1991
2025
Sensei Charles Hosler, Jr. - Master Instructor
1991 2025
Rising Sun History
Rising Sun began our journey on January 19, 1991. After leaving his current school of training, Sensei Hosler opened a school known as Rising Sun Karate Academy. Before opening, many options of training, style and business decisions were already made. All but one decision still was not made, the name. Knowing that our logo was to be the hands that are seen on our logo, many different names were tried, but none seemed to fit. It was when Sensei's wife, Patty, asked what the symbol of the hands meant. When he told her that they were the symbol representing the rising sun, she suggested we use the name Rising Sun to go along with the symbol. What a great idea. Rising Sun Karate Academy was born.
We began our training in the gymnasium of a local elementary school. McAnnulty Elementary of the Baldwin School District is where we spent the first 3 months training students. Shortly thereafter, we moved into the basement of a local church; North Zion Lutheran Church. After using the basement for classes for approximately 9 months, we finally found a permanent home on Rt. 51 in Baldwin, PA. In January of 1992, Rising Sun began to rent the basement of the Morrison Kitchen and Bath building. And for the next 8 years, we began to see our school grow, renovations began to happen more often and we even began to offer different types of Martial Arts.
Although our main style of Karate is Hinode-Ryu, through the years, Rising Sun has been able to offer more than just Karate. Aikido, a mainstay of Rising Sun was offered to adult students in 1993. We have also seen other styles such as Tae Kwon Do and Judo become important parts of our training. Because of the different options we were able to offer, in 1997 Rising Sun Karate Academy officially became Rising Sun Martial Arts, Inc. Aerobic and Fitness classes were also an important part of our system. We became more than just a karate school.
In April 2000, we were now out of training space and moved to the upstairs level of the Morrison Kitchen Building. The move gave us more training area and better visibility, so we continued to grow. In 2007 and again in 2008, we were once again forced to remodel to provide more training area for students. In September 2009 we were able to move back downstairs in the Morrison building to open our new fitness center for weight training.
January 2018 brought us back downstairs to the lower level. Although we haven't given up on the Gym entirely, we are consolidating our training into the one level to concentrate on what we do best, Karate training.
A new chapter in our story started in September 2020. The CoronaVirus Pandemic hit our business pretty hard, just like most small businesses. Because of the "closing down" of our society, we were forced to move our training to North Zion Lutheran Church on Brownsville Road where we made the program more personal. More personal effort, More personal commitment, more personal dedication from me and from the students. Our story goes on...
And like all good stories, the happiness continues. On November 1, 2022 we moved back to our dojo on Rt. 51 to continue our training where we started. Rising Sun Martial Arts, with now 34+ years of excellence in Karate training, is going strong and we're looking forward to many more years of building the Mind, Body, Spirit and Character...for Life!!!!
Sensei Charles Hosler, Jr.
Although tournament accomplishments are not the way to measure a good Karate instructor, listed below are some of the tournament accolades I have received through the years before retiring from competition. A good Karate instructor cares about their students in a tough, but encouraging way. There is nothing given at Rising Sun. For the past 34+ years of owning and running Rising Sun, I have had the honor to promote 72 students to the rank of Black Belt. That is not a large number for that many years, which reflects the fact that we do not process our students through the ranks, they EARN their ranks.
Master Instructor - Rising Sun Martial Arts
Founder - Hinode-Ryu Karate
40+ Years of Martial Arts Experience
Society Of Martial Artists (SOMA) - Board of Directors Member
6th Degree Black Belt - Hinode-Ryu Karate
2nd Degree Black Belt - Shotokan Karate
Advanced Belt - Yoseikan Aikido
1988 American Karate Black Belt Association -
Kata Champion
1988 American Karate Black Belt Association - Weapons Champion
1988 Northern United States Weapons Champion
1988 Isshinryu Kata Grand Champion
1989 Pa. State Heavyweight Fighting Champion
1989 Pa. State Belt Kata Grand Champion
1989 Pa. State Belt Fighting Grand Champion
1989 American Karate Black Belt Association - Kata Champion
1989 American Karate Black Belt Association - Weapons Champion
1989 American Karate Black Belt Association - Fighting Champion
1990 Ultimate Force - Kata Grand Champion
1990 Ultimate Force - Fighting Grand Champion
1990 West's Superstars Kata Grand Champion
1990 Good Sportsmanship Fighting Grand Champion
1990 American Karate Black Belt Association - Kata Champion
1990 American Karate Black Belt Association - Weapons Champion
1990 Eastern USA Martial Arts Association - Kata Champion
1990 Eastern USA Martial Arts Association - Weapons Champion
1988 Black Belt Competitor of the Year
1989 Black Belt Competitor of the Year
1990 Black Belt Competitor of the Year
1988 - 1991 - Undefeated as the heavyweight fighter on the Northern
United States Black Belt Fighting Team
1989 - Inducted into the Karate Competitors Hall of Fame
1991 Superstars Karate Kata Grand Champion
1991 Gold Cup Weapons Champion
1991 Gold Cup Open Kata Champion
1991 Ultimate Force Weapons Champion
1991 National Black Belt League - National Tournament Super Heavyweight
Fighting Champion
1992 S.O.M.A. Overall Points Champion
1992 Karate Superstars Overall Points Champion
1993 Inducted into the Karate Elite Hall of Fame
1993 Karate Superstars Grand Champion
1994 Karate Superstars Grand Champion
1995 Karate Superstars Grand Champion
1996 Karate Superstars Grand Champion
1997 Karate Superstars Grand Champion
1997 Inducted into the Pioneers of Karate Hall of Fame
1999 Good Sportsmanship Award-Weirton Bando Karate Open Championships
2000 West Superstars Hall of Fame Tournament-Masters Kata Champion
2000 West Superstars Hall of Fame Tournament-Weapons Champion
2002 Eastern USA-Executive Black Belt Weapons Champion
2002 Eastern USA-Executive Black Belt Kata Champion
2005 - Inducted into the Rising Sun Martial Arts Hall of Fame
2024 - Moon Madness Martial Arts Tournament - Black Belt 60+ Kata Champion
2024 - Moon Madness Martial Arts Tournament - Black Belt 60+ Weapons Champion
2024 - Moon Madness Martial Arts Tournament - Black Belt 60+ 3-pt. Sparring Champion
2024 - Moon Madness Martial Arts Tournament - Black Belt 60+ 1-pt. Sparring Champion
1985-Present - over 1700 trophies, awards and plaques won in tournament competition
I was honored to be selected by Hollywood's Ernie Reyes Jr. and Sr. and the West Coast Demo Team
to participate in their demo at a National tournament.