Pieter Harms was born on 28/08/1945 in Terneuzen (The Netherlands). When he was 8 years old he came to Belgium with his parents, who worked as boatmen, to settle down permanently.

Pieter Harms started practicing Karate in 1965 at the age of 20 in an Antwerp Dojo in Belgium. Two years later he started training every two weeks in the Netherlands with the well-known Dutchman John Bluming, at that time a highly respected student of Sensei Mas Oyamas, founder of Kyokushinkai karate.

Sensei Pieter Harms opened his first dojo in Leopoldsburg in 1971 and was already one year later asked to act as National Karate Referee. In the same year in Helsinki, Sensei Harms first met Sensei James Rousseau from South Africa, then Sensei Higaonna’s right hand man, and now living in England. It was there that Sensei Harms was invited to be present in South Africa, in order to act as International Referee during the Karate match between South Africa, Japan and England. There in South Africa, Sensei Harms first met Sensei Morio Higaonna and Sensei Chinen for whom he had extraordinary admiration at the time. After some in-depth discussions and meetings with both Sensei’s, Sensei Harms decided to switch to Goju-Ryu Karate-do. In 1974, he traveled to Tokyo, Japan to train with Sensei Higaonna at the Yoyogi dojo.

At that time Sensei Harms was also already a member of the board of directors of the, then still, BKA (Belgian Karate Association), which was later split into the AFK and the VKA, of which he was a co-founder. Meanwhile Sensei Harms founded his own Belgian Okinawa Goju-Ryu Association (BOGA). Very soon after the establishment of his own federation, six different Dojo’s follow in his footsteps, where he acts as supervisor of Goju-Ryu Karate: Leopoldsburg; Ham; Lommel; Meerhout; Overpelt and Mol. Sensei Harms is also recognized in Belgium as an official Dan-degree examiner. This means that people who are affiliated to BOGA can be judged by people specialized in Goju-Ryu Karate, and that the awarded degree is recognized by all official associations.

As a busy bee, he founded the Topsportschool together with Sensei Sergio Gneo and was co-teacher there, Sensei Harms also acted at that time as Technical Director of the Flemish Karate Association and succeeded Leo Aarts as co-responsible of the VKA. Because of his responsible tasks within the Karate, Sensei Harms always traveled to all European and World Championships together with the National Team.

Between all activities Sensei Harms founded in 1976 together with Sensei Morio Higaonna and several other responsible persons of other countries the I.O.G.K.F. during a training in Poole (England) where for the first time there was a meeting with all countries, including those of the Sensei’s Suzuki, Chinen, Onaka, Peraira and James Rousseau who in the meantime had moved to England.

In 1996, after years of intense study of Okinawa Goju-Ryu Karate, Sensei Pieter Harms decided to turn directly to Hanshi Eiichi Miyazato, the true successor of Chojun Miyagi Sensei, founder of our style direction. The purpose of this was to turn directly to the source in order to bring Okinawa Goju-Ryu Karate in Belgium as close as possible to its roots.

It was Sensei Eiichi Miyazato who offered Sensei Pieter Harms to take his 7° dan examination after a very thorough training of two weeks on Okinawa. An exam which Sensei Harms passed with flying colors.

Further on Sensei Pieter Harms is only occupied with training at home and abroad and with the E.G.K.F. and the W.G.K.F. of which he is also co-founder. see: www.egkf.net – www.wgkf.net

• 1996 – passed 7° DAN exam directly with Eií chi Miyazato sensei in the Jundokan Okinawa.
• 2010 – passes Sensei Harms for his 8° DAN, awarded by the W.G.K.F.
• 2015 Sensei Pieter Harms 9° DAN ; Liga Portuguesa de Karate-Do Goju-Ryu / EKGF-WGKF
• 2018 Sensei Pieter Harms 10° DAN ; EKGF-WGKF