Koichi: The Karate Master Who Lost His Gym, Not His Pupils
1583 words | Reading time: 7 minutes
Koichi didn't leave his Gym: he lost it. Beaten by Sabrina, the karate master of Saffron City watches the Indigo League recognize his opponent and strip his Fighting-type Gym of all official status. He turns it into a dojo and keeps on teaching. Five generations later, he's still chasing a venue, a title and students — from the depths of Mt. Mortar to an apartment in Lumiose City, on the second floor.
Contents
- The Saffron City Gym, Lost in a Single Battle
- The Dojo in Red and Blue: Students First
- Kiyo, the Hermit of Mt. Mortar
- Kalos: A Dojo on the Second Floor
- Karate Master, Karate King, Karate Master Again
- Kiyo, His On-Screen Double
- Koichi at a Glance
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Saffron City Gym, Lost in a Single Battle
Before becoming a dojo master, Koichi held the title of Gym Leader in Saffron City. His hall was the one the city recognized as its Gym, built around the Fighting type, and nobody contested his place.
Sabrina lays claim to that title and comes to challenge him for it. Koichi loses, and the Indigo League promptly recognizes the new Gym Leader and her Psychic-type Gym, while the karate master sees his Fighting-type Gym stripped of all status.
He doesn't close up shop, though. The former Gym becomes a dojo, and he keeps his students there: the status changed hands, but neither the hall nor the disciples did.
The Dojo in Red and Blue: Students First
In Pokémon Red and Blue, Koichi is still master of his own house. You only get to face him after beating all of his students, which turns the dojo into a gauntlet of back-to-back battles rather than a one-off duel.
He goes down just like they do, and his defeat comes with a gift: the player walks away with either Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan. The choice is exclusive, and you can never get both.
The trade-off says a lot about what the place has become. The dojo is no longer an official stop on the journey: what you win there is a Fighting-type Pokémon, not a status recognized by the League.
🥋 Fighting types have their own section: check out the Pokémon figures.
Kiyo, the Hermit of Mt. Mortar
Pokémon Gold and Silver bring him back in Johto under another name: Kiyo (Fei in the French version). He has given up running the Saffron City dojo to toughen himself up alone, deep inside Mt. Mortar.
Just talking to him is enough to trigger a battle, because he wants to test on someone what this retreat has done for him. He loses, admits he has to keep going, and offers a Tyrogue — as long as there's a free slot in the team.
The giveaway detail is in the stats. His Pokémon are weaker in Gold, Silver and Crystal than in Red, Blue and Yellow, even though he's supposed to have toughened up in between, and the remakes never fixed the gap.
Kalos: A Dojo on the Second Floor
Pokémon X and Y move him to Kalos, where he hopes to open a new dojo. The only lease he manages to land is for a cramped apartment in Lumiose City, on the second floor of a building next to a galette stand on North Boulevard.
One of his students, a Battle Girl, takes it upon herself to tell the player what the master keeps quiet. Business is bad, and the only way he's managed to draw people in is by offering "Karate Dance" classes.
The irony jumps out at anyone who remembers the Saffron City Gym. The karate master has gone from an official hall to an apartment in a residential building, and from teaching battling to a dance class that, unlike the rest, actually fills up the sign-up sheet.
Karate Master, Karate King, Karate Master Again
The character's label changes almost every generation. Karate Master in the first Kanto games and their remakes, Karate King over in Johto, he ends up as a Karate Master once more, this time as a Trainer class all his own, in the Kanto remake named after Pikachu and Eevee.
That last version gives him back a stake the others denied him. His dojo is preparing a tournament there that's meant to decide who will keep Gym status for Saffron City, and the master puts himself through strength-training sessions with his Pokémon every day.
In the mobile game Pokémon Masters EX, on the other hand, Sabrina shows up, he challenges her on the spot, and it all ends in yet another defeat. The Gym Leader then suggests the player come and train with him; as a selling point, the karate master promises a Tyrogue Egg, pointing out that the species can evolve into Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan or Hitmontop.
Kiyo, His On-Screen Double
The anime doesn't use the name Koichi. Instead, it turns him into Kiyo, a Saffron City Trainer who is still young but already specializes in Fighting types, for a single episode of the fifth season; the name is borrowed from the character's English name in the second-generation games.
Kiyo trained under Chuck, who runs the Cianwood City Gym, and is aiming for the P1 Grand Prix. He crosses paths with Ash's group on the road to Mahogany Town after a wild Tyrogue steals their food, and chooses to help it in order to earn its trust, brushing aside the doubts of the people he's traveling with.
He first snatches it away from Team Rocket, then takes it on bare-handed and wins. Tyrogue then joins his team, along with Primeape and Mankey. The Saffron City Fighting Dojo would later return to the screen in the Advanced Generation series, but without Kiyo: there, the role of dojo master goes to Master Hamm.
The original name, for its part, lives on elsewhere. The miniseries Pokémon Origins features Koichi himself, beaten in his dojo by Red right after Red's win over Sabrina, and the master lets the winner choose between Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan.
Koichi at a Glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Role | Leader of the Saffron City Fighting Dojo, formerly the city's official Gym |
| Specialty | Fighting-type Pokémon |
| Title lost | Official Gym status, lost to Sabrina and her Psychic-type Gym |
| Other names | Kiyo at Mt. Mortar (Fei in the French games) and in the anime |
| Gifts to the player | Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan in Kanto, Tyrogue in Johto |
| Documented team | Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan and Poliwrath in the games; Primeape, Tyrogue and Mankey for Kiyo, his anime counterpart |
| Latest attempt | A dojo set up in an apartment in Lumiose City |
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Why isn't Koichi a Gym Leader?
He used to be. Sabrina came to challenge him for the title of Saffron City Gym Leader and beat him: the Indigo League recognized her Psychic-type Gym, and Koichi's Fighting-type Gym lost its official status. He turned it into the city's dojo. -
Who is Kiyo in Pokémon Gold and Silver?
It's Koichi himself, under the name he goes by in Pokémon Gold and Silver (Fei in the French version). He has left the Saffron City dojo to train alone deep inside Mt. Mortar, in Johto, and battles the player to measure his progress. -
Which Pokémon does Koichi give the player?
In his Saffron City dojo, he lets you choose between a Hitmonlee and a Hitmonchan, never both. At Mt. Mortar, he gives you a Tyrogue, as long as there's a free slot in your team. -
Does Koichi appear in the anime?
His counterpart there goes by the name Kiyo, a Fighting-type specialist from Saffron City trained by Chuck, who appears in a single episode of the fifth season. Koichi himself, however, shows up in the miniseries Pokémon Origins. -
What happens to Koichi in Kalos?
He tries to open a new dojo there, but only manages to get a small second-floor apartment in a building in Lumiose City. One of his students lets on that business is bad and that the only way he gets sign-ups is with "Karate Dance" classes.
In short
Koichi's path reads like a downward slide: an official Gym lost in a single battle, a fallback dojo, a retreat deep inside a Johto cave, then an apartment in Lumiose City where people come to learn to dance. Yet at every stage, he teaches someone and hands over a Fighting-type Pokémon. The title slipped away from him; his students never did.