(PSKAI) was founded on August 3, 1968 by Ricardo Mendoza Tacay Hanshi in Tagum, Davao Norte (now Tagum City) long before he qualified to the elite R.P. Karatedo Team by winning in the Third National Open Karatedo Championships held at the Loyola Gymnasium, Quezon City on Nov. 11, 1977. Tacay Hanshi, a transformed Shotokan from the original Shorinji Style he practiced since 1965, was influenced by
the Shotokan style under the tutelage of Japan Karate Association (JKA) Director Masanori Takahashi Shihan as his coach, who conducted the Instructors’ Seminar Workshop initiated by the defunct Philippine Karate Association headed by Col. Nagtalon as President. In 1977, Takahashi Shihan, the coach and trainer of the R.P. Team which included Tacay Sensei led the seven-member karate delegation during the World (W.U.K.O. IV) Karatedo Championship held in Tokyo, Japan. Tacay Sensei was the lone athlete from Mindanao who made it to this worldwide karatedo Olympiad. When the PKA through the Philippine Shotokan Karatedo Association (PSKA) gained wide popularity in Southern Mindanao Region, especially Davao City, the West Germany karate team which won second place in the team kumite during the "4th WUKO Championship" held in Tokyo, Japan, headed by its team captain and national champion Gunther Mohr, visited the local PKA chapter on March 1979 for a goodwill tournament aptly billed as "The West Germany VS. Philippine (Rwgion XI) Goodwill Match. Tacay Hanshi, who was the lone veteran of the 4th WUKO Championship in Tokyo, Japan, was Davao City's top bet as team captain. He defeated the 6' 2" behemoth German Champion during the face-off. The team kumite competition was finally adjudged a draw for the same win,lose, draw score. But as a show of goodwill the Phil. Region XI team handed over the championship trophy to the visiting team. During the height of karatedo worldwide, the 10-man Swedish National Team straight from the WUKO IV Championship in Tokyo, visited Manila and clashed with the R.P. Team in a goodwill competition. The result was adjudged a draw between both teams, but the Swedish top bet succumbed to Tacay Hanshi in their one-on-one match. The transformation of Hanshi Tacay’s organization into Shotokan karate provided avenues for the development of karatedo not only as a self-defense but also as a competitive sport, physical and mental form and educational form among the PSKAI members and affiliates. As a proof to this the PSKAI took a major leap when no less than Shin Tsukii Sensei, a Japanese karatedo expert and Director of the International Gojukai Karatedo Federation and protege of Gosei Yamaguchi of Tokyo, Japan, came to Davao City upon the invitation of Tacay Hanshi in 1990 to 1992 to conduct training and seminar for the PSKAI and PKF members in Region XI. The technical benefits derived from Shin Tsukii Sensei bore fruit when when Bern Rexander Tacay Sensei won two championship titles (gold medals) in a year; the National PRISSAA Meet in Iloilo City and the 1993 PSC KASALI National Games in Manila. Bern Tacay Sensei, being a national champion, automatically became a member of the Philippine Karatedo team that competed in the First Asian Invitational Karatedo Championship held in Hongkong, wherein he garnered a silver medal in the kumite event, and a quarterfinalist in the 17th Southeast Asian Games in Singapore. This is just a few of the many highlights and achievements of the PSKAI marked by rigid practice, discipline, sportsmanship and character of its members. To date, the PSKAI has produced a number of karate champions in both national and local tournaments. Just recently, the PSKAI has expanded internationally with its new affiliates from the Middle East and Ireland. Thus, it opens its doors to as many karatedo organizations and members of diverse sex, age, creed or race. Afterall, karatedo is aimed at the development of human persons. As such it is continuously producing more karate champions as new generation of budding karate students are seriously learning and perfecting the art known as karatedo, "the Way of karate".
