Master Yoshizo Machida (born on January 29, 1946) is a 8 th Dan Black Belt holder Japanese Karateka and naturalized Brazilian citizen who teaches Shotokan Karate and is the founder and flag-bearer of the Machida Karate style. ^[1]

Yoshizo Machida left Japan in 1968 and embarked on a 40-day journey that led him to Belém, Pará, Brazil. In Belem Machida got a job thanks to Japanese immigration at a Japanse road construction company. After working with them for a year Machida went to Rio de Janeiro where he spent two weeks with Master Tanaka. He later went to Bahia, where he started his own academy. Since then Yoshizo Machida has trained over 10,000 students.

In Brazil, Yoshizo Machida fell in love with Ana Claudia, a Brazilian woman. They married and had 4 sons -Take Machida, Chinzo Machida, Lyoto Machida, and Kenzo Machida.

Yoshizo feels that as a competitor he was more like his son Chinzo Machida than his more famous son Lyoto Machida.

He describes his competitive style as "fast" and says that between the ages 23 and 36 "nobody could touch me".

Yoshizo Machida trains his students in Shotokan karate and Machida karate. Yoshizo describes the difference between the two styles on a philosophical and educational level rather than a technical level. According to him, Shotokan karate in its current form is more suited to competition and is an educational form. He describes the goal of Machida karate to be to punish and take down the opponent, thus, a more potent form suited to real world applications like Self-defense.