Lee began his training in the late 1950s under Richard Kim in the now historic garage dojo run by Lee and his brothers Clarence and Herbert – where Sensei Kim would come and teach. The garage was owned by the Lee’s mother.

He became a karate champion in the early- to mid-1960s, fighting some of the best the west coast traditional karate tournaments could muster up. His expertise in kumite and, in particular sweeps and takedowns, was well known. He fought one of the west coast’s very best: Tonny Tulleners – a student of Master Tak Kubota’s at the Long Beach Internationals in 1965 – and he put a foot sweep on him that was second-to-none, leaving Tulleners scratching his head trying to figure out how he did it.

He moved to Paris, France, in 1974 where he started his dojo and became the representative for Sensei Kim’s Bu Toku Kai in Europe.

Not only did he teach Tai Chi and Shorinji Ryu karate, he also taught kobudo and became an acclaimed author with his book, “Karate Competition Sweeping Techniques”, published both in English and in French. Until this day there has not been a book written that comes close to the quality of this little treasure.

In 1975, Richard Lee, along with his student Andre Loucka, formed one of the best karate magazines ever published: “Karate Bushido”, which is still in print and is considered by most to be one of the top two magazines in the world today on karate.

Master Lee still lives in Paris and, although he is not a high profile teacher now, still teaches his karate in the way of Bushido.

He trained many top martial artists in Europe – names like Andre Loucka, Rick Marsh, Rick Attix, Jean Pierre Loucka, Jean Chalamon, Stephan Peitz, and Jean Luc Bricard, to mention but a few.