In 1984, Masayasu Sugihara, student of the late So Doshin-Kancho who was the founder of Shorinji Kempo, obtained sanction from the International Karate Kempo Federation to teach a new system of fighting which is known as Byakuren.  Sugihara had been one of So Doshin-Kancho's most powerful and feared fighters, serving as a personal bodyguard to the founder of Shorinji-Kempo.  In the true Samurai Spirit, Byakuren is based upon Shorinji-Kempo and has been refined as a full-contact fighting style of karate that still, today, continues to evolve as a leading martial art under transition from Maser Shihan Sugihara-Kancho.

In 1984, Mark Fryman, of Lodi, Wisconsin, arranged to become a home student of Masayasu Sugihara-Kancho and obtained a travel visa for the purpose of studying karate in Osaka, Japan.  Mark's hometown of Lodi, Wisconsin, was also home to a young Japanese woman who was a distant relative of Sugihara-Kancho.  Through this woman's help, Mark became the first American to be a student of this powerful fighting style.  Mark returned to the United States in 1986 as a shodan (first degree balck belt) and opened the first Byakuren Karate dojo in the United States in his hometown.

Soon after Mark's return, Bill Weedman, long time friend of Fryman and first degree black belt in Ji Do Kwon (Korean Martial Art), traveled from his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to Lodi, Wisconsin for the purpose of training with his returning friend.  The two quickly were engaged in a full-contact match to determine which style reigned superior.  The match barely lasted a minute.  With powerful low kicks to the legs and strikes to the liver, Bill Weedman was defeated by a knockout (unable to stand to fight).  Weedman renounced his black belt in the Korean style and devoted himself to the study of Byakuren.

In early 1987, Sugihara-Kancho made his first trip to the United States.  Traveling to Lodi, Wisconsin, he taught the first Byakuren seminar in America.  The trip lasted one week.  Weedman returned to Lodi from Louisville, Kentucky to study with the Grand Master, Sugihara-Kancho.  At the end of the week, Sugihara-Kacho offered Weedman the opportunity to open a second branch of Byakuren in the United States.  If Weedman were to learn the Japanese way of Byakuren, Sugihara-Kancho would grant him the right to become a branch master.

On October 1, 1989, after more than two full years of study and travel, Bill Weedman was granted the rights of Shihan (branch master) and the Kentucky Branch of Byakuren Karate, Louisville Byakuren Karate, was founded.  To date, the branch has trained several hundred students.  Under the leadership of Bill Weedman (police officeer and Kentucky Law Enforcement Council certified self defense instructor) Byakuren Karate has also been incorporated in the Jefferson County Police Department (now a part of the Louisville Metro Police Department, a department of nearly 1,300 police officers).  Suguhara-Kancho has not only provided seminars to the Kentucky branch of Byakuren, but has taught seminars to the Jefferson County Police as well.  The pure combat style of byakuren is well suited for actual encounters in which police officers often find themselves.

To date the Lodi, Wisconsin branch and the Louisville, Kentucky branch of Byakuren have the longest history of teaching Byakuren in the United States.  Several temporary, traveling instructors in Byakuren have hosted schools, but the two founding schools continue to produce Byakuren fighters to this date.