Tomasz Piotrkowicz - chief of the Gosoku-ryu style in Poland, 7th dan. He received the „shihan” title (martial arts’ professor) from the Japanese masters as the first Pole (in 1994 from International Karate Asso.). He began ju-jutsu training in 1970 and karate at the age of 15 in 1972, as one of the first and at the same time the youngest in Poland. During studies at the Warsaw University, he co-founded the AZS karate section, at that time he trained Shotokan karate and the Korean Kyoksul style.
In 1980 he finished a karate instructor’s course organised for the first time in Poland and held trainings at the Warsaw University. In 1981 he was a referee at the 1st Championships of the Polish Karate Federation. In the course of his second studies at SGGW he also founded an AZS karate section there. He has trained many Warsaw instructors from different styles and almost a hundred owners of black belts in Poland and other countries. He taught karate in Germany as a DKV (German Karate Association) examiner, in Lithuania, in the Czech Republic. Among many masters he trained with he was mostly impressed by Hideo Ochi, Tsuguo Sakumoto, Takemasa Okuyama, Fumio Demura and Takayuki Kubota. He met Soke Kubota after twenty years of training karate, with 3rd dan in the Shotokan style (awarded to him by master Hideo Ochi) and decided to occupy himself with the Gosoku-ryu style. He was the president of the Polish Karate Association and now he is the president of the European Budo Association. Shihan Piotrkowicz is also well known expert of kobudo, tanto-jutsu and kenjutsu (5th dan Toyama-ryu battodo, 6th dan tameshigiri). He introduced in Poland Japanese swordsmanship battodo and sports chanbara. Master Piotrkowicz is author of many books and video materials about Japanese martial arts. Now he is preparing third edition of his bestselling „Karate Handbook”.