committee to suspend its recognition of WUKO as amateur karate's international governing body.
According to the IOC decision 101 from 1993 the ITKF and WUKO had been due to merge and form a unified karate organization under the IOC suggested name of WKF. The IOC further indicated its intention to recognize the merged WKF should ITKF and WUKO successfully fulfill the IOC 101 decision guidelines, but this did not eventuate. The WUKO eventually became the World Union of Karate-Do Federations in late 2008.

ITKF Officials

The ITKF has national clubs in many countries: